philosophy

Working with the brands from Fortune 500 all around the world for over 20+ years confirmed to me that creativity and quality matter. At least to the clients I've worked with. Creativity pushes us in terms of visual difference and visual language and quality & striving for excellence keeps our society moving forward. Thus we should care about what we produce. In a world that's built on a visual content these many years, with being bombarded by more than 10.000 advertisement images a day, a good picture is something that stands out. Catches not only our eye, but our client's and their customer's as well. And in terms of commerce, that's what we're here for. To strive to deliver work that excites us and has the most impact for people around us. And our clients. Making their visual communication stand out and separate them from the rest.

aesthetics

For some of us this can be a headache sometimes. You produce what you enjoy and want to be known for. Have your own signature style & your aesthetics and clients pick you because of that style. But then you get working with an AD or PR agency and they need you to respect the brand’s DNA and bend your aesthetics more to their side. Sometimes it's delicate to find the right balance between these two, just as it is to find one between commerce and art. With art, it's usually our expression of what we want to say. But dealing with a commercial gig, it's not about our inner voice anymore. It's about creating a message for someone else. A commercial one, to be precise. And it's about finding the balance again. Between staying true to yourself while crafting a message for someone else, a corporation you might not be always in tune with.

longevity

Last but not least, it matters if you choose to do it quick or to do it right. If you want to produce something that is worth-while (for me there's nothing more rewarding than to see clients coming back to our work and re-use it again over time), I believe it matters that you do it right. I always like to spend some time with pre-production, do my research and let my client know, first that I care & I'm passionate about what I do, and second, that I'm more than capable of executing their wildest visions. Or my own for that matter. If you were a client, wouldn't you like to know you're dealing with someone who's professional, competent, passionte and cares about your goals as much as you do? For me it's both about creating an effortless experience for my client and producing something that is both worth wile and future-proof at the same time.

Build Your Portfolio

As we're all in different stages of our lives and careers, it's what drives us and excites us that changes as well. Or at least most people from the business I talk to, including me, sometimes flirt with different genres. Sometimes to get a different perspective on what we do. Sometimes just to get excited for something new and get away from the routine. Sometimes just to try something else, dive into different industry, different mindset, different scenery, different reality. And however you're set up right now, one of the most important advice I can give you is to think about what you want to achieve and when moving forward, to have a portfolio with work you want to be hired for. People are both visual and quick to judge. And since they don't know you, they'll judge or hire you exclusively based on what they see from you. So you have a just a few moments to catch a person's attention with hope to inspire or attract them. Therefore shoot and build a body of work on what you want to get known or hired for, it's that easy. To begin with anyway.

Pursue What Matters

Life's too short to shoot things that don't move you in the direction you want to go. And take it from someone who's worked for more than 15 years+ with AD agencies and PR agencies on projects that gave him an experience and paid his bills and it was all fun and games. But if he's honest all it did was it wasted his time. Because he let it. If you're working with clients directly, you're working with the ones you usually want or enjoy. The ones your values sync up with. The ones which comms you want to advance. Which sometimes can happen with AD agencies as well. But as your relationship with an agency progresses, you're not responsible who you're working for anymore. That is if you want to maintain the relationship. Being a guy on agency side, you don't want to have a relationship where someone on the other end tells you "no" 60% of time, just because the firm has clients they don't resonate with. So learn from my mistakes, see what you want, pursue what matters and don't let yourself to be distracted or sucked into things you don't wanna do.

Take Time to Develop

When I started out I just wanted to shoot. I loved it. And it probably showed, as there were some big names from the industry approaching me. As I was eager to learn, I jumped on every opportunity I got without thinking twice. And it was great. It's just.. when you're starting out, you're usually just having fun and not thinking long-term, or being skilled where it comes to equipment, deadlines, post-production, maintaining business relationships, etc. You're probably rarely appreciative of the opportunities compared to if you're more advanced. There was this great advice I heard once "fail as much as you can as fast as you can". Ideally in the beginning. Because it's something you grow and learn from. And as much as I can tell you what experiences and fails I had along the way, sometimes it's just best to learn it yourself. So if you're only starting out, just take some time to breathe, experiment as much as you can, develop your voice, your aesthetics, your character and point of view. Think long and hard whether it needs to be commercial. And then go conquer the world.

Learn More

About

Personal Work

World-class Quality

Lead with the quality. The rest will follow.

Contact

e-mail: connect@suvarina.com