This month we get some InSight from Anthony Giordano, Creative Director at Legrand.

1. Your full name:

   Anthony Giordano

2. Where do you work?

   Legrand

3. Your title/role within the company:

   Creative Director

4. How long have you been working in the creative industry?

   15 years

5. How much of that time has been in-house?

   All 15 years

6. How many people do you manage?

   1 directly, 12 indirectly

7. What services does your team provide?

   We provide creative strategy, concept and development, and production. We create, manage, and deliver: digital, print, and event creative, as well as campaign creative and branding.

8. Share a best practice you experienced partnering with an outside agency:

   We regularly partner with many outside agencies. One really great experience I just had involved collaborating on a corporate branding video project. We tasked the agency with developing three videos that helped better tell our brand story. We had a kick-off meeting where we talked about tone, style, and content. I was a bigger part of the creative process than in other instances where I was just handed the final. With a good, forward-thinking agency, in-house creative can serve as a strategic partner rather than a client. I appreciated this, and the project definitely turned out to be more on-point with the audience, as well as having fewer rounds of revisions.

9. What are you working on now that you’re excited about?

   Currently I’m working on rebranding an outdated part of our business. We are at the fun part, where all of the marketing strategy research has been completed and it’s time to take the brand strategy and build the creative from it. I definitely enjoy building things.

10. If you could share one piece of advice with another in-house creative leader, what would it be?

    Mentor younger talent and ensure there is a career path for them with the company when you on-board them. This is something I feel is lacking in many in-house organizations and needs more attention from leadership.

11. What inspires you?

    Running, listening to new music, and discovering new creative solutions from others.

12. Where do you see the in-house industry in the next five years?

    Bigger than ever. More and more, I feel in-house creative is becoming more of a budgetary necessity. Possibly it’s becoming bigger for the wrong reasons, but however it gets bigger, I don’t care. It will eventually get more respect than it has in the past. In-house creatives are not lesser than agencies. I feel strongly about that and make that point whenever I can.

13. Where were you born?

    New York City area

14. Where do you live now?

    West Hartford, Connecticut

15. What is your favorite indulgence?

    Pasta and probably wine

16. What talent do you have that most people may not know you possess?

    I am double-jointed? No, I am a really good speller? No, I’m good at pulling up really close to the drive-up ATM? That’s a tough question.

17. What is your favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?

    Go to a museum with my kids and listen to their thoughts about what they see.

18. What inspired you to become a design leader?

    I have a strong desire to see strong creative work come out on top. I enjoy helping others appreciate and better understand what makes strong creative work. Crowdsourcing and other methods that continue to degrade design quality also inspire me to promote appreciation and understanding of design. Good design is not about making things look pretty. It is about communicating with the intention of affecting behavior. We do not decorate. We communicate. Promoting these ideals has inspired me to be a design leader.

19. If you could be doing something else with your career what would it be?

    It would always be about design, but I’d like to try working for an agency or maybe do something completely different from what I’m doing now, like helping brand a non-profit.

20. What was your first job?

    Design intern at Disney Publishing.

21. What did you get your degree in?

    Design Publication & Illustration – then Masters in Art Ed.

22. What is your favorite food?

    Pasta, duh

23. What is your favorite vacation spot?

    Florence, Italy