Why I Left Advertising, Part One

I still miss the all-nighters, feverish with stale coffee and the sunken but tenacious eyes of my team as we hurtle toward an imposing client deadline first thing in the morning or a prestigious award show entry cut-off complete with perfectly-mounted large-format prints and a flawless virtual look-book. I still miss the hum of a creative session as new ideas and possibilities blossom around the table so suddenly like spring flowers made of sparks, and everyone knows that the idea has just entered the room. I still miss the endless task lists, managing 12 or maybe 16 jobs at once - magazine ads, web banners, website concepts and – oh yes, that poster you’re designing for the office-wide bake-off is due by EOD – as my faithful copywriter finally passes me those headlines they’ve been crunching on for days and I hear my Creative Director making their afternoon rounds of critiques and hope against hope that what I’ve got on my screen is up to snuff.

Before I jumped into making with my hands full-time, I had spent over a decade with ‘making’ of a different sort, in the world of advertising. I had made it to the level of being a Senior Art Director before that industry saw my exit, with tenures in two of the finest agencies in my state, a few awards, some amazing work and a handful of now-defunct websites, and a great deal of experience and friends to show for it. I had made a living at being creative, but it wasn’t the sort of living that really made me feel alive.

I want to share my journey, with its highs and lows, with the hopes of, yes, encouraging any of you in my position to reconsider your own life’s trajectory and maybe make a long-overdue change, but perhaps more than that, to repudiate somewhat the so-called ‘promise’ of our day that if one simply does that which makes one happy then every day is ‘play’ for you and not ‘work’, and maybe even make a case that, as I learned long ago in the dregs of depression, that there is joy on the other side of obedience.

Throughout my tenure as a designer, I wavered between enjoyment, despair, cynicism, downright laziness, and excellence, all in their varied seasons and none of which, particularly the negative ones, were my chief reason for leaving. So that begs the question, as some close to me still cannot fathom, why would I leave a safe, well-paying career founded on creativity, with impressive public visibility, clear trajectory of advancement, and plenty of opportunity for accolades? I wish I could say it was as simple as ‘following my bliss’, but nothing is ever that simple in my experience. In truth, it was a cloud of different seasons and dare I rhyme, reasons, which, when they all showed up bubbling and seething together, finally compelled me in a moment of rare mental clarity to take the leap that not everyone has the opportunity to take: to pursue something I truly wanted.

And so, that’s how I’ll explore things from here, starting in Part Two with the different seasons I endured in my career, continuing in Part Three to explore my reasons for leaving and to end with Part Four where I will attempt to impart what wisdom, if any, I’ve gained along the way. Stay tuned, dear readers!