Victors & Spoils

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hello and welcome to another installment of an idiot writing about himself. I’m Evan Fry, and I’ll be your idiot for the day. Our company is fresh-baby new, it’s called Victors & Spoils and we’re striving to be the first agency model that is one part ad agency, one part crowdsourcing. We just opened our doors here in Boulder Colorado. I’m not an Interactive Producer and I don’t even play one on TV. I can pretend to be one here or instead we can agree to replace “Interactive Producer” in all these questions with “Creative Officer.” I’m going to go for the latter. Might be a huge mistake.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I hate digital production. I know dick-all about it. Can you see how funny I am? God I bet everyone is just laughing their asses off right now. But seriously folks. I love digital production. Though I can’t really do it as an interactive producer might, given that I’m not in the least bit qualified, I have the utmost respect for those who can. Without them, we’d all be watching TV ads in full-forward via Tivo wishing there was something better in the world of marketing.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I think it’s mostly through forced immersion. Learn by doing action. At Crispin Porter + Bogusky where I spent my last seven years before Victors & Spoils, I basically realized I had to start learning a lot lot more. And in a hurry. So I took it upon myself to pay more attention and not glaze over entirely while all these other talented bastards on projects I was overseeing spouted on and on. That helps a lot. Also what helps is making friends with developers. I’ve got a few actually. And man are they smart. One of them is lead developer on a side project of my own that we launched a couple of months ago called BFA (befuckingawesome.com) – and through turning BFA into reality I’ve learned a lot for sure. Thanks to Chris. That’s his name. He drives a badass ‘Vette too. He has it all. Fucker.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
It starts with a willing and smart client sitting across from us saying something like ‘hey we really want to solve something that we know we have to solve. How do we do that?’ Ideally it’s something where a company realizes that they are deficient in some big overarching realm like social media or mobile. Or maybe it’s something where they want to engage their fans and customers to create something. You never know what could come out of something big and high-elevation like that. Those are the best. When you work together to solve a business problem, everyone open-minded about what the solution may look like or what medium it will use.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Talking. Honesty. Perception. Being observant and listening and making sure everything is a conversation, never a stance of selling this or that.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
This is a great question. I’ve been lucky enough through the staggeringly savvy machine of CP+B to be involved with some really fun launches and high-profile stuff. It’s hard to pick one. The GAP :90 with Spike Jonze is pretty tough to beat though. By today’s standards a complete traditonal-media yawn with no extensions and a total media dead-end. But watching Spike killin’ it was just really awesome.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Is 0 a good answer? It has to be 0.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
I’m a huge fan of Stickies. Macintosh HD > Applications > Stickies.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Everyone is well fed and extremely attractive. There are also at least two dogs there. A ball to toss said dogs. And some Colorado IPA in a cooler. Everyone is smart, positive, problem solving, make-it-happen types. Nobody smokes or bitches about shit.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Listening. Respecting them. But also realizing that the happiest clients are always going to be the ones who are behind successful business solutions and results that catch fire. So sometimes making sure their best interests are met means being really honest and making sure they know I’m coming from a place where I just want to make their brand famous.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Web-platform systems where creatives cherry pick projects from wherever they are, producers execute brilliantly and we continue to move everything forward. Strategic and creative direction are still personal but everyone else is outlaw hired gun. Lots of mustaches and whiskey. Even the women wear mustaches and swill whiskey.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Sometimes going for a bike ride is the best answer.

From Somebody Else

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
The beard is Bryant Florez and the mug on the right is Justen Holter. We are the collective force behind From Somebody Else (http://www.fromsomebodyelse.com). With our knees deep in creative and interactive development, our true obsession is in the collaboration and execution of great work.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
Justen’s love for organization and logic makes him a dev at heart with great appreciation for design and aesthetics. Exploring unique ways to combine his passions, he took to Flash development over 6 years ago and has been living and breathing Actionscript ever since. I, on the other hand, have been doodling, constructing, or designing something ever since developing manual dexterity. After studying Architectural Design, my love for art and animation brought me to Full Sail University where I met Justen and we began collaborating on interactive experiments. Having attended our first industry conference as students, it was at FITC in Toronto where we realized how insanely amazing this industry was and how far we had to go before truly becoming part of it.

After graduating Full Sail, our collaboration continued professionally as we both joined the AgencyNet team. Over the years we climbed the ranks as Art Director and Senior Flash Developer, having produced great work for numerous brands that include Bacardi, Eristoff, BBC America, Oxygen, Roxy Hunter, Beaches, Ford, and the State of Colorado’s anti-tobacco campaigns.

With several years and tons of shared experiences, we left our friends at AgencyNet to set out on our own. We are now From Somebody Else.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Motivation should be considered a requirement! If you find yourself lacking in that department, branch out beyond your niche. It’s a sure way to discover new inspirations and opportunities.

As for keeping up with the Joneses, usual suspects like blogs, friends, conferences, twitter, meet ups, and all things alike are great forums for keeping tabs on what’s hot. Always keep your ear to the ground. Sometimes we simply start our day a couple hours earlier to get caught up with our feeds and get hip to the lingo. When a certain technology is making waves and has the potential to benefit us and/or our client, we simply make it a point to devote some attention to it. We like to try everything that is relevant to our field and see how it fits into our arsenal. At times it’s the ideas that inspire the need for new technologies. So when you can, dream up new challenges and unique ways to approach them.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client is this mythical creature that overpays, is never rushed, and will sometimes compensate our hard earned time with tasty treats and fine wine.

In all truth, it's the less than ideal situations that produce the best results. We love our clients to be as passionate about their goals as we are about meeting them. All we ask is for an open mind and mutual transparency. Clients and projects are supposed to challenge us. If this were easy, there would be a colossal lack of awesome in our industry.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Transparency is always our best policy. Regardless of the challenge, we keep an open mind while remaining forthright about what’s truly within reach. Many times it’s not just what the client wants but what you can do for them that will make the difference. We are very transparent about our process and what we need to be successful. It takes that collaborative relationship to make things happen and arrive to the best results possible.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Hands down our favorite project has been while we were working at AgencyNet, “Own Your C – C-Ville” (http://cville.ownyourc.com/) and “Own Your C – 2.0” (http://www.ownyourc.com/). With a fun demographic to speak to and a great team to collaborate with, this project provided a wide net of opportunities to explore. Having played significant roles in its first installment, you can imagine how stoked we were when the opportunity for 2.0 came along. This time around, our demo had matured as did our ideas and methods for execution. This project gave us a playground to experiment all things creative, animation, interactive, and technical.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It depends. At one time, we were wrapping up our biggest Flash project as we started another micro site and some rich media campaigns. Most projects are riddled with slow and chaotic phases, so it’s definitely a balancing act. Certain projects tend to dictate how much of our time and focus is required, thus limiting our bandwidth for anything else. So yeah, it depends.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
Now you’re talking! One thing we LOVE is being organized! There are several tools we use in our production arsenal that keeps us and our projects in line.

We develop all our projects using SVN to maintain versions and effective file sharing. Opting for a hosted solution, we went with the super awesome Spring Loops (http://www.springloops.com). This keeps our heads out of IT and focused on the development aspects of the project. Additionally, it offers some great tools for deploying your projects and notifications. For tasking and bug tracking needs, we use Lighthouse (http://lighthouseapp.com/). With the right workflow, Lighthouse can be the ideal tool for project tasking, milestones, status updates, and reporting. We also love its ability to export CSV docs for our “Plan of Attack” meetings with clients.

We are extremely particular of the tools we introduce into our workflow. For us it’s important to use high impact low overhead tools that keep us focused on what’s important.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Aside from talented creative’s and gifted developers, a crew that has mutual respect and understanding for each other’s skill set and opinions are the simple ingredients needed for successful collaboration. We are huge advocates of the team mentality and look to surround ourselves with likeminded folks, always resulting in a fun experience.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Discovery and Pre-Production phases are the most crucial when setting goals and determining what will work best for our clients and their projects. This provides everyone a proper venue to really explore what’s important and lay down a plan of attack. If the scope isn’t reflective of that then you need to re-evaluate. Once we’re ready to kick things off, we champion forward with transparency and flexibility.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The sheer growth of this industry is one of the biggest things we’ve noticed. It’s moving into this huge space, covering anything capable of recognizing human input. The technology used to produce the future is becoming stronger and more complex with each new platform that comes out. We would love to see this motivate more collaboration between companies and individuals that specialize in a particular offering, and less of the one stop shop mindset.

Then again, the forecast is looking more like augmented social reality, animated GIFs, and WordPress 4.0.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Be nice. Keep it real. Put yourself out there.

Experience Blueprint

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Brooks Martin, Executive Producer at Schematic. Schematic is a world-class interactive agency with expertise in client service, strategy, user experience, design, copy writing, technology, production, and performance metrics. If it’s got a screen, we design experiences for it.

I oversee the business development and production for many of Schematic's emerging platforms. In my role, I focus on cross-platform solutions, ranging from advanced Web, ITV, and set-top applications, mobile and environmental installations to broadcast graphics, Blu-ray, game consoles, and even original, branded content. Over the past 6 years I’ve led over 100 projects for clients and partners such as ABC, Accenture, Adobe, AOL, Blockbuster, Bungie, Cablevision, CNN, Comcast, Dell, EA, EA Sports, Fox, GE, Intel, Mattel, Microsoft, MTV, NBC Universal, NFL Network, Panasonic, Paramount, Sky, Sony, Target, Time Warner Cable, Touchstone, Turner, and Yahoo!

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I came out to LA to go to film school in 2000. Soon after that I jumped to a position in (ahem) documentary television. I worked for Bunim-Murray, the makers of Real World, Road Rules, Simple Life and other shows. There we created the first all-digital post-production environment for reality television, enhancing the workflow for capturing, logging, and editing over 9000 hours of footage, per season, per show. Nutty.

Right before film school, I worked at a web-shop in Nashville, TN (hometown) called Anode Interactive, where I was a Flash designer and client-side developer. We had a good business in the Web, but our real expertise was in kiosk and environmental design. Cut my teeth, won some awards, had some fun.

I still love and miss post-production, and I’ve worked on a few stereoscopic projects in the past year. I can’t wait for 3D to get more traction.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I subscribe to a bunch of news feeds, and using a combo of FeedDemon and Google Reader, I just set watches for certain keywords. That keeps me up to date on a range of topics, but I also subscribe to 5-7 bloggers whose opinions I trust, and I read almost every post. I use those blogs to gauge new and interesting topics that I might also want to follow.

Within Schematic I’ve set up discussion groups around several topics (Ministry of Gesture, Ministry of ITV, etc.), and because e-mail is still a strong part of our company’s culture, people share links that way. Each group also has an intranet-wiki page where we keep links to the best of the best and provide references to internal projects, white papers and other knowledge sharing.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
I prefer clients who involve us as a partner in their solutions. The more burden we bear, the more responsibility we have, the more we know, the more effective we can be with our solutions. Any time I hear “no,” I want a client who is willing to explore the “well, why not” with us.

I prefer two kinds of projects. 1. Long term Digital AOR, where we can have the freedom to bring all of our expertise to the table in a measured, experimental, scientific process to build a robust, engaging, innovative product. 2. Very short term, full-bore blast where we bring our expertise to bear on a prototype that knocks people’s socks off.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Schematic has a rigorous and proven process for delivering quality. We also work on many platforms/projects that are changing as we go, so we have to be very flexible. For the emerging platforms projects we try and encapsulate all of the most up to date knowledge for a project in a living document that we call the Experience Blueprint. This evolving snapshot of our thinking includes information on almost everything from the most basic requirements to future-state design principles. The document becomes an ever-changing manifestation of our rigorous process. In the end, we end up with a massive document, but it’s all in there, everything from the final product to that crazy idea that we had 4 months ago, that, hey, you never know, we might use one day.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
EA Sports UI Rebrand

Back in 2006, EA Sports realized that they were losing brand equity in their Sports titles because of a myriad of design styles and interaction models across all of the different games developed by 8+ studios. EA Sports asked us to envision what the future of the UI could look like in 5 years, how it could work, how it could grow and expand to meet the changing needs of their top gaming titles, but also incorporate new types of media (branded content and partner video, audio and data) into their gaming experience. We presented the vision piece to the heads of the various EA studios, and they all had the same reaction: “We love it, but can we actually do this?” “Actually, yes,” we said, “and you can do it now.” They literally stopped the presses while we spent the next month furiously working away on the global style guide. The result? They launched the updated UI and brand for all of their 07 titles, and it’s still holding strong.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Either 2 big ones or 7-8 little ones. Even the few times that I’ve had just one project, I’ve always needed to have another one in the works.

I’ve been really fortunate/lucky to have remarkable overlaps in projects where a problem that we’re having in one project is solved in another project. I feel that being focused on just one project makes you soft. As an interactive producer, you need that objectivity to come back with a fresh perspective and a new and better solution.

Q: What does your dream team look like?
Creative Director to own the style and vision

User Experience Lead to own the structure and logic of the design

Technical Lead/Solutions Architect to own the platform limits and understanding

Designer to make it all look fancy

User Experience Designer to document the results and ideas

Animator to put all of our ideas into motion and give them life

Project Manager to track decisions, resources, and commitments from everyone

Client partner who is willing to listen, collaborate and be honest with their feedback

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
At the outset of the project, we discover and document the guiding principles to create a solid foundation for all practice areas like creative direction, UX philosophy, technical approach, etc. If we ever have anything that contradicts those core principles, we either use those principles to alter the solution, or we reevaluate the principles. If we change our guiding principles, then we need to check all the work to that point. It takes some work, but it’s all in front of you on paper (or PDF), and it’s worth the payoff. The final document should read like one cohesive, logically structured argument, taking the reader from concept to completion.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
We’ve been practicing for the past 6 years to bring these experiences to a television platform that will do all of the things we’ve been dreaming of. I’m so excited that this time has come. Now we can get started. With the rise of cloud computing and personalization, and the abstraction of the information in between them, I feel like the services we offer will have to account for that abstraction. We’ll have to design for two Webs, the general Open Web and the “Trusted Web” or “Authenticated Web.”

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Write it down. Tag it.

Scholz & Volkmer: Peter Reichard

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, my name is Peter Reichard and I am the Executive Technical Director at Scholz & Volkmer in Wiesbaden, Germany. My agency designs and realizes digital communication solutions for clients like Mercedes-Benz, Panasonic, Coca-Cola, Leica and Swarovski, among others.

Our commitment is to provide clients with 360° digital communications. We therefore cover the areas of attention (e.g. banners, virals), information (web specials, corporate websites), dialogue (CRM), transaction (shops), use (digital products), support (brand communities) and referral (referral marketing).

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
My passion for the digital area began with a fascination of computer games, just like it did for many other people. When I was 15, I had an Atari ST and developed small and actually pretty bad games for it. But what fascinated me right from the start is that you can create something reactive and interactive – out of practically nothing.

While studying industrial design I became aware of the fact that for me, developing and programming was as much fun as prototyping with the saw and milling machine. Well, maybe even a little more – because I later quit college in favour of web development J.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I am convinced that fun is the mainspring of every good solution, especially in the area of creative communication. You only get motivated through positive results. For me, important factors are to have a team that’s fun and capable, a scenario in which everyone respects each other and where you face challenges together.

How we keep our team informed? Well, first of all, I think that it is necessary that people are curious and always interested in coping with the new technologies they have to use every day. At Scholz & Volkmer for example, we have our Intranet called ‘Inhouse’, where colleagues share new highlights with each other. These can be just hilarious viral clips, but also new technology, marketing ideas and so on. With 100 co-workers, you can gather lots of information this way.

Other sources of information and inspiration are fresh talents like freelancers and other agencies. Last year, we also organized a Summer School program: six international students were invited to work with us for a month. I think that such opportunities benefit both sides immensely and offer the possibility for cultural and functional exchange.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client is willing to communicate. And is bold and gutsy.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Well, I have two kids. So I know what a challenge education can be ;-). In my opinion, education is, first and foremost, dependent on trust. It is more a process of growing with each other than taking control over someone else.

For me, basic principles are: don’t promise anything you can’t deliver. Speak clearly and always at eye level. Establish objectives and consequences. Stay fair…. and have fun!

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Wow, that’s a difficult question. But if I had to make a decision, I would say that at the moment, my highlight is a project we realised for Adidas a couple of weeks ago. We developed the world’s first interactive online live event for the sports brand in collaboration with German soccer club FC Bayern Munich. The well-known German actor and comedian Christian Ulmen slipped into the role of soccer fan Frerk Ohm. With Frerk, we produced a five-day interactive web-tv-show where users took control of what was happening: they could submit the craziest tasks on the website and Frerk had to compete in and complete them – live and on-location in Munich.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
If I had a choice: just one. I find it difficult to focus and concentrate otherwise.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
Actually, I haven’t managed to find the Swiss Army knife for organizing my projects. But lots of little helpful tools: Redmine, Moleskine, Mac-Mails to myself and so on.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
That depends, of course, on the project on hand. But in general: two or three people that burn for an idea, that are able to arse around but are also capable of putting their thoughts onto paper – or into the computer.

That could be anyone, really, regardless of their education or current job position: designers, programmers, managing directors, project managers, conceptual designers and everyone else I’ve forgotten.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We use a standardised document for this: the Creative Brief, where all relevant and important information and objectives are gathered and documented on just one page.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Well, I guess that the number of communication modes and channels will expand even more and that agencies and brands will go further and further away from communicating on just one single platform.

Furthermore, I could imagine that two things will keep becoming more important: advertising as pure entertainment as well as extremely user-focused communication.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Although I am already over 40 I’m afraid I don’t really have much wisdom to share yet. Thus I would rather like to quote my wife’s grandmother: Life has no guardrails. This may be a simple fact – but is at the same time a sentence you can interpret and think a lot about. My personal version would be, for example: There is no definitive security in life and be prepared for everything that comes.

And one last thing: It’s not just a job but a big part of your life. So - act responsibly. And…have I already said something about having fun?

Fantastical Elements

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi my name is Jonas Eliasson and I work as a Sr Technical Manager for Fi NYC (www.f-i.com) which is an digital advertising firm. Fi is also the owner of the social media platform, Kontain.com which I have been working with for the last two years.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
My school background is a Bachelor of Computer Science where I used my spare time to develop Flash applications. At the time (2004) very few people realized you could actually do "real" applications with Flash. This naturally lead me to want to work for an Interactive Agency instead of a traditional Software Company.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
The source of inspiration usually changes depending the project I am working on. for the last 2 years I have worked a on Kontain, a social media platform (www.kontain.com). I am working mainly on the server side and its written in Java so I listen to Java Posse’s pod cast (http://javaposse.com) There you will get the latest Java trends and news. Other things we do in Fi is to have monthly presentations/walk-through of Fi and personal projects. These are often technical and are a great way to get new ideas and inspiration.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Full ownership, from back-end technology and implementation to front-end concept and design. And I like long projects. 6 months or longer is ideal. Sometimes we have clients sit in-house with our team during the mission critical parts of the project. I think those are the most fruitful projects.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
At Fi we use Agile software methodology for larger projects which means we break down a project in smaller estimated tasks which you then fill into iterations. An iteration is usually two weeks and ideally the developers only have to think about the current iteration.

If the two week iterations are being delivered on time, you can expect to meet the projected delivery date. However, if you do find the team is not able to finish the iterations on time, the iterative process allows you to catch and fix potential problems early. This method also give the client more control by allowing them to change projected tasks without affecting the overall project time-line. If anyone is interested in reading more about Agile methodology you can check out this link which goes through our process in more detail http://www.kontain.com/fi/entries/25191/fi-goes-agile/

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I must say Kontain.com is the most inspiring project I have worked on. It has all the parts of a project I like. It’s an Internal project which means full control, it’s been ongoing for two years and finally, it is technology challenging. It’s really great to see people use the platform daily and it generates a completely different commitment level for the whole team than any other project I have been part of.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Depends on size. Currently I work on one big project. But a few smaller at the same this is no problem.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
As I am a tech lead and usually have a producer on the same project I focus mainly on two tools. The most important one is Rally (www.rallydev.com) which is a web based application for project, requirement and QA/defect management for agile software development. And of course we use BaseCamp for general team communication and knowledge transfer.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
- Core team

* Producer
* Creative Director
* Interaction Designer
* Interactive Developer
* Application Engineer

If you have that base you know you will get a really stable and creative project both from concept, prototyping to technical architecture and system design.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Its really important to define a clear Statement Of Work (SOW) document. If that document is solid the expectations should be the same from both ends.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think Web applications will keep progressing to all hand held phones and other units such as game consoles. It will create a whole new type of demand on web agencies. More standards, browsers, operation systems that your application, site has to work on.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
A great way to build client relation in my experience is to have a few key players on the client’s team sit in your office working together with you and your team. It can get tricky with privacy but you can build a really strong bond in the production team that might help you to land that retainer contract.

Mr. Brooks

Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi. My name is Frank Brooks and I’m the Director of Production for DDB West in San Francisco.

Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I guess you could say I kinda fell into it. A degree in Forestry that lead to National Geographic Television which lead to stints in commercial production, eventually landing on the agency side. My first experience with digital was at Wieden & Kennedy freelancing on Microsoft and CKone. I moved from there on to Hal Riney and Leo Burnett gaining experience in film production. I’ve always found the intersection between film and interactive an interesting place to be. It’s no surprise that we are graying the lines between digital and traditional production. Our agency is evolving into that space as more creative heads that way and as we push to find better solutions for our clients.

How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Scouring the internet for what is new and different. I find The FWA (http://www.thefwa.com/), iPro and Design Charts (http://www.designcharts.com/) to be a few of the good resources out there. Beyond that, pushing ourselves internally to discover things for the creative’s as they are coming up with the ideas. Trying not to be bound by the same ways of thinking.

What does your ideal client/project look like?
I’d have to say the most recent experience with McAfee was pretty ideal. For a client that has never done something this big before, there was a lot of trust at the onset of the project – which helped create a collaborative environment. The project itself evolved into a feature length documentary with an intriguing subject (the business of hacking), and our production/digital partners where first rate. Everybody involved wanted to make something great, which I think shows in the final product.

How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I’ve always found being honest and up front a good way to go. It’s worked out well in most instances.

What was the best project you have ever work on?
It depends, they work on different levels. Lately, I’d say McAfee’s Stop H*Commerce project we recently completed in conjunction with Tribal DDB. Everything on that just worked – great director (Seth Gordon) and digital production (Firstborn) - and the team was inspired. You can check it out at http://stophcommerce.com/. We have another project in the works for Greenpeace that I’m excited about as well.

How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
To be honest, I believe in less rather than more - no more than two. I find producers to be an important creative addition to the process - which is hard to do with too many projects on ones plate.

What does your dream production team look like?
A realistic production schedule, combined with something never been done before, add an enthusiastic team who believes in what we are doing and a willingness to do what it takes to make something amazing.

How do you ensure that your client’s best interests are met?
Making sure they feel part of the process. I’ve found some of the best work we’ve done is when we’ve had a trusting client who believes in the creative idea as much as we do. When those things are in place, most of the time the clients come out happy.

What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think we will continue to blur the lines between traditional and digital.
I am seeing longer form content ideas surfacing. Clients seem to be re-discovering the notion of “brought to you by” or “sponsored by” messaging, along with development of a longer form piece. It’s a trend I hope to see more. Oasis “Dig Out Your Soul In The Street”, Philips “Carousel” and Sagami Condoms “Love Distance” are some of the recent good examples.

Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers?
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club”
-Jack London

Tools: Behance Action Method

Overview
At Behance, we believe that there are too many ideas, and not enough action. Based on interviews with hundreds of the world's most productive creative professionals, Action Method Online was designed as a radically different approach to task management; a simple system for making ideas happen.

Design is a critical element of the Action Method. The products and services developed by Behance to help people practice the Action Method are based on the belief that good design is great for productivity; and that progress in any project ultimately comes down to simplicity in taking action.



Features
All of life can be divided into "projects" - the categories we use in our minds to separate and make sense of what we need to accomplish (e.g. "the party I'm planning," "client X," "event Y," "finances"). The program's based on the idea that a few fundamental elements are necessary in completing these projects:

- The Action Step: a task that needs to be completed
- References: notes, sketches, designs, etc that give your Action Steps context
- Backburners: fantastic ideas that you'd like to act on in the future, but don't quite have time for at the moment
- Discussions: enable you to manage ongoing conversations with a variety of collaborators

AMO combines these elements into an intuitive interface that can be accessed directly via the web.

For more, see here http://www.actionmethod.com/Tour



Benefits
AMO is simply one of the most easily adoptable task management systems out there; it's based soley on the fact that action should be at the center of any endeavor.