5 Minutes with… Shayne Millington

Shayne> I loved thinking about things. I loved coming up with stuff. I loved design. I loved colour. But I was really, really bad at drawing and painting. I felt that I couldn’t go into a career that was around art because everything I knew was full of illustration and painting, sculpting. I was very upset because that’s what I wanted to do as a kid. I was very focused, I had dyslexia, which was undiagnosed at the time. Reading was very difficult for me but I loved geometry, spatial relations. I knew that I wanted to go into something to do with art but there wasn’t anything for me.

I’m dating myself a bit, but Adobe had just come out when my guidance counsellor, oddly enough, suggested a class at the vocational school on graphic design. It was like a giant light bulb went off. There was typography, design, I didn’t have to draw with my hands, I could create on the computer. I was hooked. And from that I went on to the School of Visual Arts and the best classes I had were conceptual. It was coming up with new thinking, rather than just replicating what you see with your eyes.

Shayne> It definitely wasn’t on my radar. It wasn’t on anyone’s radar unless you knew someone in the business. Graphic design wasn’t as prevalent as it is now – with social media you see people creating their own posters and websites and things like that. The idea of layout and design was brand new to me and I ate it up. I was at college in New York City, the Mecca of creativity so I was able to immerse myself in the street art culture and MOMA and Guggenheim and Cooper Hewitt, which was my favourite. None of that was around in Jersey, where I grew up. My mother was hugely into design, there were always interior design magazines round the house and she loved going to museums, she brought me through it and exposed me to that but it was more of a traditional art field than advertising and design. 

At college I went into graphic design and then I learned about advertising and that was the second light bulb moment, when everything fell into place. I ended up doing a double major in design and advertising. Advertising became my first love. It was obvious. Anyone who knew me as a kid knew that’s where I was meant to be. You can tell stories, you can be heartfelt, you can be funny, you have a voice that you never would have had before. I feel very lucky to have gotten in when I got in and be able to make the impact that I can now. 

Shayne> The way I came up through it was so stripped down, if you think about it now. My son is putting together decks for his book reports, with gifs and videos embedded. The way he looks at that is the way I looked at Adobe in the beginning. 

I spent hours and hours on the computer. A little known fact about me is that I struggle with reading at times, but my absolute favourite thing to read are instruction manuals. I’m obsessed with them. If I get a new product, even if it’s a coffee maker, I’ll read the instruction manual. I love it! I love knowing what every single button is for. Once I read the manual for one of my cameras and I called up and told them all of the mistakes that were in the manual; they had to reprint it. I ate that stuff up. I love the technology and the art. 

Shayne> Because I can’t draw I always felt like a bit of an imposter in the art field. At the time when art directors were drawing their own storyboards I had to figure out a different way, so that’s how I got good at the technology side. That ended up benefiting me in the long run. Same thing with struggling with reading – I always found a way to hide the things that I was more embarrassed about and not let people know that about me.

And the same thing comes with being a woman in advertising. I came in at a time where there weren’t many women at all, certainly not in senior positions. I dress like one of the boys. I’m not into sports, but I acted as if I was because that would get me into the groups that would be doing the funny work, the cool ads. I had to put a bit of a different face on myself to fit in. Whenever I looked at something that made me feel like an underdog or revealed pieces of my personality that I deemed as embarrassing I found a work around and it benefited me.

Shayne> I’ve definitely become stronger as a result of it. I see obstacles as things I can overcome. I also feel as though I’m a person who wants many different perspectives on things. I don’t think it’s one way in. 

I also feel, though, I’m very maternal so when I have younger creatives or a group that I’m with, I try the best that I can to help them through. I think everybody has a bit of that imposter complex, no matter how good or big you become. I’m a bit of an open book now and I hope that helps people I mentor. I don’t have much of an ego; I’d rather have people in my group get credit instead of me. It has perhaps held me back at times, but you have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the day. I’m happier with sharing credit rather than taking it all.

Shayne> I think that’s true. I think it has become more inclusive and much more collaborative and I’m happy about it. But I think that those stereotypes are still there. The stereotypes of putting certain people on certain accounts because of the way they look or their personality is still there. I think we’ve gotten a lot better but I think that there’s still unconscious bias when it comes to what people think when they see certain people enter in the room. I would love to see that change and I think there is still a double standard. 

We just did a thing with Katie Sowers [coach for American football team and Super Bowl finalists the 49ers] for Microsoft for the Super Bowl. And the whole team lost. The whole of the 49ers lost. And she got so many negative tweets about being a woman in football and that people should rethink letting women in football. She got them to the Super Bowl. 

I have had a lot of amazing support though. I know we were talking about times I’ve tried to hide things about myself and how that’s made me stronger, I have also had supportive people in my career. I’ve had a lot of strong women in my career and McCann has been one of the biggest supporters in my career for sure.

Shayne> I am very open. That’s just the way I was brought up, from an Italian, New Jersey family. I had a working mom as a kid and, with three kids, she put herself through a Masters programme and PhD. My grandmother was the first female Teamster official. I had a lot of strong women in my life and I owe them everything, and a really supportive dad as well.

In my career I had people like Kerry Keenan, who I owe a lot to. She pushed me to be better, but also told me not to apologise. I think a lot of my biggest support here has been Sean, Tom and Rob. They’ve mentored me in a different way. I think they saw stuff in me that maybe I didn’t see myself. 

All of my teachers at SVA were men, but they were supportive. Richard Wilde [recently-retired chair of SVA’s BFA Advertising and BFA Design] in particular. I had already got a job at Deutsch while I was still at school and I said, ‘I think I’m done? The whole point of going to college was to get a job and I’ve got this incredible one’. He developed a plan with me so I could get credit for the work I was doing outside of school and I could graduate early. I’ve had some great, supportive partners over the year.

Shayne> Obviously I’m going to say Changing the Game. As a mom, as a human, to get that product out into the world went past advertising and was about doing the right thing. It created a level playing field, and not just with gaming. More so, to be able to show the world that you don’t have to put people in silos.

These kids were on the Super Bowl right next to Doritos and Pepsi, showing them as the inspirational people they are. They’ve had a lot to deal with and they were the ones inspiring myself and millions of others.

I know we look to awards and they’re very important for the growth of creativity and to recognise excellence in our craft, but when that went out and we were getting letters back from kids and their parents saying what that meant to them, to be treated like everyone else. I didn’t care if it won any awards – I felt like I had won ten times over. It was such an emotional project and it will stay with me for ever.

As a team, we all got a lot of stronger. Both the client, Kathleen and Diana, and the team here, we got a lot closer. It wasn’t about looking at charts, we just kept doing what we felt was right. There was no media bought for the Super Bowl, we didn’t plan on doing our holiday spot around it – we just did what we thought we should do. 

LBB> It’s interesting that the past year has seen McCann really take inclusivity and disability seriously in their work. As well as Changing the Game, there’s been IKEA ThisAbles out of McCann Israel and the Dementia Society work from McCann London… 

Shayne> It was beautiful this year at Cannes to see all of that being celebrated alongside everything else. That felt really good. If anything technology is going to be able to bridge that gap. ThisAbles was beautiful and showed how, without different perspectives, you wouldn’t have been able to come to these solutions. That’s why inclusivity and diversity is so, so important. That’s the only way we’re going to come to new thinking. When I came to advertising there was probably one perspective and one sense of humour. Now when you go to Cannes, you see that changing. 

Shayne> Anyone who knows me knows I have two kids. I have a house full of boys. We also got a puppy right before we went to Cannes – brilliant timing!

I’m passionate about a lot of things. I love photography – I’m always with a camera to the point that people get annoyed. I’m on the board of the Williams Centre, which is in my town in Rutherford, trying to save this old Vaudeville era theatre. It’s beautiful, it’s got original crystal chandeliers. I’ve been involved with that for two years, trying to get it restored to original beauty. I run when I get the chance.

I work a lot and there’s no denying that. My family is my absolute number one priority. It’s hard being a working mom. I always feel as though I’m not giving enough so when I do have down time generally I spend it with the kids and try to expose them to as much as I was exposed to as a kid. Shutting down the TV, going to museums, travelling a lot. 

Shayne> Oh my God, I would say so!  I love, love, love colour. So much so that my favourite gift this year was my husband got me a faux fur lemon yellow coat. I don’t think I own a pair of black pants! I’m usually in some sort of colour. The kids are dressed like little colourful M&Ms constantly. Colour’s the way I express myself. I’m pretty down to earth but colour is how you see my mood. I enjoy it. 

I love colour and pattern. They’re part of my toolkit, they’re what I’ve leaned on as an expression of what I was trying to communicate.