Ben Rudlin
“I was always an art kid at school and thought the best way to hold onto that side of things, was to go and teach art myself. So after I left high school, I went to University to do a double degree program in Visual Arts and Education. After a few rough practical work placements, I learnt the hard way, that teaching just wasn’t for me! It made me realize that I was going about it all the wrong way.”
“After those work placements I was really willing to try just about anything. So when one of my mates was enrolling into Design College in Brisbane doing an advanced diploma in Visual Communications, it sounded awesome! I went to a few open nights and really knew that a career in teaching high school wasn’t for me. I then jumped into that and went through the diploma with him.”
“I had been doing some workplace training during my final semester at DCA with Bigfish, a local Brisbane advertising and design agency. After I graduated and won some awards during my graduation, I ended up full time at Bigfish. I just started doing whatever I could and after a while I was doing more and more of the digital side of things. This opened the door to the conceptual side of advertsing and design, and I loved it. The management of Bigfish was really helpful in encouraging and allowing me to take that pathway. I then put my work up for a prestigious portfolio school called Award and got in! That was the stepping stone for me to concentrate more on the conceptual and art direction side of things.”
“I really looked at the step to becoming an art director as a step up from being a designer. I must admit, I really wasn't prepared for the amount of separation that comes in terms of having your hands on the tools.”
“People were telling me to move down to Sydney and work for a big agency, and that made me hesitate in making the leap back to the US. When I did make the decision to leave Australia, it was so quick, I didn't even have my portfolio together! I made the decision on Christmas Day to move to the States. I was going on a skiing holiday to the US for two weeks after Christmas, so that gave me two weeks to sort everything! My step-sister was doing a gap year from her university studies and planning on spending a year in the States getting some work experience, and I thought, what the hell I would stay on with her!”
“The first week in New York was crazy, so we booked into a hotel in Soho, which was an eye opener! We basically spent the whole time looking through the classifieds trying to find an apartment. So we had to extend the hotel stay until we found a cheap apartment right on Saint Marks Place in The East Village, right by the park. It was awesome!”
“The hardest part of the journey was trying to find work! Which seems like common sense right now, but because I left Brisbane in such a hurry, the best part of the initial month was sorting out my portfolio and my website, and getting everything in order. After I had sorted out my folio, I started banging on doors! Which was stupid in hindsight, because as soon as I approached a recruitment agency it all ran pretty smoothly! Now that I think back about those initial months, I can see I was a bit silly about the whole thing! I was cold calling and cold emailing all the top advertising agencies and top design agencies. Just picking things off websites and hoping for the best!”
“I had been trying to get into a famous US agency called 'Mother' for quite a while without success. I did all sorts of really silly things to try and get into 'Mother.' I remember doing this self promotion campaign targeting one of the creative partners there. I was recording screencasts of my Mom over skype and would later send a video to them on my mother’s behalf, trying to sell me into 'Mother.' It didn’t work of course, but my Mom loved my work!”
“I was spending a lot of time at the Art Directors Club and someone recommended a recruiter to me. So I went along and they got me an interview for a freelance digital job at 'Mother' working on designing web banners for Virgin Mobile. I jumped at the chance just to be at 'Mother' as my next gig."
"The head designer overseeing the job, who later become a very close friend, was this Swedish rockstar designer called Henrik Walse. He was great to work for and allowed me to do my own stuff. After that, I kept getting invited back. Then I started doing more and more at 'Mother.' I got thrown into what was called the 'dungeon' with the production and film guys and had a ball! So for about 8 months I was doing freelance jobs for them working on accounts like Virgin Mobile and Chevy."
"To be thrown into a big design company with about 80 people in the middle of downtown New York, was just crazy. I had a lot of fun and learnt a lot about agency life. Just after 'Mother' moved from Bond street to Hells Kitchen, I was offered a full time position.”
“One of the things that has stayed in my mind and was difficult right for the start, was that a lot of the people I showed my folio to didn't really understand what my speciality was. They couldn't figure out what I wanted or even what kind of job I should do, because my experiences were so broad. So I had to work out exactly what I wanted to do. And if I wanted to further my digital skill set, then I was going to have to find a new gig where the focus was entirely on digital. So I left 'Mother' and secured my next role at 'rehabstudio' in New York.”
“Moving into Rehab was amazing and super exciting. Rehab were basically starting a new office in New York, and I was one of the three people to start the whole thing! So it came with a startup mentality, but with the backing of the London and Belfast offices."
"The great thing about Rehab, was the existing client base. Rehab were already doing a lot of very cool stuff for clients, like Red Bull and Google, so getting into a lot of that was just awesome. Their focus for New York, has largely been the entry into the US, so I was basically doing the client interface and loads of pitches. We did a lot of stuff for Google, Ford & Citi Bank.”
"Working and living in New York has made me realize what it is, that I really want to do. Over the last couple of years, I have turned projects down because I was focused on chasing a spot in an agency. Now I realize, that I really should have been focusing on what is best for me. Now I have decided to go out on my own. Rehab was awesome, they gave me an insight into starting a new business and the pitching process which allowed me to gain the confidence to go out on my own.”