Launch

Today I'm proud to announce the launch of Creative Career Management. It's a consultancy I created to inspire and guide the next generation toward careers in advertising and design.

When I was in high school I didn't even know what the word creative meant, let alone know that I may have some morsels of creativity inside me. I also did not know that a person could be "creative" in a career. Heck, I was barely thinking of careers in high school.

By the time I got to college, I felt the pressure to decide a major and aim towards my future. Pressure that wasn't helping me pick anything to pursue. I still felt a creative bug, yet I had no artistic talent and was wholly confused on what to do about it.

My new company, Creative Career Management, aims to clear up some of that confusion for high school and early college students. Sometimes we just need some objective advice to help us chart our way. Guidance at an early age can point someone in the right direction with focus and clarity. Lord knows I wish I had some of that in high school. Through college consulting, creative workshops and portfolio development, I offer my services to students and juniors who want their creativity and passion to help them find a great career.

While preparing to launch my company this week, I worked on another project that also aims to help young people find their way. We produced a film called "Pursuit of Passion: Diversity in Advertising," and it's goal is to help expose young people to the potential and excitement of careers in advertising. An industry that desperately needs a population of young, diverse minds to join the ranks.

You can see sneak peeks of the video here on my blog and on the website we created. As a first project for Creative Career Management, this video illustrates the potential of the industry when we set our minds to making positive change and inspiring the next generation.

Mini-premiere #2!

Sneak preview #2. Inspiring words from Kenji Summers of BBH.

Pursuit of Passion: Diversity in Advertising in it's entirety will be available for viewing after the premiere Thursday, September 30th.

Mini-premiere!

Tiffany Pan from Team One, shares a few thoughts on why working in advertising is so cool. We're affecting culture here folks!

Full cut of Pursuit of Passion: Diversity in Advertising launches next week. . .

Passion and Diversity in Advertising

Gearing up to premiere our film, "Pursuit of Passion: Diversity in Advertising" during Advertising Week. We'll also post this to our new website for this project, complete with bios on the participants and creators, links and helpful resources for interested students and information on future screenings. The site will launch Monday and it's content will grow as we continue to edit more and more content.

Here's the official invite, extended to anyone who is the NYC area next week. Hope to see you there.

The 4A’s and VCU Brandcenter proudly invite you to the New York Advertising Week premiere of “Pursuit of Passion: Diversity in Advertising”. With an aim to inform and inspire our creative youth about careers in advertising, “Pursuit of Passion: Diversity in Advertising” reminds the Mad Men and Women why they love this advertising world.

Join us in celebrating the industry that thrives upon diverse ideas and perspectives through the faces and stories of TBWA\Chiat\Day, Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam Brands, McCann Erickson, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Omnicom, Team One, Anomaly, FuturLogic, Latin Works, Translation LLC, Mother, The One Club, MDC Partners, and PepsiCo.

Thursday, September 30th
5:00pm-6:00pm
Paley Center for Media
25 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

Turning Passions into Professions. . .

I'm a week or so away from launching a new company, Creative Career Management and I'm truly so excited.

When I started as a creative manager I had been working my whole career in print production, so needless to say I didn't really know what I was doing. Fake it 'til you make it as the saying goes.

Through trial and error, lots of advice and counsel from others and generally just figuring things out, here I am years later as a creative manager and recruiter. Now it's time to take things one step further. My favorite part of recruiting is meeting students and juniors. Just love em. I've said before they have a freshness about them that's contagious.

I'm taking my passion for coaching and mentoring juniors and turning it into something bigger. My company, Creative Career Management is a college consultancy specifically for creatively talented students. We all know how hard it was deciding which colleges to apply to, and it's ten times harder when creative talent is involved.

I hope to share my knowledge about schools and ad/design programs, quality of graduate portfolios, differences in campuses and tuition and really help high school and early college students make better decisions.

Passions into professions, isn't that what it's all about?!

I love great advice

I'm a sucker for great advice. I read quote books just for fun. I have scribbles on post-its around my office and fortunes from cookies taped to my computer.

Now you know why I love the Jones New York book of advice so much (yesterday's post).

Here's another good one I thought I'd forward.

Frank Chimero gives advice to graphic design students that touches on design and life.

Some good ones:

Scissors are good, music is better, and mixed drinks with friends are best.

Most important things happen at a table. Food, friends, discussion, ideas, work, peace talks, and war plans.

Success is generating an emotion. Failure is a million different things.

Career Advice

Last night I clicked an online banner. I know, we see them and avoid them with a vengeance. Yet it caught my eye, maybe because it was black.

It ended up being such a cool piece of work. Put together by Jones New York, it is an electronic mini-book of career wit & wisdom called the Little Black Book of Career Advice.

100 women offer advice to a creative audience. Women like Arianna Huffington, Beverly Johnson, Bobbi Brown, Donna Brazile, Ivanka Trump and, the illustrious Barbie.

The pages turn in that cool iPad eBook way, and some pages have video advice as well. I wish I had created this book. I wish I was in this book.

Read it and heed it. These ladies have some very inspiring things to say.

Very Cool Format

I saw this arrangement on a portfolio site the other day. It caught my eye. His twitter status updates (99% work-related, mind you). And below a cool graphic timeline of his resume.

Not only is this cool, I pretty much want to hang out with the guy. Anyone who does an adventure race in Moab and was the director of a YMCA camp has enough guts and stamina to hang in an ad agency creative department. THIS is what I mean when I say I want to know about you/your personality/interests. It's what makes you different than the next candidate.

James Kinney, nice job.