Bit on the side: Inspiring Little Legends

Interview by Delia Liang.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? How did you get into advertising?

I live in Sydney with my partner and two kids – 7 and 4. Grew up in a creative family, but went to a creativity-stifling school. Never thought I’d have a creative career. But here I am, around 20 years into a career in advertising as a writer. I became interested in advertising while studying psychology at uni. Doing well at AWARD School was my ‘big break’. For the last 12 years I’ve been a freelance creative working for a bunch of really great agencies and clients.

Children’s books - how did all of this come about?

I think we can all relate to the way, as creatives, our creativity will manifest itself in a variety of ways – not just through the briefs we’re given at work.

I’ve always enjoyed working in advertising, but this comes from a love of ideas, language, comedy, story, music, etc. and the joy that comes from ultimately witnessing the communication of ideas and their impact … a laugh, a smile, a moment of contemplation. Early in my career I used to make short films on the side. When children came along, I realised I had a captive audience who would give me very honest and visceral reactions in real-time to silly stories, jokes and songs that I would make up.

From a more practical point-of-view, I am also incredibly lucky to have a wife who is not only a brilliant creative, but who was beginning to make a name for herself as an illustrator. Silly ideas and illustration are a match made in heaven.

What’s it like working with your wife?

She’ll probably read this, so … it’s really great. But, cutting the bullshit, just like anything, there are pros and cons. If I can relate it to my advertising work, my art director of 12 years and I have a very respectful relationship. We probably choose our words quite carefully. Not true of my wife and I … It’s much more direct! Oh, and of course, it never switches off. But because it doesn’t just happen between the hours of 9 and 6, we’re constantly feeding off each other and that makes us quite productive.

What’s been the biggest challenge so far producing children’s books?

There are two aspects to the way that we produce books. One is through a publisher – Harper Collins – here in Australia. This is a really creatively pure process. Beck and I only have to worry about making each book as good as we can. So, on this front, the biggest challenges have been creative ones.

The second aspect to the way we produce kid’s books has been by starting a little publishing business in the US called Alphabet Legends. We sell alphabet books that are designed to inspire and educate. The brand essence, if you like, is: Inspiring children is as easy as ABC. This stems from an idea of Beck’s where she visually turned every letter of the alphabet into a different Australian cultural icon. We’ve blown the concept out into a growing library of alphabets. The biggest challenge here, has been setting up a business. It’s taken 18 months to finally feel like we are just getting over the first big hump.

Any fears when you first started? How did you deal with them?

When you start out, you have nothing to lose. Then shit gets more real. I mean, there is a thriving industry that exists around helping creative people who have had success with a film or a book or whatever, tackle the fear and analysis-paralysis that exists around that next project.

So, I guess you start to believe that people have expectations of you and that each piece of work has to be better than the one before it. This can fuel you, but it can hinder you as well.

In regard to Alphabet Legends. The biggest fear was/is around capital investment. We had to decide how much we believe in this business idea and attach a monetary value to that – an amount of money that we’d be willing to lose. It’s something we’ve not really done before, and it’s terrifying.

Being a married couple probably helps in dealing with these fears. That’s because we can really talk about our feelings. So, I guess if we were having fears that the book we were working on was going to turn out sub-par, or if we were nervous about committing more funds to the business, discussions about this stuff could go on for days or even weeks inside the home until we felt we’d arrived at a resolution.

How do you find having a side project? Is it hard to juggle with work?

I absolutely love having a side project – I think it’s very healthy for the soul. As advertising creatives (in the industry as it currently stands) I think we all know that we have a ‘best before’ date. It’s nice to know that I may have found something that could be my next full-time thing, one day. And no, I don’t find it hard to juggle. Publishing moves slowly, and I find whatever is pressing in book-land can wait till what’s more pressing in ad-land is done.

Do you think we all have a “best before date” or is it just something we tell ourselves for fear of becoming less relevant?

A "best before date" is a fact of life. But, unfortunately, it seems to come prematurely in advertising. I think it's time the industry addressed this issue.

I mean in many creative fields – architecture, the fine arts, etc – you're meant to get better as you get older, well into your 60s and beyond. I'm looking at some of the people I admired and learnt from growing up in the industry, and they're struggling with this very issue. So, is there a "best before date"? I think so. It's not a precise age or a hard and fast rule, but advertising still seems to be a young person's industry.

Which book is your favourite so far?

Here in Australia, we’ve published three so far. I think my favourite is called If I Was Prime Minister. It explains to children that the role of the PM is to make our country as great as it can be, and then encourages them to think about what they might do to make Australia better if they were given the chance. The feedback on this title has been great, and kids in schools right around the country have enjoyed engaging with it. That makes us smile.

Do your kids provide feedback? What have you learnt from them?

It’s funny. Beck and I do a book, launch it, then move on to the next one. As a result, despite reading time with the kids being a big thing in our house, our books are not a big part of that.

I constantly learn from my kids. You can’t help it – it’s impossible to not see the world through their eyes as they grow up.

What’s in the pipeline?

We’re working on our fourth book for Harper Collins. And Alphabet Legends is always expanding its library – I’m keen to get Guitar Legends Alphabet up.