The first, and I believe more commonly held belief, is that it's a contemptible, gutter occupation right down there with used car salesman, personal injury lawyer and income tax auditor.
The second is that it's a glamour-filled, creatively-driven, Hollywood-adjacent profession loaded with travel to exotic places and awards with stupid names that take up lots of shelf space.
Both are correct. But sometimes the pendulum swings more to one side than the other.
Case in point would be the assignment my art director partner and I just got: to design a window envelope for one of our clients.
Now, I say my art director and I, but this kind of assignment is what I like to call "an art problem." My partner, being the perfectionist she is, will attack this assignment with the same intensity she'd give a global branding campaign. Me? I'll probably head out for lunch.
The point is all that glitters isn't gold pencils when it comes to assignments in ad agencies.
Just because I had nothing better to do, when we kicked-off the assignment (yes we had a kick-off for an envelope), I asked about the strategy, data indicating need for an envelope, wanted to see examples of competing envelopes, needed to hear any "insights" the planner had on envelopes.
You can't do the job if you don't have the information. And even if I had the information I couldn't do the job. Art problem.
So in between social and digital campaigns, national branding brainstorming, new product introduction campaigns and assorted other communication channel assignments, I'll be right there in spirit with my partner while she designs the four or five window envelope options the client will want to see.
But as far as this particular assignment goes, I'm mailing it in.
