Basically born a Mad Man, Zack Kinslow was in advertising before he knew what the word meant. As a tot, Zack conceived a cereal brand and dabbled in product design; in middle school he founded his first startup; in high school he dove into web design while dogging dishes at his father’s restaurant and experimenting with poetry and graffiti; during college, he accrued enumerable viewers to his university’s local TV station and discovered a love for copywriting.

We asked Zack what he did outside of advertising. After a puzzled moment, he responded, “Nothing… well, I draw cartoons.” We attest to his dedication as an employee, yet we drew out a lot more than cartoons from his story.

• Other jobs Zack has filled over the years:
• Dishwasher
• Bus boy
• Caterer (mostly Indian weddings)
• Pizza delivery driver
• Cook
• Waiter
• Bartender
• Social media consultant
• Boutique agency partner
• Copywriter at Masterminds
• Hispanic prostitute interrogator

• Growing up surrounded by art at his grandparents’ wildlife art gallery, Zack learned to draw at a young age. His first muse? His mother.

• In front of the aforementioned gallery, Zack and his older brother began their first business venture: a custom greeting card stand. They wrote and designed the greeting cards, then sold them to passers-by for 50 cents a piece.

• Any customers who didn’t pay up got a swift roundhouse to the kidney.

• His first branding challenge was the creation and marketing of a new packaged good, which he completed in elementary school. In the fourth grade, his GT  (“Gifted and Talented”) teacher assigned him a project, in which he would have to create a cereal, design the packaging, and come up with ways to get people eating it. His campaign included a Leo Burnett-inspired mascot, jingle, and of course, interactive games on the back of the box. Thus, Krazy Kubes were sprung from Zack’s imagination.

• As a teenager, Zack taught "English as a Second Language" to immigrants from all over the world, in a church to which he didn’t belong.
  
• Zack often draws classic cartoon characters sporting Adidas shell toes.

• Zack got into web design in the late 90s/early zeros, and ended up running one of the highest-traffic lacrosse websites at the time when he was 14. He also had a business for stringing lacrosse sticks. Even in sports, he was obsessed with art and craft.

• In high school, Zack worked his way from dishwasher to bartender at his father’s restaurant Jake’s in Flemington, New Jersey. Want to know the way to Zack’s heart? Get his chef father’s recipe for Cajun Chicken Fettuccine.

• Zack pretends to be outdoorsy sometimes with the ADC Adventure Club.

• He currently lives with his big brother (also an advertising copywriter / copy supervisor) in Brooklyn.

• After escaping high school early, Zack flew to Costa Rica with no set plan and hung out on his friend's farm for several weeks, immersing himself in the “pura vida” culture. Zack won’t reveal the location of this farm because it is not indicated on any published map.

• Zack once lived with Renaissance Fair pirates in the woods outside of Atlantic City. Their names were Captain Raven and Lady Milan. They had two pet squirrels named Chubbs and Carlos.

• The pirates were eventually ostracized from what Zack calls "The American Hostel" after a dispute with another roommate, Frank – former Crowd Management Director for the Super Bowl and Oakland Arena. Frank didn't take kindly to the pirates. They didn't take kindly to him. A musket was pulled. End of story.

• One of Zack’s projects in college involved the rebranding of his alma mater’s Rowan Television Network (RTN), channel 5. He made five collectable posters that illustrated “When 5 is Bad” and paid off with the fact that “With RTN, it’s always good to be 5.”

• In high school, Zack traded his sketchbook for a notepad, and writing became his creative outlet. He wrote poetry and song lyrics that were never to be sung, and later participated in storytelling courses at Philly Improv Theatre. His most well-received story slam was about The Great Pirate Showdown at The American Hostel (ask him and you might just get to hear this gripping tale).

• His favorite cartoon character is Leroy from his own “Handicrap” series, a well-meaning guerrilla monster with a spikey tail, sharp teeth, and wheels for legs.

• Zack once worked as a Hispanic Prostitute Interrogator for the Ocean City Police Department. Those 5 dialects of Spanish he picked up in the restaurant industry seem to come in handy to this day.

• He has been featured on the cover of Philly AD NEWS magazine twice.

• Zack is banned from four casinos after climbing the mountain at Bally's Wild West in Atlantic City, NJ. Another one of his hobbies is exploring new heights.
• He likes clipboards
  
• He once made a George W. Bush piñata to celebrate the Obama inauguration, but made the mistake of bringing it to the wrong party.

So how did this wacky individual end up here at ADC? Well, when Ignacio Oreamuno became Executive Director, he phoned Zack (at the time, the Philly host of Ignacio’s global Portfolio Night event): “Stupid question: do you want to move to New York? I’m rebuilding the Club.” Zack quickly replied, “Smart answer: yes.” And the rest is history.

We were lucky to gain Zack as a team member, who always has and always will be a champion of creativity and connecting people with opportunities. In New York and beyond, Zack makes connections with ADC Members and other artists to expand his palate for craft and scratch his insatiable itch for creativity.

Above: Zack at the How & Nosm exhibition at Jonathon LeVine Pop-Up Gallery.

To keep up with Zack and what’s happening in the ADC community, follow him on Twitter at @zkinslow, connect with him on LinkedIn, or swing by the ADC Gallery for one of his events.

On Saturday, the greyest of grey days, I reluctantly embarked on the ferry bound for Randall’s Island just moments before a torrential downpour ensued.   I watched as picturesque lightning struck very near the Empire State Building, then the Chrysler Building, then along the Upper East Side, as the vessel traveled up the East River toward the Island and its current attraction, the Frieze Art Fair.  The London-based art fair’s second New York installment promised work from over 180 galleries in a massive tent accompanied by a surrounding “Sculpture Garden”, a number of cafes, and even a secret speakeasy.

As one of 45,000 visitors to the fair, I found the trek to the island a necessary evil.  I marveled at the location upon arrival, as I was greeted by Paul McCarthy’s gargantuan Balloon Dog, which became the unofficial mascot of Frieze New York. 

My first experience of Frieze was overwhelming; it was difficult to process the amount of work and number of galleries and artists represented.  All of the usual art fair “suspects” were represented -- neon lights, mirrors, large-scale text – and many recognizable artists and artworks.  In addition, there were a number of more surprising works that greeted me from under the brightly lit climate-controlled tent.  Here, I’ll give a brief overview of some of the standout pieces of the fair and why I found them worth a second look.

Spencer Finch’s neon Sun (Over the Sahara Desert 1/2/11), at James Cohan Gallery, was reminiscent of Dan Flavin’s fluorescent installations of the 1960s but with a contemporary, digital aspect. As I mentioned, art fairs are notoriously (and humorously) filled with neon sculptures, but Finch’s example was beautifully executed and managed to bridge the gap between contemporary art and modern art of the mid-century.

Another favorite of mine was Jim Lambie’s 2000, at Galleria Franco Noero.  Reminiscent of Art Povera – specifically calling to mind Michelangelo Pistolleto’s Venus of the Rags -- the readymade, DIY quality of the assemblage of belts inspired me to create my own.

Rounding a corner, I encountered Valeska Soares’ stunning Finale, an installation featuring an antique table arranged with glasses filled with liquor.  The mirrored table top provided a surprising extra dimension to the work, while the installation as a whole referenced the Decorative Arts and display, with a possible nod to Feminist Art of the 1970s, such as Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party.

John McAllister’s oil painting, Days Gently Embered, grasped me with its neon hue and subtle brushstrokes betraying a wispy nature scene.  It was a welcome respite from the avant-garde work representing much of the fair and called to mind the pastels of Wolf Kahn and Expressionist canvases from the turn of the 20th century.

Finally, Offensive/Defensive, by Liza Lou, was one of the most unassumingly impressive worksI encountered at Frieze.  Consisting of bugle beads placed end on end with seed bead decoration, the work combined the idea of craft and pattern with a more nuanced, expressive image made using the same materials.

Many of the works I found most compelling at Frieze were by artists I had not yet encountered or knew very little about, which is exactly why I find art fairs valuable as a writer in pursuit of beautiful things -- one is able to view a cross-section of the global art scene without overt curatorial connotation. I departed Randall’s Island feeling inspired to both research and create, which, in my mind, made the half-hour-long ferry ride in a torrential downpour more than worthwhile.

Were you able to attend Frieze?  What were your favorite pieces?  Tweet @artfullyawear with the hashtag #friezeframed to join the discussion.

If hindsight really is 20/20, imagine what top creatives would advise when they look back on their successes. ADC presents Hindsight: What We Learn When We Look Back, an ongoing series revealing exactly that – the trials and tribulations of thought leaders in the creative industries. Stay tuned for more words of wisdom next week on the ADC Blog.

Lori Senecal, Chairman and CEO at kbs+, shares what she learns when she looks back: create your own opportunity.

On May 2nd, we nerded out bigtime. 400 creatives gathered at the ADC Gallery to collect the latest paper samples, learn about innovative printing techniques, and most importantly, get re-inspired by the art and craft of good ol’ fashioned print design.

Letterpress. Engraving. Embossing. Foil stamping. Thermography. Offset. Lenticular. Coated. Uncoated. These are some terms you might’ve heard while perusing the 30 eclectic vendor tables at the 2013 ADC Paper Expo.

And yes, there was even some Augmented Reality in the house. Not to mention, three scantily-clad models wearing only cut-paper art fashioned by ADC member Matt Hill.

Participating vendors at this year’s Paper Expo included the very best in the business: Aldine Specialty Printing, Mohawk, Sappi Fine Paper, Meridian Printing, DataGraphic, Neenah Paper, FiberMark, Reich Paper, Print Promotions Inc, Legion Paper, NewPage, Green Earth Enterprise, Appleton Coated Utopia, Virtual Images, Z-CARD, Taylor Box, High Resolution Printing, Precise Continental, Direct Source Packaging, Giant Squid Press, and Yupo Synthetic Paper.

Aldine brought their famous hand-crank letterpress machine, and allowed guests to crank their own prints for a chance to win $1,000 worth of letterpress printing services. This “Year of the Snake” artwork was designed by Dan Schlitzkus and was narrowed down from dozens of fan-submitted pieces from ADC’s Facebook community.

Giant Squid Press developed a fittingly nautical boardgame, in collaboration with illustrator Liam Oscar Thurston, which encouraged attendees to move throughout the whole expo and uncover a letter at each vendor table to solve a Wheel-of-Fortune-style riddle.

And every vendor brought their latest collection of paper or printing samples, ready for the ravenous crowd of creatives to eat them right up. Needless to say, the tables were completely empty in a matter of hours.

Special thanks to the title sponsors of the 2013 ADC Paper Expo: Aldine Specialty Printing, Meridian Printing, Mohawk, Sappi, and DataGraphic. Additional love goes to Victoria Bellavia for designing this year’s brand identity. And thank you to all the vendors who presented at this year’s event. You helped us prove once again that print will never die.

With Portfolio Night 11 approaching, ADC likes to remind the industry how important students are to the future of Advertising and Design, as well as future masters of Art and Craft! On May 7th, the Education Team at ADC had the pleasure of connecting more students all the way from Philadelphia’s Temple University with the NYC office of iris Worldwide.

At 9.00 AM, Temple Advertising students were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the doors of New York iris Worldwide office located in the center of the bustling NoHo neighborhood. On the fifth floor of this stunning Robert Maynicke building, students were greeted by the friendly staff at iris and quickly swept up by tour leader New Business Director, Zeyd Rahman. Students not only learned about the five wittily-named glass conference rooms—Churchill, Tesla, Madonna, Hemingway and Dalí—but also they got to view a demure line mural, drawn by Shantell Martin.

Next, students were guided to a large conference space decked out with projection screen for an insightful presentation to learn about the iris team: who they are, what they do. During the presentation, members from each iris department (Strategy, Tech, Creative, Account and Producer) chatted with the students about how they got into advertising, what an average day in their positions was like, what they like best about working in advertising and what the most challenging aspect of working in advertising is. 

ADC recorded some highlights from the presentation. Here are some pointers from the pros:

• Rachael Nugent, Senior Account Manager, told us that handling is all about leadership, charm, wit, and getting your clients what they need to achieve their dreams!
• Suzana Ognjanovic, Digital Producer, who works closely with Rachel, listed for necessities for advertising producing: 1. Being on point; 2. Consolidate and cooperate creatives; 3. Know what your client wants, and; 4. Foster a positive group setting.
• Beth Ann Ingrassia, Junior Strategist, expanded on Reporting, Research and Strategy and shared two planning websites: Junior Strategy and Northern Planner.
• Kevin Sheldon, Senior Interaction Designer, expounded on the grander idea behind user-technology relationship.
• Santi Saucedo, Senior Creative, explained what his title even means!
• Vanessa Maganza, Art Director, made sure that students knew to network and be nice.
• Emily Canan, Community Manager, taught us how to respond skillfully to negative feedback on social networks.

Of course, after face-to-face introductions with top creative professionals in the advertising industry, Temple students questioned iris employees with real-life concern. Together, they found solutions for problems, such as “How does a creative separate personal social media accounts from ‘client-friendly’ accounts?” The consensus: make two aliases.

Finally, Creative Director, Tim Clarke exclusively discussed the concept of Urgent Genius with ADC. Urgent Genius is iris’s platform for creating topical content at speed as a news-hijacking tool, which the agency uses to develop creative campaigns in real-time. The folks at iris even offered to engage the students in an Urgent Genius workshop, to see what ideas their fresh minds could cook up.

(Unfortunately, time flies when you're having fun and the students had to be on their way to visit Deutsch Inc. and Grey Worldwide, so we'll have to save the workshop for next time!)

Interested in learning more about iris Worldwide? Check out their Agency Profile on IHAVEANIDEA or reach out to iris directly!

Our Director of Education, Brendan Watson loves to hear from students and schools all over the world. Get in touch with any questions or comments you may have about our educational programming.

Big Apple basketball is back in a big way! The Knicks are in the NBA playoffs and are off to an impressive start. But last week, the real hoops action wasn’t at Madison Square Garden, but rather, a few blocks away here at the ADC Gallery.

The latest edition of BUTTER: A Night of Pop Culture and Popcorn – ADC’s monthly film screening series – brought dozens of ADC members and guests through our doors for an intimate screening of The Iran Job, a fascinating documentary about an American basketball journeyman whose career has taken him to the Iranian Super League.





The usual BUTTER staples of Fatboy® beanbag chairs, freshly popped popcorn and unlimited beer and wine were accompanied by a few mini-basketballs and hoop sets to get everybody in a sporting mood.

The Iran Job is the story of Kevin Sheppard, whose basketball abilities, while considerable, weren’t enough for the top-tiered NBA. Thus he moved around from league to league around the world, before settling into Shiraz, Iran.

The film explores the cultural differences he experiences there, as well as a burgeoning friendship with three Iranian women: sports physiotherapist Hilda, event planner Elaheh and administrator Laleh. These three women open Kevin’s eyes up to the realities — the joys, the frustrations, the amazing and the mundane — of life under the Iranian regime during the Green Movement and on the eve of the Arab Spring.

This was a particularly special BUTTER screening, as the evening was curated by creative director/filmmaker/ADC member Sharoz Makarechi, and featured a live Q&A with Till Schauder and Sara Nodjoumi, the film’s director and producer respectively. Through this Q&A, we learned of the difficulties of filming such a movie, as well as the fates of the film’s stars.





Guests were also treated to a sneak peek of One For All, the next documentary project by Schauder, featuring a look at the Jamaican National football team.




BUTTER has always been a fun evening here at the ADC, but the perfect blend of sports, politics and humanity made this particular evening an extra special treat.

Get your tickets for the next BUTTER: A Night of Pop Culture and Popcorn on Thursday, May 30th, 2013, where we’ll screen the official Tribeca selection Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.

ADC Young Gun Daniel Savage visited the club last week to host an animation class for the SCW students. Dan took a circuitous route to animation, his attention moving from cartoons to percussion to graphic design to motion design and back to cartoons again. As an animator, he’s worked for a wide variety of people and organizations, including Comedy Central, Google, and Kanye West, who exclaimed,
“Retarded dope!” after seeing the graphics Dan created for West’s “Glow in the Dark” tour.

Saturday’s project was centered around creating animated GIF’s. A GIF is a primitive
form of looping animation made by combining several images into a single GIF file.
Each student drew a sequence of up to 30 frames, which they brought to life by photographing and animating using the Gif Shop iPhone app designed by Dan.

Check out our crazy GIF’s on the workshop’s dedicated tumblr blog:
http://adcgifshop.tumblr.com/

If hindsight really is 20/20, imagine what top creatives would advise when they look back on their successes. ADC presents Hindsight: What We Learn When We Look Back, an ongoing series revealing exactly that – the trials and tribulations of thought leaders in the creative industries. Stay tuned for more words of wisdom next week on the ADC Blog.

Roe Bressan, President & CMO of the Lively Group, shares what she learns when she looks back: how small experiences can change your career.

As Designer for Global Marketing and Creative Services at Sesame Street, Carol-Anne Ryce-Paul doesn’t just get paid to play with Muppets. (Although she did teach us that most Muppets need two muppeteers to work!) At the Sesame Workshop, Carol-Anne acts as a liaison for all in-house design projects, as well as volunteers for Sesame projects outside the office. If that isn’t enough work, Carol-Anne also designs fabric and handmade, eco-friendly wallets out of paper. The designer who loves patterns and making the world a brighter place for children tells us about nearly a decade spreading the Sesame spirit!

ADC: So what do you do at Sesame Workshop?

Carol-Anne: I’m in creative services. I straddle the marketing and branding department, and the global licensing and character design department. Basically, if something needs to get done in house, I’m the graphic designer who usually is available to do it.

For example, it can be a poster or an outreach project for example, stickers for Chinese Emergency Preperation. We really depend on our teams because my Chinese is not good!

Sometimes it’s just like pulling your hair out because everybody wants everything “end of day” which is crazy. End of day could be nine o’ clock at night, right?

And then if you’re working with China or Italy, you really have to think about the hours that they are ahead.

However, things always work out, and you’re working with the Sesame Street Muppets, so you’re kind of happy all the time.

Carol-Anne: When shooting for YouTube, they are around the office, and it’s so real!

The muppeteers are either on dollies or skateboards, being pushed, and they pop up while you’re waiting for coffee. People are singing or miming, and music playing. It’s very silly!

ADC: Sounds like an ideal job environment! How did you start at Sesame?

Carol-Anne: Seven years ago, Sesame Workshop called and asked me if I wanted to work in a coordinator position. My portfolio was up on a free portfolio site.

I was re-touching for a photographer and wasn’t going to take the job because I was making really good money freelancing. I never had a corporate desk job,where you have to come in at (God forbid!) 9.00am. Sesame sounded very corporate

Then I heard about the benefit package and said, “Yes. Yes, please.”

When I came in, I only did a few design projects then my role changed because Suzanne Duncan, Vice President Marketing and Brand Strategy, had a vision for the company: really good, clean and consistent design because no one knew "Sesame Workshop." They couldn’t remember that it was the Children’s Television Workshop and associate that with Sesame Street.

It was beautiful to see the brand develop.

Now Suzanne doesn’t come and say, “Well, you know, I need blah, blah, blah.” It’s a little bit different than the early days when it was just us, a small group in a small space.

ADC: Discuss a project that you worked on with Suzanne that really changed your view on your work.

Carol-Anne: Military Families changed the way I thought of branding a property.

When it first started, it was just about talking to kids about their parents leaving and not being around then coming back because, sometimes, parents were gone for a year or two. Parents might comeback strangers to their kids.

It was using the power of Sesame Street and how powerful it is to children in order to help adults understand the way children react because usually you don’t think about how the kids are going to react. Sometimes they’re scared or they’re angry.

The first kit put that in perspective. Next we did the second and third kits, when the parents didn’t come back and when the parents came back with amputations or emotionally different.

The way that they interlocked with each other in terms of brand and in such a network: there was a special on PBS; Sesame went out to the military bases; they had live shows with the Muppets; they handed out kits and stickers in kids’ schools, and there were programs at afterschool programs.

The branding of the project always stayed consistent. The project elevated the brand in the viewers’ eyes. Sesame extended the brand outside of the show and the plush level. It had a different meaning when you’re associating it with your parent.

That made me realize that a brand doesn’t have to sell you something in order for the brand to grow. You strengthen the brand, but you’re not selling a show. You’re selling connections.

It’s kind of bigger than design and me. It is about people’s lives. It’s important because if you do this wrong, it’s wrong in somebody’s life. It has to be good.

ADC: We also know that Sesame Workshop encourages employees to reach out to the community. What has been your favorite volunteer project?

Carol-Anne: Recently, we “Sesamized” the intake rooms at NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), where children stay after being take away from abuse or neglect. They must be scared, so it’s nice to have something recognizable and safe like Sesame Street.

Photograph Courtesy of Evan Cheng

We set up toys, which people donated: chairs,tables, DVDs. We assembled everything and put batteries in electronics. We installed a mural of the Sesame Street with life-sized characters. It was fantastic to see it kind of life size. The vinyl wallpaper used a pattern from our style guide. Although the licensees, who are the companies that use the Sesame characters on their products and use it often, it was fantastic to see it that big!

Photograph Courtesy of Evan Cheng

Photograph Courtesy of Evan Cheng

Photograph Courtesy of Evan Cheng

ADC: What do you think when you go home after accomplishing all of this?

Carol-Anne: I feel good. I don’t think about it.

Sesame has a place in pop culture, and it has a place in young children’s lives. Now, it’s almost like the air in our culture. People can identify the characters just by their eyes; that’s how prevalent it is in this society, so it’s a good thing.

Photograph Courtesy of Evan Cheng

Get LinkedIn with Carol-Anne to learn more about her, or check out her in-house Sesame Poster or Product Design! If you like her design, you will love her original fabric patterns on Spoon Flower.

If you’re a member and want to share your story, upcoming event or a new project, contact membernews@adcglobal.org for more information!

Art Director Eric Kwan Tai Lau has accomplished a great deal during the short time that he has been in the advertising industry. Now, Eric is an Art Director at Jack Morton Worldwide, where he works on 360-degree campaigns and brand experiential design for brands like PlayStation. Before Jack Morton, Eric worked at Saatchi & Saatchi as an Art Director with a passion for outside projects. How did one of ADC’s top 200 graduating seniors in advertising and graphic design at National Student Portfolio Review 2009 climb his way up the corporate ladder with enough time to delve into photography and international art exhibitions?

At his high school, Eric was already juggling creative responsibilities by mastering music, computer science, publishing and design. He studied at one of Hong Kong’s oldest high schools, where tradition is not as important as a student’s degree of freedom, which is exciting for a city where most students end up practicing banking, medicine or accounting! By starting with posters for summer camps and fliers for Christmas parties, Eric decided to create a book that summarized his small graduating class’s collective memory.

Due to the size of his class, those on the project couldn’t sleep much. Eric remembers nearly sleeping through the deadline after two consecutive days of work! Constructed out of Legos, “No Boundary” is very much like Eric’s motto: you can build up something, destroy it, build up something and destroy it again, with unlimited possibilities until you perfect the end project. Equipped with a Lego play hand, “No Boundary” resembled a gramophone and held a DVD for each student in his class. He also made a calendar out of Legos, so that one could easily break apart days of the year.

In 2009, for this project, Eric was the youngest Graphis winner in the history of the awards since 1944! The awards department contacted him to ask, “Did you put your wrong age?”

Since 2006, Eric has visited his old high school to share his work and help students establish their portfolios. He also has assisted two semesters of an advertising design course at Parsons with Tom Mcmanus because he remembers the people who have helped him get this far. Moreover, he subscribes to the theory that there is a lot to learn from looking at young artists’ works and discussing the creative process with them in person. He finds inspiration in new ways they handle problems.

We are sure that students learn more from him, though, as he tells us his advice to new creatives:

Work very, very hard! There’s a whole world out there, and there’s so much more you can learn from other artists. Don’t get caught on something that you are satisfied with, keep pushing. When you know different levels of people in the industry, you learn that something you thought might be “brilliant” could be average work in another level of the game. It’s good to meet real professionals.

It’s easy to get discouraged by others’ works, but be true to your self. The best work comes from understanding and using your own voice.

Also, it is very important for young creatives to find their own media and spend time outside of work or school to do creative stuff: either attend some ADC events or check out some gorgeous Young Guns work to compare yourself with them, inspire yourself and set your bar higher. In the end, work harder to achieve a higher level. You can learn about completely new creative arenas, and on could be your future job.

Speaking of other media, Eric recently sold his first street photograph, which is part of an artistic pursuit that he’s been working towards since he first moved to New York. He started seriously shooting after viewing an inspiring Sony photo shoot while interning at JWT Hong Kong. Now that he is happily working in an advertising agency, he notices that there are a lot of marketing concerns. With constraints, such as target audience and budget, the final result—although rewarding—is really controlled by these as well as input from CDs and ECDs. Photography is a different way to express himself. It’s “purely for fun, purely for creative expression,” very much like his LEGO album. Eric dreams of putting up this personal photography show one day.

With professional and personal projects, Eric tries to link two unrelated ideologies and is currently going crazy for snowflakes. Comparing Chinese calligraphy (based in spirituality and philosophy) with Western typography (scientific and quantitative), Eric wants to develop a graphic language of his own. He explains, “Calligraphy and typography is complicated, and it would be cool to find something that is more pure. I think that the snowflake is the perfect subject matter.”

Snowflakes start out similarly. As they fall, they cut through different layers of air that have different temperatures and different humidity. That’s why they form different shapes. You can unfold the life of the snowflake, and—unlike advertising—aesthetics, or the form of something, can actually be directly related to its story.

His snowflake art has been on view at Parsons’ Galleries and Exhibition Centers as well as Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

If you’re a member and want to share your story, upcoming event or a new project, contact membernews@adcglobal.org for more information!

If hindsight really is 20/20, imagine what top creatives would advise when they look back on their successes. ADC presents Hindsight: What We Learn When We Look Back, an ongoing series revealing exactly that – the trials and tribulations of thought leaders in the creative industries. Stay tuned for more words of wisdom next week on the ADC Blog.

Ron Berger, former Founder/CEO of Euro RSCG (now Havas Worldwide), shares what he learns when he looks back: how to become a better writer.