BLACK BAG | Diary of a Creative Director | An exploration of the road to greatness

Do those 20% of the world’s creative people who have inspiring careers think differently about those careers than the rest of us?

In 2005, Diary of a Creative Director™ was created to find out. To that end, David Droga, Founder/Creative Chairman, droga5 and Lee Garfinkel, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, DDB York, graciously shared their time, their stories and their experiences to a sold out house on two evenings in March and April of that year.

In June 2007, Diary of a Creative Director™ went to the International Advertising Festival in Cannes France. There, Tony Granger, Marcello Serpa and Erik Vervroegen allowed us to peek in their career diaries for what became the festival’s third highest attended seminar that year.

Who will be next? Whose career diary would you like to peek into? To cast your vote, please click here, or click on the link following the transcripts and video clips from the diaries below.

Tony Granger Worldwide Creative Director Y&R

“…If you have very defined goals and a very defined mission, then everything you do has meaning. Every decision that you make, has meaning, everyone you employ, has meaning, every idea you create, has meaning…”

Marcello Serpa CEO, Creative Director ALMAP/BBDO

“…If you produce a lot of ideas, you’re going to find good ones in there. It’s about amount. It’s about quality. Quality comes from quantity. In the creative process…”

“…invest in your portfolio and one day you'll be able to do exactly what you want. You'll have the freedom to choose the agency, freedom to move from one country or another or the freedom to get lots of money…”

David Droga | Worldwide Chief Creative Office | Publicis Ltd. | Monday, March 21st, 2005

“…If you want people to be straight and loyal to you, you’ve gotta be straight and loyal to them. I do have high expectations of people that work for me. I’m very hard. I’m fair, but I’m hard…”

Lee Garfinkel | Chairman and Chief Creative Officer | DDB NY | Monday, April 18th, 2005

“…I'm a really big believer that your first or second job can really make who you are. You can be really imaginative but if you get bad Creative Directors at the beginning of your career they can point…”