Love Guns (a misleading title bordering on inappropriate to a post about Young Guns and loving what you do)
Guys, I’ve seen it. It exists. And not with a massive computer system attached to the Large Hadron Collider. What all the hipsters and the scientists and your Granny have been talking about, the Higs. And it was right at the Apple Store here in Amsterdam.
- Nessim Higson (YG5)
- ADC Young Guns
- Apple Store
- Amsterdam
Of course I’m talking about Young Gun’s alum Nessim Higson, a creative director and designer from New Orleans. Creatives rejoice, Nessim exists and shared all the best advice he never received to what seemed to be the entire Sid Lee team, Jakub Foglar, Tim Boelaars and myself. Nessim recently launched 40 Days / 40 Projects, an update to his portfolio where he reveals a project a day for 40 days. I’d been following online but hearing the story in real life (like a good pitch) and getting the full reveal made it even more memorable.
My first time at a Young Guns talk (thanks for showing us Euros some love) and going from lovely alums that I got to know in the States (<3 Bonnie, Emily, Mikey, Dan), the YGs feels more like a club than a competition. In that manner, Nessim had a lot to share. As someone who sleeps on average five hours a night, Nessim spoke about it not being all about talent, the importance of networking and pushing yourself. From his talk I didn’t think he meant this in a ‘successful’, get up the career ladder sort of way, more in a manner of having a chance at more opportunities.
..I’m going to talk about some of the best advice I never received. The best person to push you is you…
The brief was to make the new Spiderman feel more Batman. Unfortunately these type experiments weren’t used in the campaign, however they’re all up for viewing on Nessim project site.
I spoke to Nessim afterwards about how he keeps the quality of his work so high–from motion graphics to web design–everything was badass. This is something I often think about, working in a number of areas I’m conscious that whatever measley skills I have can dilute down, rather than being concentrated in one area. To be honest if I was focused in one area I’d probably find something to worry about too, but I was dying to hear what Nessim’s secret is. Turns out Nessim’s presentation was 80%/70% his design skills (damn, guess that has something to do with the 5hrs sleep a night). However, he believes that working with others undoubtedly makes the work even better. It’s all about balance; which he tries out by going between Creative Director (currently at Sid Lee in Amsterdam) and “to say it was work is really not fair” Designer.
Ness ended his talk with a shot of his daughter pointing to the lines,
Love what you do. Do what you love.
I am loving how often this line is coming up lately. I can’t tell a greater story–or a story as great–as Ben Chesnut does about how MailChimp’s accidental tagline became ‘Love What You Do’. Read the love story here or go as far as downloading the colouring book.
And here it is, proof. Loving what you do can be seen as likely to greatly affect human understanding of the universe, validate the unconfirmed and be a whole lotta fun.
