Creative Director Archive
100% Creative Direction & Some Writing
Cisco Partners Talent Network
This is part of a spec campaign I wrote and CD’d. It was one of those last-minute RFPs where in your heart you know your agency was only invited to round out the dance card. That said, the challenge was that we had three days to create an international campaign to recruit newly graduated IT professionals to join a new Cisco division.
Since we had little time we opted to present a slow-reveal poster campaign targeting key universities. Each poster in the series provided further “enlightenment” to our target candidates with the ultimate goal to drive them to a landing page. While we didn’t get the account I still like the work.
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America
I worked with a great copy and design team on the Toyota account. Shown here are some print ads we developed as part of a multichannel recruitment communications campaign. This is the creative that helped us win the account, which ended up being one of the agency’s largest.
Rocky View Municipal District
This was a spec recruitment advertising campaign I wrote and provided creative direction. The challenge posed in the RFP was to help District 44: Rocky View - a Canadian Municipal District in the middle of nowhere - recruit young, technically-savvy urban professionals from Calgary.
The campaign didn’t sell but I like the work and what it conveys with just a few words and strong images.
Capital Group Companies
These ads are part of a recruitment campaign I worked on for our client, Capital Group. I don’t mind telling you that this campaign was exceptionally challenging due to a variety of hurdles related to the company’s incredibly strict corporate communication guidelines.
We were on the verge of losing their business - none of the campaign ideas we presented clicked with them. Fortunately, I hit on the idea of a testimonial campaign using illustrations. We couldn’t use photos due to privacy concerns. It worked and we had a great run.
PacifiCare
Our client, PacifiCare, needed help creating an employee referral program. We came back with a $5,000 Design-Your-Own-Destination Vacation promotion. The posters shown here were displayed throughout the company.
San Diego Diversity Careers
An association of San Diego-based companies asked us to develop a campaign promoting their commitment to diversity hiring. Our challenge was creating a campaign that each member of the association could agree on. The resulting print and online campaign was quite successful.
Random Favorites
Direct Mail - Post Card
I used to work as a CD in recruitment advertising. The big challenge for us was that our clients had million-dollar tastes and zero budgets. We had to rely on royalty-free images. Spending countless hours looking at stock sites for just the right image helped me develop my eye as a photo editor.
Corporate Communications Poster
This poster is from back when print advertising was still king and you could make a million dollars selling help wanted ads. I was the writer and CD. I still love the illustration by the one and only Laura Kelm, an immensely talented illustrator, designer and fine artist.
Why this post card?
The key to my success as a creative director is to hire talented people. I’ve been very fortunate to work with many great copywriters, art directors and designers. As CD I have learned to trust my team because I don’t have the time to micromanage every single project. The post card is one example of many when my team stepped up with zero input from me to create a highly effective direct mailer to interest Midwestern nurses in a California career.