Ryan Boblett’s Uniquely Universal Special Sauce
As head of creative at Fitzco, an independent agency based in Atlanta, Ryan Boblett’s creative responsibilities span every account in the building. Ryan’s work has been recognised across several international competitions, such D&AD, Cannes Lions and One Show, but his first steps into commercial creativity, as a sign artist, weren’t quite as successful.
Prior to Fitzco, Ryan was tasked with building the creative department for Translation’s Chicago office. His career started at Leo Burnett’s global headquarters in Chicago. He is a big believer in craft, collaboration and listening - an approach that he feels helps him understand his clients and fuels his fire for better work.
We tapped Ryan for Creativity Squared, a profile series in which we use the four factors that psychologists have distilled creativity down to, in order to get to know leaders better.
Person
I’ve always considered myself a creative person, but I can point to two pivotal moments that really shaped my creativity. As a kid I spent hours drawing, designing and redesigning my room, and generally just expressing myself however I wanted. When I was in high school, I got my first real piece of creative feedback when I walked into my local Piggly Wiggly and applied to be a ‘sign artist’. The brief? Write ‘Bananas 99 cents’ with the biggest sharpie I had ever seen. I’ll never forget the pimple faced associate’s reaction to my design. “You will never be a sign maker.”
I was shattered. But after a long career as an art director and type lover, he was kind of right. My craft was crap. I knew nothing about hand lettering, layout, kerning, colour. I wasn’t ready. He gave me honest feedback. At the time, I didn’t know how valuable that was.
Fast forward to college. I was studying health and exercise science and still dabbling in creative passions. Senior year I had a quarter credit left to burn so I took a digital art class and absolutely fell in love. I couldn’t get enough. Soaking up the Adobe suite and letting my creativity out in ways that I never had before. Luckily my professor could see it too and he gave me the keys to the lab so I could spend as much time as I wanted there. He believed in me and my creativity. I remember one day at the end of the semester he said, “You should think about doing this for a living.”… wait “Doing what????”. I had no idea what a career in creativity could look like. He eventually pushed me to visit the Portfolio Center (now Miami Ad School) in Atlanta. I listened, took the leap, worried my parents and the rest is history.
A postcard from Portfolio Center, designed by James Victore.
Net Net — Be honest with people and be an advocate. It changed my life. Maybe you could change someone’s too.
Product
I’m lucky — I get to hear creative ideas almost every day. It’s like taking mini vacations inside of very smart people’s brains. Hands down, it’s the best part of my job. When I’m filtering/building work with my team and partners I look for a few things:
1) Is it on brief? You can have the most wildly creative idea in the world but if it’s not answering the brief then it’s not right.
2) Is it uniquely universal? Ok I just coined that but essentially, is the idea based on a universal human truth and is it reframed in a unique way? That’s the special sauce. When you can find an insight/idea that feels familiar but repackage it in a way that feels totally new and exciting… you win.
3) Does it make me uncomfortable to present? I think it’s healthy for every team to bring work that pushes themselves and their clients. The beauty of a bold idea that’s on brief is that it’s pretty hard to poke holes in.
Process
I’ve always loved the quote ‘creativity is intelligence having fun’. It’s so true and I’m fortunate to have spent most of my career having fun with some really brainy people. When people with different perspectives and skills get into a room and kick around an idea the result can be magical. At the start of a project, I encourage creatives to swim upstream and help kick around the strategy. To me, strategists are creative spirit animals. They are literally consuming everything they can about the problem, the category, the opportunity. Creatives should too. Those early conversations always unlock so much for me. I think it’s critical to take in as much information as you possibly can at the start of a project. I essentially deep dive and build a ‘scrap board’ of all the things. Sometimes it’s analogue. Sometimes it’s digital. It’s like a beautiful mind meets a beautiful dumping ground. I like to let it wash over me as I concept/think on a problem because you never know where you’ll find inspiration.
Press
If I could go back and grab a beer with my junior art director self, I would hammer home that you need to care for yourself as much as you care for the work. The advertising industry will take every second it can from you if you let it. It’s a job that you mentally never clock out of because your brain is constantly working. It’s super important to protect time for yourself. It sounds simple, but I had a really hard time pulling myself out of work when I was younger. I worked A LOT but I don’t think I was actually working smart. I wasn’t stepping away and refilling myself. I’ve found that my creativity needs fresh air, visual ‘fuel’ and serendipity to not become stagnant. I talk about this a lot with younger creatives in my department. Truly stepping away from a project from time to time is healthy. Go plant some flowers, fall into a random subreddit, binge trashy TV… whatever. I like to run. I love that I can literally get up at any moment, point a random direction and just go. It clears my head, continually fills me with new visuals/experiences and recharges my creative soul.
