Once upon a time in a small agency, this happened.
The brainstorming session was over. The CCO turned back to his laptop. Team went back to their desks. A young art director, fairly new to the industry, hung around, leafing through the CCO’s collection of books on the other side of the cabin.
A while later, the CCO turned around, looked at him for a few seconds, and said.
“You know, you scare me.”
To which, the art director replied, “Why, what happened?”
He responded by saying, “You are an art director who reads. That’s dangerous.”
And the CCO laughed. The art director wondered why.
The CCO was from the copy side of things.
That incident gets me thinking to this day. The common belief goes that there are primarily two breeds in our line of work: Art and Copy.
But I think there is a third one too. Let’s call it the Hybreed.
The art person who is adept at copy too. Or the copywriter who has a natural talent in deciding the apt look for her or his ideas.
It doesn’t stop there. Hybreed has a broad range that goes beyond the standard art-copy combo.
So it could be a strategist from the design industry who is also very good at designing the perfect identity for a brand design project as well as making cool furniture using wooden planks and plumbing pipes.
Or the designer from the events industry who also gets the finer nuances of digital plus the ability to experiment with print advertising.
The combinations are endless.
Hey, there could very well be a person who has the ability to grasp problems across advertising, marketing, design, business, digital, illustration, animation, typography and what have you.
They may not be specialists, or generalists. Hybreeds are beyond these labels. Their focus is always on finding a clear definition of the problem, which would then inform the way ahead.
Now the usual way is to find a certain specialist and then let them do their thing, because the project calls for a certain way of thinking and executing. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Hybreeds don’t challenge that notion. But to completely detach oneself from those parts of the project one is not “great” at is something that they are uncomfortable with. They’d like to know the process, the little details involved, because they believe eventually it will help them solve problems in a better manner.
As I am writing this, I remember one more incident at a big network agency that someone told me about. There was this guy, definitely a Hybreed. He was good with art, copy, illustration and design. Comics too. The thing is the agency didn’t know what to do with him, since they had no specific title or role for this kind of a guy. And he had difficulty slotting himself into one wherever he applied. I hope he has found his place in the industry, and continues to create awesome stuff.
Specialists. Yes, they have their place in the world. But what about those people, who have an avid interest in some or all the disciplines that a certain industry offers? Not masters, but not generalists too, because they are curious, and they keep learning, slowly honing their skills whenever they can, and on whatever they can.
Our industry is all about being a sponge, isn’t it? Absorbing everything that goes around us and then creating magic with it.
How about absorbing everyone too, especially the Hybreed? Of course, in a way they deserve to be. Don’t feel threatened by them. Celebrate them. And the usual slots probably won’t do.
Which brings me back to the first incident. “You’re dangerous.”
Are they? Really?
Not from where I’m standing.
