Letter from the President: January 2020

Happy New Year!

2020 is off to a great start with a lot of exciting work being done by the board. I cannot wait to share How It’s MADE with our members and public, on March 5th. This new event series was born out of member feedback after our 2019 Broderson’s Awards, in which the consensus among attendees was; “wow - this work is incredible, how can I know more about what’s being in done in Maine more regularly?” Well, now we can all learn a bit more about the talented creative work in our state.

The series will kick off at Cove St Arts in Portland, a new gallery space offering a unique setting for creatives to gather, surrounded by incredible works of art. The series will be moderated by Tim Nudd, who brings industry experience through years of journalism and content creation. I saw down with Tim this week to learn more about him…

Tim Nudd is a journalist who has written about creativity in business for over 20 years. Since 2018, he has been editor in chief of the Clio Awards, leading all content initiatives for the venerable awards company. Shortly after joining Clio, he launched Muse by Clio (http://musebycl.io), a website and daily newsletter of original stories and guest essays exploring the best in creativity from the advertising world and beyond. Prior to Clio, he was creative editor at Adweek for eight years and was also a longtime contributor to People magazine.

• Where do you live and where do you work?

I live in Cape Elizabeth and work out of my home office. I love the 5-second commute, though occasionally I miss the half-hour of podcast listening time that I used to have on subway rides to work in New York.

• What made you choose Maine?

My wife is from South Portland. She worked advertising jobs in Boston and NYC (where we met) for many years, but she always wanted to move back to Maine. After we had our first kid in NYC, we started looking at the 'burbs in that area. But luckily, Adweek, where I was working at the time, graciously agreed to let me try working from Maine. That was 11 years ago. I've been blessed that Adweek, and now Clio, both let me do my job remotely—though I do get back to NYC a lot.

• Most people know about the Clio Awards, but that is only a portion of what you work on. Can you tell us more about your position and the work you do?

I run all content initiatives for Clio. Primarily this involves being editor in chief of Muse by Clio (https://musebycl.io), which is our website and daily newsletter about creativity. We write about the best creative work coming out of all the industries where Clio has award programs—brand marketing, music, sports, film and TV, gaming, fashion, healthcare and (as of 2019) cannabis. We also publish daily essays on Muse from some of the top creative professionals in the business. Though Muse is a Clio product, it's editorially independent from the awards part of the business. We write about any and all creative work that interests us, whether or not it would ever be enterted into a Clio show.

Beyond Muse, I'm also the de facto public voice of the Clio organization—moderating panels at industry events, giving presentations to agencies, getting the Clio jurors to discuss their careers and their work, etc. I run Muse with one other full-time writer, David Gianatasio in Boston, and one freelancer, Angela Natividad in Paris. They're the best advertising writers I've ever worked with, and I'm thrilled that the three of us have been able to build this new platform together. We're still small compared to the trade magazines, but we like to think we punch above our weight with the best creative coverage in the industry.

• What excites you most about HOW IT'S MADE?

Personally, I'm excited to be involved with How It's Made because I haven't been super close to the Maine advertising community in the decade I've been here. I'm looking forward to meeting more people in the community and learning more myself about how the ad world operates here. More broadly, I'm excited to help celebrate the best marketing work being done in Maine, and to dig into why it's been successful.

• What is it about Maine, in your opinion, that makes our creative industry so strong?

It's hard to put into words, but you can feel the creative mojo here that's been steadily growing over the past decade. You see this in the creative industries that are booming—the restaurant and microbrewery scene is the perfect example. This creative energy seeps into advertising and design, keeps younger people energized and more willing to stay, and attracts galvanizing talent from elsewhere. It's great to have that energy, and to feel like this market is on such an upward trajectory. It feels like just the beginning of what Maine could become creatively.

• What is your favorite commercial?

I go back and forth on this question, but I always come back to the 2009 spot "The Man Who Walked Around the World" by BBH London for Johnnie Walker. It's a five-minute film that was shot in a single take, showing Robert Carlyle walking through the Scottish Highlands and relating the entire 200-year history of the brand. I love everything about it—the idea, the incredible craft (from the writing to the acting), the stylized nature of the storytelling. Also, to me, it's special because the degree of difficulty was so high. The spot essentially brings the brand's "About Us" page—normally a boring part of the website—vividly to life. It was 11 years ago, but I'm not sure I've seen anything since that's really topped it.

https://smugglersite.com/us/directors/jamie-rafn/johnnie-walker-walk-2/

Do you want to be featured on one of our panels? Please email us at hello@maineaddesign.com

Best,

Chris Davis

MADE President

207-756-2442