 Greg Kuchmek, who is represented by Aquent's DC office, has been working on the web since 1994. That's when he was hired to help produce a webzine, Stim, started by Prodigy. [Editor's Note: For an interesting flashback to 1996, read Ty Burr's review of Stim, which he gives a B+, and Slate, which he gives a C+]. When that gig ended in 1997 he discovered that, "3 years web experience was amazing. I was 'senior' automatically."
Flash forward to the present and Greg now has 14 years web experience. If you want to hire someone like Greg (assuming you can find someone like him), what do you have to offer him? He has a broad range of in-demand skills: in addition to ground-up experience with the full suite of web technologies, Greg is also an able photographer, animator, illustrator, and writer. When he goes on a job interview, the pressure is on the interviewer.
What is Greg looking for and how can you convince him to work for you? Listen to his words:
1. Trust
I'm looking for an employer that respects that I have my skills and trusts me to use them. They hire me because I can do something and they can't. It's great when they let me do it.
It's not always like that. I've done jobs where the client was really looking over my shoulder and micro-managing. I understand that everyone's got their personal style, but when that's happening, I don't feel free to be creative and really do what I'm capable of.
2. Flexibility
I don't wear a tie to interviews anymore. I don't need to dress up at this point. I've also got a full studio at home, so I'm even kind of shocked that I have to leave the house! I guess I've been spoiled by working in places like Boston or New York where it's more flexible.
More than flexibility about where work happens, though, I appreciate it when there is flexibility around how things get done. There have been countless little jobs where they needed a photograph and I've told them, "Look, I can spend the day combing through stock or I can go take one." It's great when people are more open to the "I can do this right now" approach, than they are attached to the "this is the way we have to do it" approach.
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 Aquent held a contest a few weeks back inviting designers to create a Halloween-themed logo treatment on our homepage. We got about 40 responses and the winning entry, created by Kevin Bonixe, a native of Massachusetts but currently a resident of Portugal, debuted on Aquent.com today.
Reaching him via the interweb, I asked Kevin how he got into design and this is what he told me: "I started out taking a course in photography and got introduced to digital photography. When I then began image manipulation in Photoshop, a new world of imagination, color, and creativity opened up to me. It fed my eagerness to learn, evolve, and to search for even better tools to create my vision. Design was the answer."
The work that Kevin ended up doing for us was is in Flash, of course (if you are reading this after Halloween, you can view it here. I asked Kevin what he liked so much about that application. He wrote, "The coolest thing about Flash is the ease of translating your creativity to the stage. When you have a timeline where you can incorporate images, movement, sound interactivity, dynamics, your creativity is your only limit."
Although, for now, Kevin is pursuing a career in business management, he does do some design work on the side, such as this site for a Portuguese hip-hop band, S. Clemente. If you are interested in working with Kevin, he can be reached via Aquent's Barcelona office.
Image courtesy of szlea.
Because I don't live in New York, and have thus not yet seen the giant two-storied rears smiling down on passers-by from high above Times Square, I had to discover the Washlet via AdCritic Interactive. Of course, after that initial tip, I learned all I needed to know about this "revolution in personal hygiene" from the amazing clean is happy site itself.
I'm not sure what is more impressive about this site: the remarkable technology that allows you to go to the bathroom and have a "hands free" experience; the use of Flash and video (which is undeniably great); or the way ML Rogers turns getting your bum sprayed by a self-sterilizing wand into a quality of life issue.
Given the innuendo and double entendre that drives the fairly self-parodic (one commentator wrote, "If I were to make a parody website this would be it") humor behind the "clean is happy" campaign, it's no surprise that most folks writing about it have a hard time reigning in their inner child. AdAge refers to it as "cheeky," Alissa at mediabistro.com's UnBeige calls it '"assvertising," and John at menuism.com's blog writes demurely about the "pleasant buttocks" which adorn the site and the outdoor advertising. For my part, I still can't watch the site without cackling in infantile glee and then, just as the designers no doubt envisioned, gleefully sharing it with others.
All scatology aside, the site is clever, well-designed and, as far as interactive advertising goes, fairly effective. Flash designers, graphic designers, and marketers in the personal hygiene category could all learn something from it. It might even make you happier.
OK, W+K's new site was an interesting though kind of messy and, dare I say, "ugly," use of Actionscript and database-driven dynamism.
By contrast check out this site created by burst Labs.
Burst is a company that produces/composes/records/licenses music for commercials, movies, etc. As the folks at Brand Flakes for Breakfast point out, this site is designed precisely with the producers in mind, since, when people are looking for music to incorporate in their work, they are thinking of it in terms of the mood or atmosphere it will invoke or in terms of the imagery it will accompany.
Useful, beautiful and undeniably cool.
 Here's a strange but cool use of Actionscript. It's called glich-gen and, as the name would suggest, uses glitches in image files to generate very curious patterns accompanied by unsettling ambient noises. (Thanks to the folks at turbulence.org for the tip on this, and thanks to Sam Ewen for the tip on turbulence. BTW, if you followed that last link, then you now know that Sam has a cool blog devoted to user-generated media.)
You might ask, "Matt, why are you writing about this on a blog devoted to marketing and creative careers?"
"Well," I might respond, "I assume that people pursuing careers in design will want to know about interesting or at least odd uses of the technologies they depend on for their livelihoods. Similarly, marketers should know who is pushing the limits of content creation and web-based communication."
"Why do you ask?"
1. I checked out their "new" website (launched in April) the other day and was struck by the Yugo Nakamura-esque look and feel of it all. (I was trying to find out if he had anything to do with the site, but my email to W+K's PR folk has gone unanswered.) There is some dispute as to whether the site is cool or lame, cutting edge or same-old-same-old, reflective of their interactive capabilities (or lack thereof), etc. I'm not qualified to weigh in on that subject, but I do appreciate that the site demonstrates at least one way for a multidimensional information space, in this case, the world of an agency's work, to be portrayed as an interactive, 2-D space.
2. Russell Davies, who used to work at W+K, but now apparently works for a "global, small business" called, "Open Intelligence Agency," wrote a post almost a year ago, and several months after he had left, entitled, "7 things I learned at wieden and kennedy (portland edition)." A number of blogs linked to the post at the time, but I just read it yesterday. Aside from reminding me that blogs are collections of permanent ephemera, his list of learnings included this old chestnut: The key to creative genius; work harder. How's the old equation go? 1% inspiration/99% perspiration? Having ideas is easy - doing things requires effort.
3. The local W+K offices have blogs dedicated to their work and office hijinks (to provide but one example). They also use the blogs to introduce new folks. In this post introducing a new member of the account management team in London, the newbie is compared to Lisa Stansfield, in part because they both come from the same town and have both traveled around the world, in part because they "both commend themselves to the eye." As much as I admire that turn of phrase, I'm fairly certain that I couldn't get away with referring to a co-worker thusly on this blog. Is it because I used to work in HR? Is it because I work at a staffing agency instead of an ad agency? Or is it just because I work in the United States and not London? Hmmm.
4. I believe that W+K has been a client of ours at one point or another, at least in Portland. (This more in the interest of full disclosure than as a kind of special pleading.)
5. One other thing from the Mr. Davies' "7 Learnings": You can tell from the work if people enjoyed making it. I think you can make a similar statement about customer service; you can tell from the way they treat you if someone enjoys their job. It should also make people consider their resumes, portfolios, blogs, etc.. How much joy do yours emanate?
Attention Flash wizards and wannabes! The BBC brings us this interactive timeline of British History. It's a cool and slickly designed use of Flash, Check it out. You just might learn something! (For instance: Did you know that Bishop Wilfrid of York was expelled from his see by Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria in 678 CE?)
Thanks to JD on EP for the tip.
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