Account Management

This was a hard decision. The list of six advertising areas didn’t provide me with anything I’m not interested in. But I suppose the account management would make it to the bottom of the list because it seems to stray away farthest from my artistic instincts applicable to creativity.

I do like to be a leader, however, and can imagine working to “get people to say, ‘we are going to find the holy grail for this client.’” (Caley Cantrell). I am a social person, and like to stay in constant contact will all my friends. I like to create Excel spreadsheets for time lines and itineraries, play an intermediary role in contrasting social relationships, public speaking, and making sure each small detail is met in the final product of a group project. “Can I look it all over when it’s complete, please?” is something I may have mentioned in our last group advertising project. It’s not that I’m not trusting of others’ expertise/work, but just want to see it finished with my own eyes to prove to myself we’ve achieve what we needed and desired to achieve.

The lack of focus is least interesting to me about the job. “Focus” in the sense of a task. Creative directors seem to have one big task to complete that fits under the creative umbrella. But account managers must reach into the business of the creative team, client, and competition to a much higher degree. While this role is vital to the ad agency, it doesn’t seem to dive into any one of the areas to a degree like only creative would (even though I understand creatives must also be savvy with the other parties). And I know that if I was an account manager, I would hang around the creative office more than any other office…a potential harm to an employee necessary to tie everything together on the same page.

Creative

Ever since I was a little boy, I have loved to draw and render objects, landscapes, buildings, still lifes, and any other object I find interesting – back then I used crayons, now I prefer Winsor and Newton watercolor and my Series 7 Kolinksy sable brushes. Throw in a Faber-Castel pencil or two, and I’m set for self-entertainment. And my motivation to draw comes from (1.) enjoying the setting, typically outdoors to paint in and of, (2.) studying the subject matter and testing color theory and brush/line strokes, (3.) my interest in balance, composition, form, and aesthetics, (4.) having a final product, and (5.) sharing my work and interests with other people. But I need to state this too: apart from a photograph, it’s impossible to identically recapture (which I wouldn’t want to do anyway) the subject. So, a fair amount of challenge in creatively rendering the subject in a style comfortable to me is the only other way I see fit to record this information “accurately” on paper/canvas/wood.

Following my interests above, it is natural for me to “fall in love” with art, its production, history, and market. Combined with my business venture ambitions, advertising has proven to be a comfortable career path for me. And within this broad advertising field, creative advertising connects with me best.

And to consider it further, my five points above correlate in some respect to the role of a creative advertiser. The advertiser must immerse himself in the product/service to be advertised, study it, apply art principles to visual representations, produce hard and soft materials to represent, and finally, share it with a market.

I have sometimes considered what other areas of study I would pursue if I didn’t have my art…and I really can’t imagine life without it. I am interested in anthropology, history, business, and economics, but my excitement would burn at a lower level with these studies.

I’m an artist and want to apply my artistic knowledge about art history, form, color, layout, aesthetics and so on to market-practical endeavors.

After reading, and only further instilling my need to pursue creative adverting, the chapter in the text on Creativity, I found a couple things of high interest: “how to be interesting.” Like everyone else, I want to be interesting. I didn’t think it was possible to list steps to attain/enhance this character trait. 1. Take a picture daily, 2. Start a blog, 3. Keep a scrapbook, 4. Interview someone for 20 minutes once a month, 5. Read a magazine you’ve never read before, 6. Collect something, 7. Sit in a coffee-shop or café and listen to other people’s conversations, 8. Write 50 words about one piece of visual art, writing, music, and film, 9. Make something, 10. Read.

Awesome. It’s now a new year’s resolution.

Staying interesting MUST be essential to the job description. I can’t imagine a dull creative advertiser. These steps and suggestions are beneficial to anyone entering the career. They simply aim to keep us up-to-beat on our surroundings so that we have a treasure chest full of culture and history from which to pull and apply ideas.

The formate of the resume below is a bit jumbled to fit the format and text limitations of blogspot.

Resume Post

Kyle Hobratschk

35008 North Sunset Trail

Carefree, AZ 85377

480-677-0928

Education

· Southern Methodist University – Dallas, Texas May 2011

· Bachelor of Arts in Advertising

· Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting

· Overall GPA: 3.945

· Honors Program, Southern Methodist University

· Meadows School of the Arts Studio Art Scholarship, granted to students based on artistic skill

· Distinguished Student Scholarship, SMU

· Robert C. Byrd Scholarship, awarded to students from Arizona excelling in academics and activities

· Richter Scholarship, granted to students independently pursuing a focused study,

§ Investigated the Taos, NM art market

· President’s List, Fall ’07-present

· Valedictorian, Cactus Shadows High School, Scottsdale, Arizona, May ‘07

Experience

· Self-Employed Artist, Muralist

o Artwork exhibited and sold:

§ Grand Central Station, Sister Cities International, Summer ‘06

§ Phoenix Home and Garden June ‘05

§ Hidden in the Hills Studio Tour, Sonoran Arts League, North Scottsdale, Arizona November ‘08

§ Out West Art Fest, Cave Creek, Arizona, Juried Show, February ‘09

§ Cave Creek Film and Arts Festival, Arizona, Summer ’07–present

§ www.kylesfineart.com

· Campus Tour Guide, Southern Methodist University Admissions Office

· Vice President, Student Art Association, SMU Meadows, Fall ’08-present

· Director, Illustrator, Arizona Heritage Project, Fall ’05-Spring ‘07

§ Documents Scottsdale war veterans’ stories with The Library of Congress

· Secretary, National Residence Hall Honorary, Fall ’08-present

· Advertising Director, The DEN College Ministry, Fall ’08-present

Activities/Interests

· Voice of Hope, after-school program for under-privileged West Dallas students, Fall ’08-present

· Habitat for Humanity, Spring ’08-present

· Interests include, running, painting plein air, traveling

I cannot believe my blog just posted an advertisement through the Picasso artwork application for Thomas Kinkade's work online at his website. Makes me ill to think I have an association with that artist in anyway. I do not believe him to be the "painter of light" nor the highly acclaimed painter so many naive people have been wrongly led to consider. Him, his cutesy artwork, his lifestyle, art management operations, art morals/values, mass production, etc. just plain make me mad.