Rick Conrad, SVP, Group Creative Leader at Merge, sat down for a wide-ranging interview dissecting the ad agency business. We talk creativity, photography, photographers, creative calls, and more.

So, let’s go ahead and started. Is print dead? No, I don’t think it’s dead. I hope it’s not dead; coming from a graphic design/photography background, it’s still one of my favorite things to look at and produce. I can tell you from the pharmaceutical industry, no. There are still a lot of clients doing print work, specifically sales aids, ads—so not in our world. Obviously, digital has taken more of a presence. We’ve been working on, and I would say half the projects we work on are digital, and then the other ones are print-related. I don’t think it’s dead. Print might be dead, but from a photography and design standpoint, I read all my magazines on iPads now. But all of that stuff is produced. It’s not necessarily on paper, but it has been produced for print, so I think it’s a different way to look at it.

Do you view photography as a technical craft or a creative craft? That’s a good question. I always viewed it as a creative craft. I look at photographers that will fit the particular client’s need. Still, at the same time, a lot of those photographers look the same to me, whether it’s the way they do post, the way they shoot, or the way they frame up subjects, so I always look for something extra, which to me goes to the creative side of things, not the technical side. I think you have to have technical ability to do it right, just like illustration for example. You have to have the talent, but what do they add is the question? I think that’s the creative side.

Well, that leads to my next question. Can a photographer’s portfolio illustrate the ability to “plus” an idea? Yeah, I think so. Quite a bit. That’s what I look for in a portfolio. We have reps that visit here, so you know, you’ve got six different books in front of you. Often none of them stand out. They are all good for technical work, but none of them are doing anything different from each other. So, when I see a book that stands out. That’s what I’m looking for—that little extra oomph.

Do you think a photographer’s personal work should have some commercial appeal? No, not necessarily. Again, if a photographer is looking for a gig for a client need, or an agency person’s perspective, I’d like to see both the stuff they’ve done commercially so I know it’s going to fit in with what we’re looking for, but I would also like to see their personal work because it gives me an idea of that creative part. Can they do something outside what they are showing me, outside of their commercial work? So, that’s what I look for.

Would you ever show the personal work to the client, or would you lean heavily towards their commercial work? If I felt the personal work could help sell that person or support our idea plus their idea, I would do it no problem.

Do you have any advice for photographers during creative calls? To me, less is more. They should remember that they are on the phone because we like their work. So they don’t have to oversell themselves. It’s like, that’s why you’re on the phone. I’ll usually tell them, “I looked at your stuff, and I think it is great.” So, if they just ask the questions. What is the client looking for? Or strategically, if they show interest in the idea, where did it come from? Give me some background on the client; that’s always good for me. Or the product. Because that means they want to know, not just about the technical part of it. “When are we shooting it? How many days? Are we going to use wardrobe?” Or, whatever it is. They want to get into it. They’re part of the team at that point, strategically and creatively.

Good stuff. What does a typical day look like for you? I take a nap on the couch. No. First thing’s first. These days I review a lot of work. My job, and I always thought one of my fortes is “plussing” work. I come from a design and production background, and I’ve done a fair amount of broadcast. I have a knack for if someone brings me something, I can very quickly say, “This is great, but have you tried this?” Or “If you move that there…” or “This director might do better there…” “This photographer might offer this.” So these days I’m overseeing work, and I’m “plussing” work. Really at an agency like this, using my experience to help people. Because a lot of people haven’t done broadcast, for example, or they haven’t done animation. Many people have been here a long time and are print-driven. We have a lot of old-school designers here, so it is design only. So when it comes to video projects, many people come to me to learn and figure out how it works.

Do you have any daily routines you find important? Not really for work. I try to write something personally everyday. Something new, whether it is a song or a line or a lyric or a poem or a short story. Train time I will do that, or in a car. Lately, I’ve tried to challenge myself to do something different I wouldn’t do every day to change up my routine. Whether it’s taking a different way to work or walking down a different path, kind of the anti-routine is what I try to do.

What is the biggest change to the agency creative department that you’ve seen in the last ten years? Well, I think. I mean, it’s an obvious answer, but digital has changed a ton and a lot of things. First, it was from print to websites, then to different kinds of websites. Websites 2.0. And now everything is mobile. IVA. We call them interactive visual aids. So we do a lot of work on the iPad, designing for the iPad and mobile simultaneously. Responsive design. So I think people’s mentalities had to change a ton because you’re not only thinking about a stagnant design, you’re thinking about how a person will use it, navigate it, and make it easy for them to follow. And then video too. I mean, obviously, before it was all broadcast, high-level. Now everybody is shooting video, and you have to think about content. Not just the print ad. But the commercial, the website, and the videos that go on social media. It’s a different mentality. That’s the main thing.

Which leads to my next question. Does a campaign’s big idea need to work in all mediums? Yeah, I think now more than ever. I still think you start with the nugget. The big idea. If you have the big idea the test for it is, “does it work in all of those mediums?” And if it doesn’t. If it’s limited, you throw it away, and you go to the next big idea because it has to be able to translate across all of those mediums. After all, that’s what clients want. I think other people think extension means that you just place that image in all of the mediums. It has to be changeable but still work in the overall strategy. So, you’re not putting the same image in your print ad, and then the front page of your website, and the front page of your mobile site. They can change. They can be a different photo or a different message. They need to fit under the same umbrella.

Was creativity part of your life from an early age? Yeah. Since I can remember, I have been making short films with my dad’s camera with my cousins. I was the director and wardrobe person, and actor. And I always drew since I was four or five. So yeah, as long as I can remember.

Who were your mentors along the way? That’s a good question. I did work with Mark Ricketts at my first gig as an in-house Art Director. He taught me a lot about being a “true creative person.” He got me into designing, writing, and illustrating comic books. He was a mentor early on.

Where do you find inspiration now? I’m constantly surfing the web. It’s so much easier now. I sound like a curmudgeon, but you had to do some motherfuckin’ work back in the day. You had to leave the house. You had to drive somewhere. You had to go to the used bookstore and find the shit you had to find. Now I can find it all on the web. Which is great, but sometimes I think it is better if you work at it a little more because you appreciate it a little more. But yeah, everywhere. I still read magazines on the iPad. I still watch film. The same things that influenced me before are just easier to find now.

Do you have any techniques that you use to get out of a creative rut? I don’t. I don’t call it a rut. If the timing isn’t right and something isn’t coming, I’ll just hit it later. You don’t always have the time to do that, but I’ve never considered it negative. It’s just, “it’s not coming right now. I’ll give it an hour.”

But does that happen, like some people feel like they have to work through this, or do you feel like it could happen at any time? Yeah, to me, there’s no off button. Not to sound pretentious, but if there is a campaign idea that I have to come up with and I am working on my own, it’s always with me no matter what I’m doing. So I might seem distant in a conversation or at lunch because the other half of me is thinking about that thing, so… And I’m always, back in the day, writing everything down, and now it is in my phone. There are hundreds of pages of ideas that come to me. So I don’t force it. It will come when it comes, generally.

How do you go about concepting your projects? As I’ve gotten older and busier, I’ve had to schedule that. When I get home, I try not to get too much sleep because it gives me more time to do stuff. I need to stay up later to work on my own stuff. I don’t like to wake up early so it usually happens at night. I try to force myself to do that daily. At least produce something personally.

Every day? Yeah. Usually, it is in the form of writing, but sometimes I’ll come home and play guitar for half an hour to get a line down, or I still paint quite a bit, so I will do that as well.

So, what are you doing now? I was in a two-piece punk sort of band. I ended that. I’m not going to start sort of a three-piece, not full electronic but something a little less loud because my ears are bleeding. And I started a new painting series. 8’ by 2’, so they are long landscapes on plywood.

Do you have plans to exhibit that? That would be the hope, yeah. I don’t need to, but it would be nice to get it out there and show people. I want to get about 12 or 15 done.

And that’s with spray paint? Yeah, these are all spray paint and illustrations over the paintings. So not words. I know I’ve done some poetry, and word stuff. This is more illustration over painting.

How do you deal with self-doubt? I’ll be honest with you, as I get older, I don’t have a lot. I genuinely think I don’t give a fuck what people think. I think I used to say I didn’t, but I did. Now I can honestly say that I don’t. I’m more open to challenges now, it’s like, give me something I haven’t done before, and I’ll try it. I don’t often do that, to be honest.

Does painting help you creatively in your commercial job, or are they pretty separate? I consider them all creative and they all fulfill a creative need. If I’m super busy at work and I’ve been working on a shoot for, let’s say, two months, I’ll probably do less music and less painting. But when I’m quieter at work, I’ll do more painting and music. For me, it’s a void that needs to be filled, and it doesn’t matter which vessel fulfills that. It could be any of those things.

Do you have any advice on keeping work and life balanced? To me, if you’re truly a creative person, you’ll have to figure that out on your own because you’ll need to fill that void. As far as regular life, the non-creative part of it. It’s just a job, man. I see young people always saying, “I’m going to come in this weekend and finish that.” And I want to say, “Don’t do that. It’s fine. We’ll do it next week.” Don’t take yourself too seriously?

What are you listening to right now? Any new favorite bands? Yeah, I just downloaded something this morning. I’ll have to look at the name—the same kind of stuff, alternative stuff. But lately, I’ve been searching, and I’m not finding much. Everything seems like it has been done before. But there is a band called Metz. It’s a harder punk thing. I saw them in Austin, and I like their records. Cloud Nothings is a cool little band. But I’ll give you the name of this. It’s a reissue by a Nigerian DJ. It’s really cool stuff…

You’ve touched on this already, but any advice for the younger generation looking to get into the business? The advertising business or anything creative? Graphic design or advertising? Yeah. Learn to draw. I know that there are so many portfolios I come across. Not that you’re going to use it necessarily, but at places like this where I am working now, there is a lot of old-school because there are many older people working here. The way they concept, they still put pencil to paper. I’ll use my iPad, but I’m still drawing out my concepts instead of going to the Mac and doing digital comps. I like to see that progression. So when you bring your book in, show me how you got to where you are going—show me the four steps. It started on this napkin, and then I put it on paper. Then I did a Mac thing, and then I finalized it on the Mac. So, I would say learn to draw and be well-rounded. Many of the books I see coming out are 98% digital, which is great because that is where the world is going, but there is a lot of print here. I want to see that you can draw a print ad. So, being well-rounded would be good advice.

Last question. Are you creatively satisfied? I would never say I have been creatively satisfied. Fully-creatively satisfied. Because I always wish that I didn’t have to sleep so I could create more things. I’ve always viewed myself as a semi-lazy creative because I do a lot, but I feel like I could do so much more. I think in my career path as a creative director, no. Because I don’t do as much creative anymore, that’s ok because I’ve done it for so many years. Generally yes, but not fully, no, if that makes sense.

One more question, actually. It just popped into my head. What’s the best campaign you ever concepted? Ever? Ever? I did a campaign for a hospital in Savannah, Georgia. I hired three documentary photographers and utilized three Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) student photographers: we had full access to the hospital: ER rooms, surgeries, etc. we shot over 30,000 photos over three days. We utilized the images for print and developed television spots with the stills with a top graphics house in New York City. It was intense and gratifying…one of my favorite gigs.