I remember working as an art director at the Martin Agency, back in the early nineties, and I was always keeping my eye out for cool pieces of communication - films, writing, design - all of us were, and it seemed like something magical would come up maybe once a year, something so fresh and human and true and surprising and delightful that we'd have to stop and pass it around and it would force us to reevaluate our own work.
I remember when I first saw the Nike Instant Karma commercial. It just rocked my world for a while.
And now there's something delightful every day. It's endless. And it rarely comes from the pros.
It's stimulating and overwhelming. What do we do with all the newness, the freshness, the creativity? How do we keep up? Everyone seems to have the tools to create wonderful things, and while the pros use to dismiss the democraticizing power of technology, the amateurs are passing us right and left these days, all the time.
Our level of craft remains high, but how often do you see a piece of spontaneous and honest and original communication coming from the pros? It happens, for sure, but the landscape is so different, so much more competitive. Our jobs are more challenging than ever. I like it.