Being OK with “Big”

When the UO Advertising program is introduced to the agency world, we are taught about the “innovators” and “purveyors”. Innovators are the creatively adventurous, independent shops that continue to push the boundaries of the industry. The purveyors are the big agencies that are owned by parent companies and churn out effective, solid work.

As a creative, I have always pursued the freedom and independence of the innovators. I have held an aversion to using my skills to simply purvey but to truly create and innovate. I am happy to admit that there were some agency visits in New York that shattered my preconceptions of them. I won’t name any in particular, however, the larger shops genuinely surprised me with their capacity to breed creative attitudes and foster adventure while still creating effective and calculated campaigns.

The lesson I’ve learned from this is to be OK with “big”, and that the lines between purveyor and innovator are more blurred than many of us see them from the outside.

- James Vos