Generation Advertising

GENERATION ADVERTISING

Creative Art Director

Generation Advertising was where I seriously developed my foundation in creative art direction, communication design, and conceptual thinking within the fast-paced environment of an advertising agency.

Working closely with senior Art Directors, Copywriters, and Graphic Designers taught me how agency teams transform client objectives into strategic visual communication through concept development, campaign thinking, and presentation systems.

The agency environment shaped my understanding of how creativity works beyond aesthetics — learning how ideas, strategy, design systems, and consumer psychology connect together in commercial communication.

Creative Process

& Agency Workflow

One of the most valuable experiences was learning how professional advertising teams approach problem-solving creatively.

The process often started from deeply understanding the client’s business objectives, communication problems, audience behaviour, and platform limitations before moving into idea development.

From there, the team would

analyse communication opportunities
create campaign concepts
develop visual directions
build storytelling structures
design pitch presentations
present ideas internally before pitching to clients

The working culture was highly collaborative and intensive, requiring close teamwork between

Art Directors
Copywriters
Designers
Marketing teams
Account executives

The pitching process was highly competitive and fast-moving, often involving overnight revisions, brainstorming sessions,

and rapid creative iterations.

Personal Learning Experience

I was fortunate to work under a senior Art Director who recognised both my strengths and weaknesses from the beginning.

Coming from a Film & Moving Image Design background, my strengths leaned heavily toward

conceptual thinking
storytelling
visual analysis
creative strategy

However, my technical design foundation still needed refinement.

The agency environment became a turning point where I rebuilt my understanding of design systems from the ground up, including

Typography
Layout Design
Communication Design
Visual Hierarchy
Infographic Systems
Colour Theory
Platform-based sizing systems
Commercial art direction
Marketing-focused design thinking

This experience taught me that strong visual communication is not only about making things look attractive, but about controlling attention, readability, emotion, hierarchy, and conversion behaviour simultaneously.

Commercial & Retargeting Design Experience

The role also exposed me to large-scale commercial artwork production for major brands and retail campaigns.

A major focus was designing content systems for

Line Official Account campaigns
Retargeting marketing
Promotion-based communication
Consumer conversion artwork
Campaign visual systems

This required understanding how design performs inside digital ecosystems, especially within

mobile-first behaviour
CTA visibility
conversion-focused layouts
promotional psychology
platform-specific engagement patterns

What I Learned From Agency Life

This experience fundamentally changed the way I think about creativity.

Advertising agencies taught me that

good design must communicate clearly
creativity must solve business problems
visual systems affect customer behaviour
teamwork is essential in large-scale campaigns
strategy and design must work together

More importantly, it taught me how to transform abstract ideas into commercial communication systems that work in the real world.

Key Achievement

Unilever Template System

One of the key projects I led involved developing a promotional template system for Unilever campaigns focused on retargeting audiences through Line Official Account communication.

The challenge was to improve

product visibility
promotion clarity
CTA readability
consumer attention within small mobile formats

The core creative idea was adapting the visual form of a “ticket” into the promotional layout system.

By using ticket-inspired framing and structure

products appeared larger and more recognisable
promotional information became easier to scan
CTA buttons became more visually separated
the communication hierarchy became clearer for mobile users

I worked closely with a Senior Graphic Designer who helped refine the visual execution and detail systems further.

The result was a template system that increased campaign sales performance by approximately 25%, and the structure continued to be used across campaigns long after the original project.

Yacht Me Campaign — Concept Development & Photography Direction

Another important project during my time at Generation Advertising was becoming the lead photographer for a campaign created for Yacht Me, a yacht booking and travel experience brand.

What made this project special was that

I was involved far beyond photography itself.

I had the opportunity to collaborate with the creative team from the early concept development stage, helping shape the visual direction, campaign mood, storytelling approach, and pre-production planning before travelling to Phuket for the actual shoot.

This experience became one of the key moments that changed the way I viewed photography professionally.

Through working closely with the Art Director and creative team, I realised that I did not want to become a photographer who simply takes beautiful images.

I wanted to become a photographer who understands

conceptual thinking
storytelling structure
creative strategy
communication design
visual planning before production begins

The project taught me that strong photography starts long before the camera is picked up.

From

moodboarding
location planning
styling direction
shot listing
atmosphere design
audience understanding
campaign positioning

every decision affects how the final visual communicates emotionally

and commercially.

The experience also strengthened my understanding of how cinematic visual storytelling can work within advertising

and hospitality campaigns, especially in lifestyle and luxury-focused industries.

More importantly, this project planted

the foundation of the creative philosophy

I still use today.

A strong photographer should not only know how to shoot beautifully, but should also know how to think creatively, build concepts strategically, and solve communication problems visually through pre-production and design thinking.