Pages

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Where I'm calling from

Change. It’s a constant. New things bubble up, people enter and exit your life, the seasons pass, you grow and age, the past becomes a foreign country. Some change is drifting, ambient even. Other change is more dramatic - throwing you towards new challenges and opportunities and testing you to your core. While daunting and unnerving at the time, big external change can provoke formative internal change. It acts as a mark in the philosophical sand separating where you were, and where you’re going next.



This time of year somehow holds particular resonance for change. The low, late Summer sun, the dwindling evenings, and the smell of trees preparing for their Autumnal transition, all provoke strong sensory memories of a new school year, stiff shirts, crisp notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils. With transformation heavy in the air, it feels like the perfect moment to plan for change and draw that line between the now and the next.

Tomorrow is my last day Moving Brands. It’s a hard thing to write about, both emotionally and conceptually because I feel embedded deep into the warm core of this company, and extricating myself seems at once liberating and overwhelmingly terrifying. But if I’ve learnt anything in my four years within their walls, it's that change - in all its forms - can be embraced and leveraged into beautiful outcomes. MB’s founders, Ben, Jim and Guy, placed their ambition for - and belief in - the power of change at the heart of their business. It took them from outer Mongolia for the world’s first live satellite broadcast to the boardrooms of some of the world’s leading companies. It helped them develop their offer from merely animating logos to transforming businesses through creativity. And it enabled them to grow from a few dudes on the third floor of an empty building in Shoreditch, to a tight-knit global presence of expert, multidisciplinary teams. They took the lonely position of staring the unknown in the face, and came out ahead - the pioneers.

And they nurtured this in me. Instead of pinning me down to tried and trusted ways of doing things, they allowed me to explore and experiment. Their confidence in me enabled me to develop a personal interpretation of “creativity for a moving world” through my own work, and through inspiring, incredible collaborations with graphic designers, filmmakers, animators, UX/UI designers, programmers, copywriters and project leads. And as I honed an ability to nurture change within brands, I too was challenged, tested and fundamentally changed into a strong, focused strategist.



Moving Brands have made me who I am today and I couldn’t be prouder to have been a part of such an innovative and awe-inspiring organisation. Ben, Jim, Guy, Mat, Darren and everyone I've had the honour of working alongside - it’s been wonderful.