My first boss and sometime mentor Steve Cosmopulos told me that when I was first working for him after he left Hill Holiday Connors Cosmopulos and started his next agency Cosmopulos, Crowley & Daly. I was a fledgling and flailing arms akimbo art director just out of Mass Art and he gave me my first job.

“Every idea you come up with has probably been thought of and done by somebody else,” he said. Hmm. That kind of stinks, I remember thinking. So what’s the point then?

The point of course, is that it doesn’t matter. Our job as I see it is to push ourselves creatively forward, and to always be thinking. You can’t worry about what’s come before you, or what’s coming after you, so to speak.

Which brings me to this big can of worms. Actually, truth be told, two cans of worms I have in front of me. The decision whether to open the first one or not was recently made for me by someone else. You see, in my first blog on this site, I explained how I came up with the concept of the “Homeless Art Director”. Yeah, it’s kind of wordy, but I felt like it was a story worth telling, as I felt I had an epiphany when I came up with the idea. Was all excited. Smiling. Patting myself on the back for coming up with a concept I could not only run with, but one that I really connected with personally, too.

So back to that can ‘o worms. You see, there’s this movie that was done by a Boston ad guy Erik Proulx called “Lemonade”. He also has a pretty interesting web site called http://www.pleasefeedtheanimals.com. I had heard some vague rumblings about the movie as it was in production, I guess, and some of my ad friends had mentioned it on their own blogs or LinkedIn or Facebook. Doesn’t matter really. It’s basically about a bunch of talented ad folks who have been laid off from their jobs and found ways to reinvent themselves, or make “Lemonade” from their “lemon” situations. Forgive me if I’ve oversimplified it, but honestly, I still haven’t seen it.

The worms. Yes, it’s time to open the can. I recently received an email from a guy in Vancouver named Mark Busse. He’s a partner/design director at a firm called industrial brand (http://www.industrialbrand.com). Now I don’t know Mark, though through several emails I can say he seems like a guy I’d like to have a beer with. Anyway, he sends me a cryptic email with the subject line:Not very original. In the body of the email is a web address http://www.homelesscopywriter.com, and then “Enough said”. Huh? Or better yet whowhatwherewhenwhyhow?

I went to the web site, and sure enough, a copywriter in Vancouver named Geoff Vreeken (http://www.geoffvreeken.com) had created this site after being laid off from his job, and he decided he wanted to give back in a way he hadn’t done before. It’s a nice idea and seems like a good cause. Now I don’t know Geoff either, but I received an email from him as well, the day after I got the cryptic email from Mark Busse.

The email basically said “I had quite a few people at Design Week 2010 telling me my old concept had been ripped off. Maybe it has, maybe it hasn’t, but I wanted to make you aware of www.homelesscopywriter.com, a charity site I launched last year. Best of luck, Geoff Vreeken. Pretty non-partisan, actually, when you consider that he’d essentially been told “Hey, that guy just put an X-Acto in your back...”

Now I’ve done my fair share of charity and non-profit work over the years. I was on the board of the Greater Table for 15 years and helped raise close to a million dollars through our Super Hunger Brunch, which is a great event and still continues to this day, and is now run by The Greater Boston Food Bank as they have the resources to successfully handle such a large event. So all I’m saying is that yes, I do give back, and still do- I get it, and we all should.

So Geoff, and anybody out there listening, I humbly must say I created my own site in my own way in my own office. The only witness who can vouch for me is the dog, and he’s just not talking. And I’m hoping I can just put this puppy to rest now.

By the way, there’s also a “Homeless Photographer” (http://www.collectivelens.com/blog/2007/08/26/the-homeless-photographer/), and a “Homeless Writer” (http://www.thehomelesswriter.pnn.com). Give it enough time, and www.HomelessAccountExecutive is sure to follow. Not sure what this says about the state our industry, but give me “www.livinginthelapofluxuryartdirector” any day instead.

Oh yeah, about that second can of worms sitting on my desk? Watch for my next blog- I promise to open it as well. My can opener just broke-seriously. Talk about coincidences.

• There are a lot of things I've seen written that I wish I had wrote.

• There are things that I've written that I wish I hadn't, but not too much.

• I like Facebook because I've reconnected with some great people I haven't heard from in years.

• I don't like Facebook because I barely can remember what I had for breakfast today, and honestly don't care that someone I haven't talked to in 20 years burned their toast. Throw another piece in and be quiet about it.

• Why can't I get young designers and students to understand to turn off the automatic hyphenation feature in their software programs so their paragraphs don't bre-ak li-ke th-is and have 3 hyphenated sentences in a row. It looks sloppy whether it's in your design work or a cover letter. Stop it and pay attention.

• While we're talking about design,  http://kuler.adobe.com is a great site. Just don't become lazy using it.

• Not a single day goes by that I don't hear the following bands on the radio: Red Hot Chili Peppers; Sublime; Smashing Pumpkins; The Beastie Boys. Every single day. Bands I always loved are becoming music that annoys the savage beast. Stop it, corporate radio, or at least play some of their lesser known tracks. Sheesh.

• I've been having a lot of fun playing around with iMovie. Just need to find more time...

• If life begins at 50, why do I need a Red Bull in the morning before I workout?

• Watching Sopranos reruns reminded me (again) of how great the music was. Check out this wiki site for every song played on the show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_on_The_Sopranos

• Especially listen to "Evidently Chickentown" by John Cooper Clarke. What a great song, and it's almost 30 years old.

• They say if you love your job you'll never have to work a day in your life. Well, I really like my job but some days it definitely feels like work. Especially post 9/11.

• My new dog, a shelter-rescued coonhound, likes to try and climb trees. Seems that his breed was bred for hunting bear and boar. Funny how they never put that stuff on the intake papers. But he's a great pup, and I'm guessing those squirrels are his own personal windmills.

• At least I didn't mention what I had for breakfast. OK- it was half a bagel and some Smart Bacon.

Bear witness to the following: I'm not naming names, and we've all been manner guilty at one time or another. ITEM #1.  My son had his Bar Mitzvah this year. We did a real down-scale, down-to-earth celebration for a lot of reasons. I designed the invite myself (it is what I try to do for a living- designing), then put them in the mail. Maybe Emily Post would roll over in her etiquette-appropriate coffin, but there was no formal "reply card". Didn't want to spend the $$ on stamps, and we were trying to be very "green" by asking people to RSVP with a simple phone call and/or email. Many did as were asked. And just as many decided the "Respond by date" was just another way of saying "Ignore after opening". So we finally started calling the 50 or so people who chose to have us hunt them down like the dogs they decided to be. And some of these were very good friends. I love them all (maybe a tiny bit less now), but come on? Can't you even pretend that my son's Bar Mitzvah is momentarily more important than the work/soccer/football/field hockey/cheerleading/baseball/dance/music/game/practice thingymabob you're doing 24/7 to respond to me for 30 seconds? It's not a big request. Seriously.

ITEM#2. A children's clothing drive. Charity. Sounds like a nice thing, right? Especially if you offer the lure of wine & cheese to go with your good will? And all you have to do is show up, drop stuff, eat & drink, and we get it where it needs to go, into the hands of the people who need it. Actually, you don't even have to show up- you can just drop stuff on our front porch, ding-dong-ditch style. Remember- it was about the kids, but it sure would've been nice to RESPOND to the invite/RSVP we sent out, friend.

ITEM#3. A friend recently had one of those "jewelry" parties. OK- I know these things aren't for everybody, and there's a a party for everything these days from A-Z. But there's nothing that says "I love You" or "You care the very best" like when you expect 25 people and 5 show up. RSVP? The French better come up with something more appropriate, and quick. "WC anybody?" No- not "Water Closet", more like "Who Cares"...

Where am I going with this long rant? Does social media have anything to do with this lack of couth? You'd think it would make it easier for us. With a click of a button we can respond to emails, text messages, blogs, posts, invitations... or maybe not. Are we now so inundated between our real life and our cyber lives that we just don't have time for anything anymore? Are we so connected that we can't connect humanely anymore? 

So the next time you're eating, use a napkin, you Neanderthal, and don't pick your teeth at the table- if I wanted a floor show I'd pay extra. When you write that email? Use spell check- it's free, or worse, a friggin' dictionary if you own one. And the next time you get invited to something, RSVP for cryin' out loud, if that's the appropriate thing to do. Pick up a phone, click "yes" or "no", mail it, carve it into a stone tablet and roll up the street for all I care (and it'd be good exercise, too). But DO SOMETHING. Just don't be rude.

Coincidentally (not really), it just so happens that I think I have an interesting story to pass along. It's about social media, self-promotion and how I came full circle to design this web site. I am by no means a social media guru- just a guy trying really hard to find work/a job. So in some ways I've been thrown into the social media pool kicking and screaming, and without a life jacket. It's old school sink or swim baby- no arm floaties for you.

Yeah yeah, the STORY. Well, I've been a self-employed/freelance art director/designer for a long time. I've really been trying to get out there over the last few months, networking like crazy, going to events, shaking hands, passing out my biz cards. Eating (or preferably, not eating) a lot of bad bar food. Since when did stale cheese and crackers and yellow-tinged broccoli crowns w/dip become our national meal? Blecch.

Networking is all well and good, and I was adding people to my LinkedIn (I'm not a total social mediaphobe), but I can honestly say in the last several months of doing this, I think I had only picked up one concrete job, and possibly a pound or two. It's been tougher getting my butt out of bed at 5:30am to hit the gym when I'm getting home late from "an event" the night before. But when my wife told me she was going to the Hatch Awards a couple of weeks ago through work (her boss couldn't go and gave her his ticket-thanks Sean), I asked if she thought she could score one for me as well, since an extra $100+ is hard for me to come by these days (thank you Anand). I have to say, kudos to the Ad Club- they still do a great job after all these years.

So the night before Hatch, I sat in my office, looking over a pile of bills, overdue notices and other heart-achingly warm correspondences, and looked hard into the mirror. OK, so that's not true- no mirror, but I really did "reflect" on my situation and where the hell was I headed? It certainly didn't seem like I was going in the direction I wanted- no yellow brick road- more like a urine soaked alley if I didn't do something, and fast. (Did I mention I'm already working 3 jobs? That's another sob blog.)

Well, I thought about what this economic downturn has done to people/families. Foreclosures, savings wiped out, rampant unemployment; locusts, hail and days of darkness. Not pretty. And I realized I felt "homeless", not literally (not yet, but a real possibility), but in the fact that despite years of good experience, I couldn't seem to find a job/work where I could hang my hat, have a "home", contribute (note my "Homeless biz card" on the front of my site). Now don't get on me about being tasteless in my approach. Well, I guess you can- everyone's entitled to their opinion. But try walking in my shoes for awhile- I'll bet you find them damn uncomfortable.

About those "Homeless biz cards". I shot a pic of some corrugated cardboard, hand-lettered the front copy, scanned it in, printed them out 8 to a page at Staples (my color printer has taken a leave of absence). I then glued them onto actual corrugated cardboard which I had purposely peeled and scuffed the backs for a bit more "authenticity". And then I cut, and cut, and cut. And I built a big corrugated "biz card box" as well, to hold my new downscale cards. I decided against hanging a sign around my neck- overkill, and I think my marriage may have ended that night if I walked into Hatch wearing one: my wife, who has been nothing but a rock of support for me (thanks Ab), was very "unsure" about my new cards. Honestly, I was too. But I figured Hatch being Hatch, with lots of creative people mingling, drinking, drinking while mingling, and drinking a bit more, it would be a good place to hand them out. This was pretty far outside of my comfort zone, but I decided if I ended looking like a buffoon, oh well. And it gave me an excuse to wear my one good black (what else?) suit. At least I'd be a well-dressed buffoon.

We met a few people beforehand for drinks, and much to my relief, the cards were a big hit, and more importantly, the color actually came back into my wife's face. A woman my wife used to work with thought the cards were so great, she was going to blog about it (thanks again, Meg) on her company's job/blog site.

So walking into Hatch, I had a bit of confidence that I hadn't totally made an arse of myself. People were very responsive (all positively, at least to my face). Otherwise, I suppose they just steered clear of me. When the Awards portion of the evening actually started, I was standing in the back of the room with several people, trying to listen over the din. Don't get me wrong- Hatch is fun, but when you don't have anything entered, the natives can get kind of restless. A series of speakers, presenters, and winners whirled and blurred across the stage. I was about to use the rest room, when Edward Boches (CD of Mullen), took the stage. He was poking fun at Gary Greenberg, another very well known ad guy, who wasn't there that night. But it caught my attention, because I know Gary, and we both teach at Emerson. A minute later though, Edward Boches began to discuss a story from 25 years ago- that of the writer Jonathan Plazonja, and his best of show Hatch “campaign” he did for himself, just out of school, to get a job. And I was at the Hatch Awards that year so I remembered it clearly; I was working for Steve Cosmopulos at the time, and a lot of people were bull that some out-of-work kid without a job won, and that none of the so-called "big agencies" took home the “grand prize”. So I made a quick decision that I was going to walk up to the stage and hand this guy (who I did not know) my new "card"; I first apologized for interrupting him, (which I realize does not mean it’s OK), and I said “in the spirit of Jonathan Plazonja, I wanted to give you this”. I then high-tailed it to the back of the room. Luckily it was rather dark, so my embarrassed and horrified expression and out-of-body experience wasn't clearly visible to anyone except my friends. What the hell had I just done? Who WAS that guy. Did I really do that at Hatch. Yes, I did.

Would Edward Boches slam me- yes, kind of. Would he ever speak to me- yes, eventually. When you do something renegade, you can't really predict the results, and have to be prepared for what comes next. Ahh, but there's the rub- you don't know what's going to come next. But you can try and control it- I sent the story out to some local media, along with a truly horrific ex-con-like shot of me holding my card (the "nice" head shot I had didn't seem to fit the storyline). A good friend of mine wanted to know who the "old woman" was holding up my card (thanks Bob).

I got some good press. Then came Edward Boches' blog about what I did. He titled it “Hey stage crasher, you remind me of a bad TV commercial” (here's the link:http://edwardboches.com/hey-stage-crasher-you-remind-me-of-a-bad-tv-commercial). Nice. So I started to follow his blog, and honestly, the comments were mixed. But I came forward and defended myself. I didn't know if he would even allow my post to show, but he did, and better than that, he was fair and started a dialog with me. And emailed me privately. Of course, I also think it was also good fodder for his blog. But he met with me, sincerely tried to help me, took photos with me, was a real stand-up guy. I'm not delusional-I don't think I'll be invited to his house for dinner or anything, but I think I've made an ally out of him- maybe a networking friend- but at least I know I'm not on his sh_t list. So here's the end of it- a link to Edward's last blog where he says really nice things about me: http://edwardboches.com/engagement-works-better-than-interruptio

Did I get a job? Nope, not yet- still looking. So make sure you check out my web site. But I have a greater understanding about the power of social media to connect people. And it inspired me and energized me to create this site, this blog, and keep pushing it all forward. I wish I knew where this would all lead, but there are life experiences you just can't predict, and the roller coaster ride has been pretty interesting so far.

Craig

craiggrant@comcast.net