Arlan

Hands-on Senior Creative Director with over 20 years of expertise in brand and marketing creative strategy and execution for technology, gaming, media, and entertainment companies. - Areas of direct expertise include visual design, marketing and brand creative, motion graphics, video production and post-production, and UI/UX. - Organizational dot-connector, adept at linking various groups within large organizations to streamline processes and optimize performance. - Proven track record in crafting integrated full-funnel creative campaigns that boost customer acquisition, conversion, and retention. - Highly skilled in building and managing diverse and inclusive design and creative teams. - High degree of proficiency in generative AI image synthesis and related technologies. - Provide consulting and advisory services to companies on the effective and ethical use of GenAI, as well as content creation and thought leadership in this domain.

Who or what has been your inspiration in your Generative AI Artist journey?

I've been working with generative creative systems since I was a student in art school. So, my inspiration tends to come from those arenas. Meaning, analog audio synthesis, video synthesis, and process artists like John Cage, Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman, and Joseph Beuys. I also take a lot of inspiration from experimental music and jazz.

What are some of the golden rules you follow as a surefire method to deliver a compelling project?

I employ a mixture of highly structured skilled techniques coupled with improvisation. The skills allow you to control the output, but allowing room for random happenstance is where the magic occurs.

How did your journey into the creative world begin?

I've been a creator since before I could read or write. My parents were involved in the New York City art world. My education supported my talents. Art classes led to enrollment in a prestigious arts high school, which led to attending a historically important art school.

Kindly take us through a particular project of yours that you cherish.

From 2015-2019 I headed creative for a set of tech/media products, including the anime streaming service Crunchyroll. While in that position I grew the Crunchyroll brand from a niche brand into a global powerhouse, almost tripling our user base in the process. I also led the creation of a new streaming service (called VRV) from scratch. Managing the controlled growth of an existing brand, as well as the creation of a new brand was easily the most fulfilling experience I've had in my whole career.

Please tell us about your recent work and what kind of projects you take on.

I have a fairly diverse client set, although I mostly make video content these days. Longer-form communications for high-level Fortune 100 corporate clients, paid media for smaller agencies, product marketing for tech clients, and marketing materials for media companies.

What does your creative process look like?

As I described above, I employ a mixture of structured skills-work and free-flowing improvisation. I configure my approach to the client and task at hand.

When creating a brand identity, how important is target audience research?

I must understand both the consumer's and the client's goals. For this reason both audience and market research are very important components to building a successful outcome for my clients.

UX design and interaction design are fields that have boomed in the past few years but as a seasoned designer, how do you think your beginnings in the field were different from designers of today?

My core skillset, motion design, didn't have an established training curriculum when I entered the marketplace. Many of the people who trained and mentored me came from a broad variety of creative disciplines - film and video creators, print designers, photographers, and musicians. This eclectic mix of backgrounds has given me an extremely broad creative base to pull from.

Can you share your background and how you got started in your career?

Again, my background is eclectic. In art school, I started out as a painter, moved to film and video, then ended up focusing on experimental music. I had taken a couple of 3-D animation courses and used that experience to get my first job out of school in video post-production. From there I became exposed to motion design, which led to brand design, and then many other areas of creative focus.