Steve Paskin’s Advice Is to “Keep Adding More Moats”
“I’m just happy I have something in common with Ryan Gosling and Brandon Flowers,” says Steve Paskin, Publicis•Poke’s creative director. As it turns out, the creative was raised in a Mormon household, eventually relinquishing being ‘Elder Paskin’ to pursue the arts – something that he showed promise at from a young age.
“The only thing I had a talent for at school was art,” says Steve, “I wasn’t very good academically. My dad worked in a chemical factory, but he was a very talented artist in his spare time, and my mum was into poetry and creative writing, so I had a relatively creative upbringing.”
During his school days, Steve’s talent for art was channelled towards the local manufacturing industry, not adland. “My school’s ambition for me with my talents was for me to work in the art department of one of the factories in the Northwest,” he explains, with Vauxhall or Van Leer as the options on offer. “I went to Shell for a while to try it out. The art department was a tiny basement with two old men in it. We spent our days making birthday cards for the workers and new ‘Mind Your Head’ signs.”
With the factory environment not being the ideal fit, Steve decided he would probably be better off at art school instead. Beginning down the fine art path at Plymouth University, he eventually landed on graphic design as his course of choice. “A friend of one of our lecturers was an account man at Gold Greenlees Trott [GGT] in London. He set a brief for us with the prize for the winner being a month’s placement at the agency. My partner Stuart Richings and I won,” says Steve.
When he reached the GGT offices and took in the relaxed nature of people “laughing and joking in corridors, and jotting down scribbles on layout pads” he was sold – though it was definitely harder work than he initially thought. “I didn’t realise at the time how lucky I was to be at that agency at that time. GGT was the place everyone wanted to work at.” With this knowledge in hand, he went back to university armed.
“I took Dave Trott’s, ‘How to Get Your First Job in Advertising’ booklet back to art school and almost caused a mutiny by telling all the students to jack the course in and get to London and start knocking on ad agency doors.” This was when his Mormonism truly died and turned into “pure hedonism,” according to him
In those initial days, while working at HHCL, Steve began to really flex his creative muscles. But it wasn’t all easy. One memorable MTV print campaign became a learning curve and lesson to remember as he explains, “I love music and at the time collected the magazine Ray Gun and was a big fan of David Carson. I put a lot of effort into crafting a campaign of ads with wacky pictures and mental typography and I proudly took them to show Steve Henry expecting his considerable mind to be blown. He looked at them and said, ‘They’re a bit MTV, aren’t they.’”
The comment initially left him deflated, but after the sentiment sunk in, he knew what needed changing. “A few days later I presented him with something the opposite of what you would expect from MTV. I think in the end we ended up somewhere in the middle, but it was a good lesson,” says Steve. Along with this, he also makes a point to shout out one person in particular, who he learnt a great deal from. “Nearly everything I know about art direction I learned from Dave Dye when he was my head of art at Leagas Delaney. It all stays with you.”
In his current role, Steve has been part of growing the Publicis•Poke team to what it is today. With Tourism Ireland, Buxton and Essity as recent clients, he’s also worked on campaigns for the likes of Pepe Jeans, adidas and British Airways in the past. Through his work, he’s learnt from his colleagues at several agencies – Leagas Delaney, M&C Saatchi, Glue, Iris, and Droga 5 – to create work that connects, but across them, there’s one thing that he believes makes the work shine.
“I think the key is hard work,” he says, “Everyone has to be at the top of their game and really passionately want it to happen. Behind every great piece of work that has made it out into the world, there’s a team of people in every department who have grafted, worked late, gone above and beyond, and hustled to make it happen. I think it’s the same for every agency.”
For Steve, a particular piece of work he’s proud of is a campaign created by him and his then-creative partner Simon Brotherson for the Stella Artois family, Artois Bock – which won a Silver Pencil at D&AD. “We visited the town of Leuven in Belgium to research it and soak up the Belgian vibe,” says Steve. “After reading about the brewmaster Edmund Willems who invented the beer it was apparent that this man was a punk in brewing. He’s broken lots of brewing rules to create this beer. Back in London, we wrote a campaign telling the story of this real maverick brewer.”
With Nadav Kander shooting a beautiful set of portraits referencing the style of the time – the futurist movement filled with multiple exposures and superimposed negatives – Steve led the art direction and worked hard to make the layouts work with the headlines and copy. “In the end, I made the shots smaller. There was also a similar movement experimenting with typography at the same time and it seemed logical to use this style.
“The two different typefaces clashing together represented the two different yeasts the brewer used which was not the normal thing to do. It’s the campaign I use when I lecture students about art direction because it’s an art direction idea on top of the advertising idea. They could have been big headlines on a blank page and still worked as ads, but might not have had the bit that grabs your attention or keeps you engaged.”
Given the lessons he learned during that campaign and throughout his career, Steve is passionate about supporting the next generation of creatives as he goes about his day-to-day role as creative director. “There are so many things that you have to learn in addition to what you’ve learned at uni when you start working in an agency. Time management. Presentation. Editing work. So, I try to impart some of the knowledge I’ve picked up over the years,” he explains. An advocate for coming into the office, he feels that there are vital lessons to be learnt from encounters you have with people within an agency.
“It’s also about encouraging people to develop their own style and ways of doing things,” he says. “I’ve got a large knowledge of photographers, illustrators, directors and musicians, and I do suggest people, but it’s important for people to build up their own network of people they like and want to work with so It’s about being supportive of that.” For example, as the agency is set to relaunch placement schemes, Steve has been coordinating with the different agency teams across the office to support this.
Someone who’s never stopped learning, he says that in those early days, he was fuelled by a competitive ethos. “Every creative department wanted to smash their rivals,” he says, mentioning the creative team of Richard Flintham and Andy Mcleod who personally inspired him. “I feel like the competitiveness has disappeared a bit and I’m not sure creatives have creative heroes nowadays, but my advice would still be to keep moving forward and getting better. If you are an art director, become a great writer too. If you’re a writer, study editing or Photoshop.”
Steve says this ethos of self improvement is ingrained within the Publicis Groupe, where everyone’s been given the tools to create for themselves. “We’ve all been taught how to use Premier Pro so we can make our own case studies or mood films to help sell our ideas. I think this kind of initiative is great.” Steve explains that, “The billionaire Warren Buffet talks about building a moat around yourself for protection and the best moat you can have is your own talent.”
With the passion he has for the industry, it’s no surprise that many of Steve’s hobbies centre around him being a creative. “What really excites me is the idea of having my own brand, so I spend a lot of my free time thinking of ideas and putting decks together of drinks brands, food brands, fashion brands, all sorts. I’m extremely envious of people like Sofia Prantera and her brand ‘Aries’ and Mike Cessario’s ‘Liquid Death’.
“I also spend a lot of time going down various music rabbit holes. Putting a deck together for a new brand that I’ve invented whilst discovering new music is my idea of a good night in.”
And when reflecting on what he’d prioritise if he was starting out once again, Steve says, “My advice is just to keep adding more moats.”
