I knew I wanted to be a creative when I was 15. I’ve always been a real techie. At that time, I was in a youth group. One of my group leaders came up to me and was like, ‘Oh, you know apps? There’s this new thing called Instagram. We’re starting up a page for the group and could you do something for us?’. So I was like ‘Yeah, okay.’ I downloaded an app that puts images on top of each other. Suddenly, I was a social media manager and designer.
Sometimes I feel like I’ve sold my soul to become a creative. Everything I look at, every conversation I have, I’m just thinking, ‘Oh, my goodness, that’s gold.’ Or it’s like, ‘Oh, I see what you’ve done there.’ The silliest thing gets me. I look at the tube signs and think how it’s pointless to have the arrow that tells you doors will open, but then I look above and see the yellow and blue colour palette, and I think that’s such a nice contrast. The strangest things spark my creativity.
My first six months at Hunterlodge felt like being dropped in the deep end, but it felt like I was trusted with the work. For me, you typically get better results by taking that approach. It quickly becomes apparent that the people who have been here for a very long time are here because they just get on with each other and—it might sound corny—but that’s because it’s a family. People understand each other and how they like to work together and that keeps people around.
The SOAS campaign is my favourite to date. It was a collection of three videos: one that gives an overview of the key values at SOAS and the other two about employability and the student experience. I’ve called it ‘The Octopus’ a million times because it was the largest campaign I’ve worked on at Hunterlodge, with lots of moving parts. That went live today. Even though I’m my own worst critic, I look at the site and think, ‘This is sick!’
We’re going to start to see the deconstruction of advertising. I believe it’s going to be less about polish and more about representing real life. Images will look very similar to something you’d find in your camera roll and that’s what you’ll see on billboards. It’s also been interesting to see how technology is driving messaging forward. It’s not just the slogan anymore. You’ve got to have a full campaign that really has an in-depth tone of voice.
Down the road, professionally, I want to come up with creative that means something to society from a value perspective. I think advertising is the fork in the road between culture and liberal arts. It’s amazing to be given a platform to share a point of view and I take deep privilege in that.
If you want Joey to tackle a brief or you’re interested in a career as a creative, then please get in touch with nick.friend@hunterlodge.co.uk
