I am excited to moderate this presentation/chat between two Young Guns tonight at the Art Director's Club. First of all, I am a big fan of their work. Justin Meredith is the Creative Director and Founder of Thornberg & Forester, a New York-based award-winning creative boutique whose clients include Target, Discovery Channel, and Microsoft Zune. Rei Inamoto is Chief Creative Officer of AKQA an innovative, ideas-led agency who have three times been selected as Agency of the Year.
What binds these two together tonight, is that they are both recipients of the ADC Young Guns distinction. There are a variety of awards to win in our business or in the creative field. Some are for design, some for content, and some as businesses, but they all mainly look back in time and acknowledge the work you have done previously. Now, don't get me wrong, I'd be happy to win any award with our team out there. I'd even take gold stars on our cubbies, an attendance award, or participation award if I still could. But the best part about being a Young Gun is that while it shines the spotlight on where you are as a creative, it also puts you in a special place of highlighting where you will be and your impact the future of creativity. The Young Guns award is one of the few that identifies and nurtures talent.
Tonight we will hear from two Young Guns. Rei Inamoto is from the YG4 Class and Justin Meredith is from YG6 Class.
I had the opportunity to work with Justin Meredith and his dry sense of humor before he was a Young Gun, post-Trollback but pre-Thornberg & Forester where over the past couple years as Creative Director and Founder he has created great visual design, branding, animation and short form content for clients such as Microsoft Zune, Xbox, Arnold, BBDO, Discovery, and TBS. His self-proclaimed goal when first starting in college was to be the next Kyle Cooper, creating title sequences and film work. Over the years, working with various clients and brands on everything from television branding, commercials, and short films, he perfected his ability to work with those clients and develop ideas with the same sort of vigor as his approached his personal work. It would seem that he has departed a bit from his initial goal, but it is easy to see that it is still there. With Thornberg & Forester's work you can see his dedication to simple, direct, and strong ideas, easily bouncing between a variety of execution methods, delivering a range of humor and drama.
I haven't had the opportunity to work with Rei, although, like many others I am a huge fan. It is hard not to see or take part in their work online for Coke's "Happiness Factory," Nike's photoID, their Halo 3 campaign, or a variety of other experiences for leading global brands. Before AKQA as Chief Creative Officer and Executive Creative director at R/GA, in a time before it was customary for students to be multi-talented, Rei studied art, design, and computer science. Even though computers were used as an expressive tool and advancing quickly, he was able to see how to use technology to blur the line between analog and digital. His work continues to push creativity agnostic of medium as an idea-driven mix, taking cues from typography, architecture, animation and user experience. While his background is un-traditional, he has been able to (maybe unwittingly) create the mold for future creatives, and with his diverse background, he is leading the charge helping the worlds biggest brands innovate.