Welcome to Animas Creative?

​Greetings! I'm excited to kick off the new version of Animas Creative and I welcome you all to...

I welcome you all to...

(Sigh)

Nope. I can't do it. I've been working in some form of marketing or advertising for almost 20 years now and while I know all of the safe words to use to create a sense of enthusiasm and general feel-good-ery (look THAT one up), it wouldn't be true to the spirit of myself or this site as a reflection of my work to kick things off like that.

See the picture above? That isn't stock. It's me and the only thing missing is a cup of coffee if I shot that at 9 am or a finger of bourbon if I shot it 9 pm. I chose that image because it reflects one of my favorite moments - sitting down to a clean sheet of paper with a bunch of tools and marking it up until something emerges. And the time of day - or week - doesn't matter. I work when I'm inspired and I'm inspired in all kinds of moments. In other words, I don't work 9 to 5. I just work. And I work because I love it.

There's nothing I can create with this site that hasn't been created a hundred times over if I don't use it to reflect myself and my work in whatever way those show up. So I'm going to forego the typical marketing speak because there are thousands of agency and designer websites that are full of it and they all say the same thing. Creative. Inspiring.Passionate. Unique. Knowledgable. Personal. Data driven. Timeless. Brand first. You get the idea.

The fact is, we all strive for those ideals and more. And not to disparage anyone, that's our job and I strive for them as much as any. But flashing those words over inspirational images on a website doesn't make them so.

The fact is that marketing and design are simply problem solving and that's what I do. You have a problem. You have a timeline. You have a budget. You're going to ask me to solve your problem quickly and cheaply and chances are I'm going to tell you that I can do it fast but it ain't going to be cheap. Or vice versa. Or you can have both but it's not going to be the prettiest. My goal, however, is the give you a balance of all three and, at the end of the day, to make sure that, no matter what, that problem is solved.

I DO welcome you to the site. And I encourage you to return. But please know that I'll speak plainly and that won't always be happy-go-marketing speak. But it will be honest. And you can add that to the list above. I'm not above the occasional catch-22.