Getting Ahead: Rob Ellingham

Name: Rob Ellingham

Company: SMP

Job title: Creative Director

What made you want to get into brands/advertising/media/marketing?
The need to create visual excitement

How did you get into the industry (including relevant qualifications and professional training)?
I was eager to experience the design world and gain firsthand experience so I dropped out of my 2 year graphic design diploma (just as my tutor had got me a place at St. Martins), luckily one of the agencies I had written to during my course took me under their wing.

What was good and bad about your first job?
Good thing – I got to see my work published and 1000’s of people got to see the work that I’d created. The bad thing was been locked away for hours at a time, in a dark room with a PMT camera

List your jobs to date:
GH creative, KLP Euro RSCG, Inferno, SMP

What were the best and worst, and why?
I don’t think it would be fair to the agencies for me to comment

Who has been your biggest inspiration?
Attic design, tomato, imagination, pentagram – the old skool set

Who in the industry do you most admire?
Agencies with balls

What is your biggest achievement to date?
Only having 2 ideas and getting away with it

On what do you base your success so far?
Being able to make the ordinary appear extraordinary

What are your ambitions?
To design my own house

Change one thing about your job:
The hours I work

Change one thing about your industry:
Ideas that get watered down

Change one thing about the world:
Get rid of all the fonts except for helvetica

What is your favourite brand?
Madonna is a great example of a successful brand because she isn’t scared of re-inventing herself, she seems to constantly be one step ahead of the changing trends

What is the next big brand in your view?
Little big planet

List your “media diet”
The world and what’s in it