As young children, we're all creative. We draw, sing, build, and dream. Yet somewhere along the way - many of us put down these creative instincts. But not MIG Creative Director Angel Resto, it's his job to be creative...
MIG recently sat down with him to find out what influences him, if he has a process, and where he turns to for inspiration.
Angel Resto
MIG:
Inspiration? I ask this question because we both know creativity doesn’t exist in a vacuum. What we create is directed by influences both conscious, and subconscious, client demands, the capabilities we have access to, what’s going on in the world, pop culture. You know what I’m getting at here.
ANGEL:
Shameful admission: Like most people, I invest in what perhaps could be considered to be an unhealthy amount of whatever free time I have watching TV shows, movies and sports. Add that to social media shenanigans and we have a nice cocktail of mostly useless fodder. Luckily, I do get something positive out of it, which is getting an overall sense of what current trends are. Colors, shapes… textures… attitudes. It's like having your ear to the ground listening for a stampede or convoy in the distance.
That cloud just hovers above my head and it's there to pull from whenever I need to create something. Once an idea has been conceived and I know what the look and feel of it should be, a quick trip to the web can help narrow down textures, fonts, colors, etc. Now, I always leave this as the final step because I don't want to use the World Wide Web as a creative stepping stool. I want to arrive to this juncture with an idea that only needs refining. Would my life be easier if I relied on trips to the web earlier in the process? Perhaps. But there's a bit of pride involved for better or worse, so I prefer the work to flourish within as much of a sterile environment as possible.
MIG:
What influences your work the most?
ANGEL:
The audience I'm catering to would probably be the biggest influence. After all, we’re trying to communicate something to a specific group, so their sensitivities steer me while I'm plotting my course. At a not-so-distant second, the clock. We can come up with a piñata full of ideas for a specific project, but it is time (usually associated with dollars) that molds your idea into something that is achievable.
Then believe it or not, the tunes I listen to in the background. When I'm about to embark on a project, I select the type of music I think will help create the right atmosphere and resonate with the topic I'm working on. The mood created by the music, most of the time, will be reflected in the work. People probably think I listen to only one genre of music, but it does vary from project to project.
MIG:
How has technology changed your creative process/thinking in the last say, 5 years?
ANGEL:
Well, in the early stages of the project, having an infinite library of references at your fingertips has probably spared me from having a head full of gray hairs. Also, having the ability to find and acquire pre-made assets that perfectly jive with your vision just saves you tons and tons of time. The same goes for the digital tools we have at our disposal and even though this was introduced more than 5 years ago, the invention of the almighty "UNDO" command (golf clap). Then there's a constant tide of new peripherals that keep appearing each week. These new technological offerings can take your creative to the next level or completely make you rethink what you had on paper because they would yield a better experience for the audience.
MIG:
What technology has influenced you the most in the past 2 years?
ANGEL:
Wow. That's a tough one because it seems that during the proposal process we usually include most of the hottest new tools out there. I will say though, that the presence of Ventuz has changed the game in many aspects of what we do. Not only can we dream big when it comes to presenting content in a very engaging way, but it can also help you combine most of the other tools we offer into one big experience.
MIG:
What do you predict will have the biggest impact on your work in 2016?
ANGEL:
Apart from the economy (laughs nervously), I believe it’ll be what seems to be a renaissance in corporate communications. At MIG our bread and butter are corporate meetings, but these corporations all have marketing departments that get to dabble in very unorthodox ways to communicate with the audience, like experiential events for example. Some of those trends are making their way into the internal communications side so we find ourselves thinking in those terms more and more often. Next year doesn't seem to be the year this will change, so I expect doing even more of that on the corporate side and perhaps we'll be treated to a few consumer-facing situations as well. It is both challenging and very exciting.
