VCU Brandcenter Archives — Kevin Rothermel

VCU Brandcenter Graduation, 2022

May 18, 2022

Last Saturday marked graduation day at VCU, and we were able to have a very normal feeling graduation for the first time since the class of 2019 graduated. 2020 didn’t happen for obvious reasons. 2021 was in-person, but somewhat limited. It was good to get back to giving our graduates a proper send-off.

That’s Vann Graves up front, giving them the final push.

Philippe Krakowsky, CEO of IPG, was the Commencement Speaker. Hermon Ghermay, Global Chief Culture Officer of IPG Mediabrands and Director’s Council member, was there as special guest. They both offered incredibly smart and thoughtful remarks.

After the ceremony, I wrote to the rest of the faculty that it was great seeing this class through and watching them able to celebrate as a group. They arrived in August of 2020. Before we had vaccines … barely after we learned that we didn’t need to be bleaching our groceries before we brought them inside.

Classes were only held in the two biggest rooms we had … one of which was a common area that was converted. Students had to sit six feet apart, they had to wear masks, and because we had some students who were joining class via Zoom, the professors had to use a microphone through a PA so both groups could hear.

It was incredibly hard on everyone. But we got through. And ultimately, this class that began their time with us in insolation, was able to come together and celebrate as one incredibly tight-knit group.

Congratulations to the class of 2022!

If you’re looking to hire, you can get to their portfolios here: https://brandcentergrads.com.

More like yourself

January 26, 2022

VCU Brandcenter Seeking Art Direction Professor

May 22, 2018

One of the best decisions I’ve made was leaving full time agency work to teach at the VCU Brandcenter. Working with interesting people, mentoring creative talent, talking about interesting things, and the opportunity to built a freelance consulting practice.

The hours are great. Your family sees you more. And did I mention the summers? Because we’re off in the summer. Though I’ve managed to fill my summers with freelancing work rather than doing tai chi at the river or learning to paint. Oh well.

Anyways, we’re looking for someone good and interesting to teach Art Direction.

Click through here to see the full job description and apply…

Strategists Have to be Creative.

March 21, 2017

One of the ways I like to see strategy students improve at the Brandcenter is in their willingness to think creatively. There’s a lot written about how we are all born creative, only to have it beaten out of us in school.

We see the results of this first-hand.

Students often arrive for their first year programmed to fill Word documents, as many as possible, with fancy words, as over-written as possible.

The hard work is deprogramming that behavior. Getting them to think again isn’t easy, especially in the context of students who are learning to be art directors and copywriters — the traditional creatives of advertising.

It becomes a zero sum game.

They are creative. We are strategists.

They have ideas. We write documents.

They have been anointed. We do research.

All of which is nonsense. It becomes a comparison mindset fueled by job title and output. And that becomes self-reinforcing, as per Kathryn P. Haydon:

When you’re in a comparison mindset, you inadvertently diminish your own creative ability. You envision Picasso and your highly divergent friends on a pedestal that you cannot possibly ascend. All you can see is yourself standing in the shadows on the lowest rung of your tiny ladder. Creativity looks so far off, so unattainable.

Society has perpetuated the myth that creativity has to be comparative, and if comparative, mutually exclusive: “If Picasso is creative then I am not.” This reasoning is incorrect.

Traditional creatives might be more creative. Some of them won’t be. Either way, it doesn’t matter.

The point is this:

Strategy isn’t about research. It’s about solving problems.

Solving problems, by it’s very nature, is about creativity. It’s about having ideas.

Yes, research should inform those ideas.

But so should observations and movies and culture and life and the world.

Yes, strategic ideas need to be grounded, but they also have to be good enough to to inspire further actions, behaviors or other outputs.

This is where the best strategy comes from, and ultimately, it’s how the best strategists help to make great creative work.

So stop hedging. Pull your head out of your PowerPoint deck, and start having some ideas.