Hello, Daniel Shapiro here, owner of this website.
I'm an Art Director, Creative Director, and occasional lamp maker. I've worked on both the agency and client side, selling everything from big macs to big tech.
Over the years, I've developed an embarrassingly simple creative philosophy: People love surprises. Give them one, and they'll give you their attention.
We laugh at jokes because we don't see the punchline coming, we think about a cliffhanger for a week until the next episode drops, and we get a song stuck in our head because it's unlike anything we've heard.
We ask a lot of our ideas. They need to solve problems, communicate messages, build brands, and drive results. But if they don't surprise people in some way, they're not going to accomplish much of anything.