“Look Like You Mean Business.”

Learning “improv” art direction on the spot,
a quick Case Study of an ad:

EP Henry Corporation

Need

As Art Director at EP Henry Corp.—where I designed dozens of ads to cover our regional design magazines, trade shows, web sites, and the trades—we loved an installation (we made paving stones, a dramatic upgrade to concrete sidewalks and driveways) that was done in a location near our headquarters office and brought to our attention by an installer of our product, so we set up the date for the shoot.

I had designed an ad that could be modular with different family images dropped in (sure, women ride motorcycles!), and would make our paving stone products more personal than just more “real estate” shots, as they had been in the past.

Next Steps

I designed the ad with space for a personal family inset image to change the trajectory of the “brand promise.” (prior to these ads, our campaigns were basically pictures of people’s yards, driveways, and pools…without people, pets, clutter, or anything else that brought the ads “down to earth”.)

Went out to direct the photo shoot: perfect day, clear blue sky (the sky color isn’t retouched, although the blue sky reflections on the 2nd floor windows are).

Scaffolding and camera platform set up in the street, kids galore wondering what’s up.

After setup and “digital polaroids”, we were ready.

The Wrench in the Works

So…right then, in rode our smart aleck (and great) VP of Sales & Marketing, on his motorcycle.

Parked it right in the middle of the perfectly-clean driveway shot, with the question, “Hey, you guys taking pictures here, or sumthin’?” Funny guy.

The crew and photographer looked panicked.

The Solution

I took a look, and realized that his 1500 cc Suzuki motorcycle is probably exactly what would be in the garage of this suburban home with the unique driveway. Probably good he wasn’t riding a Harley.

“Polish the chrome, and let’s shoot it.” Seemed like a good thing to say at the time.

After looking at the final shots, the “Dad” version is the one I chose to run in all the regional magazines on our usual list in the Mid-Atlantic region. The “Mom & Daughter” design came later, but never ran.

NOTE:

I keep saying “I chose”, and “I decided”. In actual fact, I was brought in as a simple graphic artist, and given enough time to learn and apply myself so that I was the corporate Art Director in pretty short order. If anybody says they do this kind of creative work on their own, they’re “misrepresenting the facts”

I’ve worked at places where the rule was “just do what you’re told and don’t think too much”. This was NOT one of those places, and I grew in just a few short years to being able to come up with new ideas and “save” projects that were headed the wrong way…before they came back to bite us. I even brought in completely new technology that allowed us to shorten our “time to market” and create promotions for new products, generating millions in sales because of the teamwork between senior leadership and everyone else.

How do you become the one with the “big” ideas? Work for leaders who continually push you to be better and smarter every time out…while providing the tools and the team to help you do just that.

The Outcome

The ad ran in multiple regional publications, and the “personalization” change in our campaigns was noticed, and had people thinking about their personal connection with the product, not just the old version of “processing customers”, as I call it.

Sales warmed to the direction, clients warmed to sales, and plenty was learned by all.