People Get Hired

Luke and Wilf asked me to write something for this blog, so here we are.

I don’t know much about studying advertising and brand communication. I studied geography myself. Then I eventually fell into the job that I do now – Head of Creative at innocent drinks. I’ve been working at innocent for almost ten years now, so most of the things I’ve learned about design, writing and everything else that my job entails has been learned here, or gleaned when we’ve worked with interesting individuals and agencies.

So now that I’ve said that, and now that I’m writing this, I guess I should share something earth shatteringly important, that will change the way you view life and work forever. Or at least something that might make you think a bit. And after thinking for a bit, I guess the most important thing that I can share, and that I like to share with the young creatives who work with me at innocent, is that you never quite know what’s going to happen. I never knew I’d do this job. I never knew I’d feel really strongly about design and good copy. I never knew that our business would grow and flourish. But things just happen.

And that’s what I tell people who are a bit earlier on in their careers; who want to be doing the biggest/most important piece of work of their life now; who get a bit grumpy if they don’t always get to work on the best briefs – you never know what’s going to happen. The only thing you can really do is make sure that the thing you’re working on now, at this very minute, is excellent. It might be signage for the office toilets. It might be a multi million pound marketing campaign. It might be a line of copy buried somewhere where no-one will ever see it. It might be something for your book or your mate or your dad’s window cleaning business.

It doesn’t matter what is. Just make sure it’s excellent.

The other bit of practical advice I’d like to share is that thing about going to show people your work. Firstly, I don’t really mind if you show your work on a computer or in a big folder. I don’t mind if your folder hasn’t got your own weird logo embossed upon it (I have to admit that I do find it slightly unnerving when people or a creative team have their own logo. Too much time on their hands). I don’t mind if you look really cool, or really uncool in a way that’s cool, or really straight. The only thing that I care about is that you care. It’s good to meet people who care about their work; who can tell a bit of a story about it and maybe that story meanders off into something else and tells me a bit more about what that person is like. Because in the end, if you’re showing me work and it’s good, we might work together one day and I’d like to be able to like and respect you if we work together. I don’t want to ever have to say “He/she’s a right pain in the arse and really awkward/opinionated/gobby, but boy is he/she good.” I don’t find that very interesting. I don’t want to spend my day with awkward yet brilliant arseholes. I want to spend my day with good people who do excellent work, even if they’re just doing the toilet signs. So when you go to see anyone and show them your work, show them the best bits of you too. Don’t forget that bit. Don’t just show them some bits of paper in a folder with your logo embossed on it. People get hired, folders don’t.

Good luck.

Dan