Magna Cum Laude
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 We're talking to ....
Photography: John Keatly
Who is also ....
It's tough raisin' em' up right. Ian (dubbed above 'This Guy') does it everyday day as a Principal of Wexley School for Girls. Not to be confused with an actual school for girls because there are boys too, and it's not actually a school, but you can learn a lot while you are there. Have I lost you yet? Short slang termed 'Wexley' is an advertising agency, a purveyor of the new way. If Willy Wonka were to acquire an ad agency this might be it, creative without a glass ceiling and there are rubber chickens hanging in the front window of their compound. Really. With a roster of young creative peeps - art directors, copywriters, producers, strategists - he's immersed in the new/it/rad on a daily basis. Ian is also a proud dad to two adorbs boys. Though, he and his wife keep it real (Ian pointed out in interest of total transparency they have some Pottery Barn furniture) making sure to inspire and encourage their boys to foster individual creativity so they're adept for the brave new world. Read on as Ian did his best to field my banter and gave solid answers about what the heck is going to happen next, Wexley using it's popularity for good by educating others, and how to get innovative with the due diligence of parenting.
You and I scheduled a meeting via Twitter for this interview! I have never done this before. Your job is to be one step ahead of the what's-cool curve and adapt progressive ways to communicate, how do you think the 'next generation' will respond (adapt/exploit/shun) to social media?
A: My feeling is that the next generation will look at social media like our generation looks at the telephone land line. There will probably be some things that are still consistent with how social media works now, but it will evolve like everything else does and when people look back at how we are doing things today it will probably seem a bit silly. My guess is that technology will change dramatically and this will change how the media becomes social. For example if we can cam on our phones, will we need to text? Or if you can send a hologram of yourself, do you need to actually go anywhere and use GPS or will there be a Social Media hologram component? I’ve already seen where you can watch a 3D football game on TV and have your social network involved as you watch. I believe the next generation will have more ways of communicating and all of them will be richer experiences visually and technologically.
Miss school miss out. More about the class, Wexley is embracing the interest surrounding the innovative work your agency continues to offer, sharing what 'advertising' , at it's basic core, is all about. Which is rad. Hw/Ks motto is sharing is caring, what was the initiative to educate others about the current landscape of the advertising industry?
A: We were asked to teach an intro to advertising class by Larry Asher at the School of Visual Concepts. Larry and I had discussed the fact that advertising is really different than when I was getting into it and that an intro class really should set people up for the realities of what the industry was all about now. For a lot of people advertising still represents print, television and radio ads and maybe online banners, but now it is so much more that we thought we better teach that. And Larry agreed. We had no desire to watch student after student show print ad after print ad in each class, knowing they would probably not be doing a lot of print ads in their careers anymore. The initiative came from us wanting to see schools teaching the new talent in the advertising industry what is really going on so they are better prepared when they get out of school.
You have a lot of inspiring people with informed interests working for you, what do you continue to learn from them?
A: They keep me on my toes. From all of these diverse talented people I learn things that keep me feeling young. Or make me feel really old, depending on the day. I feel like I am always learning different things from new music, to new social networks, to new places to travel, to new creative ways to approach a problem. I love all of the different perspectives and points of view people bring to the table here, even if I don’t personally agree with all of them.
You're a creative professional, do you consider yourself a creative parent? How so?
A: Well, I don’t know if I am that creative as far as parenting. I can’t really build anything. I suck with tools. So, I have never built that really rad tree house or fort or something I wish I could have built. My wife is actually way better at doing really cool, creative stuff for them. My best creative parenting example was the way I did each of our boys' birth announcements. For my older son, I sent out a weight loss announcement (The Zachary Cohen Diet! Guaranteed to lose 7.5 lbs!) And for Max my second I did a Pick the real Max Riley Cohen, where you could pick his picture out of several other look alikes like Yoday and Captain Stubbing etc. Right now, my creative parenting revolves more around how I can creatively get them to eat vegetables and take a bath or inspire them to be creative in their lives. They both love to read and write, so I encourage that to be creative as much as possible. My older son showed me some Wexley School for Girls ads he did for me and they were awesome, including the Wexley bra. So I think the encouragement is working.
Can you recommend....
a neighborhood Queen Anne (Seattle).
a coffee shop Lame, but maybe hip in its lameness: Starbucks (I drink iced tea!) or El Diablo.
a grocery store Pete’s in Eastlake (Seattle.
a band you might not listen to around the kids RUSH
a website Freerice.com a book- we go back to the Hardy Boys! They are still good to read and those guys had morals! The Thief Lord- awesome.
a radio show This American Life NPR (I wish I had something new to recommend).
a viral video (disclaimer, for *parents only*) http://joshspector.com/2010/03/01/logorama-short-film/ it is long but awesome, keep watching it gets good.
a recreational activity skiing or camping. For families I recommend skiing Big White (Canada) it was amazing.
a publication Sports Illustrated for kids. If your kids are into sports it’s great.
a toy K’NEX
Thanks Ian!
;)