Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Curtis Joseph didn’t start playing hockey until high school, and went
undrafted. Brian Lawton’s name was often used in comparisons to
hallowed hockey legends like Howe and Gretzky. He was drafted #1
overall in 1983 and is considered one of the greatest busts in NHL
history.
Now I know what you’re thinking: “Trev, have you been sniffing paint?
You know this is The Big Orange Slide and not Bar Stool Sports,
right?”. I have not, and I do.
The moral of this NHL history lesson is that even the highest
expectations and the greatest of potential does not a superstar make.
Similarly, some of the greats have come from the most unsuspecting
and unassuming origins.
When I first set out to crack the advertising industry, I was dogged by
an overwhelming unease: I didn’t go to a portfolio school or even
graduate from an advertising program. I felt like I wouldn’t even get
the time of day from an industry that I perceived to value such
education as the be all end all, and that any other experience was
tantamount to being raised by wolves.
And maybe this is the much rumoured over future of advertising. The
background of employees is going to continue to diversify - what
benefits will creative industries reap from these changes? The Slide
has talked before about the changing face of the CW/AD partnership,
what happens when the partnership is between an anthropologist, an
ergonomic engineer and a thesis candidate in Russian lit? So often,
advertisers look for thinkers from outside of the box. What happens
when we get thinkers from a whole different warehouse?