We recently caught up with Charmaine Cheng (IDEA Grad 2019), for a grad spotlight as an Art Director at Rethink in Vancouver. As she moves up in her career and gets ready to mentor junior creatives, she figured a good place to start would be offering words of wisdom in a grad spotlight for the IDEA School of Design blog.

Check out Part 1 of this grad spotlight!

Thanks for reaching out to us! Please describe your career journey since graduating from IDEA School of Design.

After graduating, I started a design internship at Rethink. Prior to this, I had some internship experience at other studios and agencies, so I thought I knew what to expect, but this internship really threw me into the deep end and challenged me. In my first month or so I was already helping out on a big video shoot and working on the Rethink book. I’m thankful for the amount of trust I was given, but it was daunting nonetheless!

When it came time to hire me full time, there simply wasn’t any room on the design team. So I was hired as an Art Director, which at the time, was terrifying because I had no idea what that meant. But 2 years later, I’ve learned a lot and gained much more confidence in my abilities. 

You concentrated in Branding at IDEA School of Design and are now an Art Director at Rethink. What do you do daily as an Art Director and what’s it like working with production companies, film crews, editing studios, and sound studios?

My daily schedule varies quite a bit. I always have multiple projects on my plate, but they’re usually at different stages of development. Being able to bounce around to various projects and use diverse parts of my skillset keeps me sane. If I get tired of being in the ideating headspace for a project that’s just started, I can switch gears and work on something that requires something different, like sketching out a storyboard or building a presentation deck.

Being an art director has definitely gotten me out of my comfort zone. It requires more collaboration, not only with my coworkers but also with external partners. For example, on a TV spot, we work with a director and a production company and do a ton of prep work before the actual shoot day. Then after we finish shooting, there are weeks of post-production which includes working with editors and going through all the footage or working with a sound engineer and finding the perfect sound effect for a particular shot. 

What’s been the most challenging part of transitioning from Designer to Art Director?

The most challenging part was figuring out a process that worked for me. When I work on design or brand identity projects, I always know where to start and what steps I need to take to get to the finish line. But with a lot of art direction projects, there are more variables and possibilities which makes it even more challenging to start the project. Sometimes the project brief is “This client wants to do something that will get them lots of press and promote this new product!” and there are no deliverables yet (because the idea you come up with will determine what the deliverables are). That always terrifies me because the more open-ended things get, the more overwhelmed I get. How I’ve made it work for me is by creating steps and milestones for myself so I don’t feel as lost. Ensuring that I break down a big problem into smaller, achievable chunks helps quell that anxiety. I’ve also learned to embrace uncertainty more. It’s okay if you don’t have every single thing figured out 100% of the time. Choose which battles to tackle, take it one step at a time, work efficiently, and you’ll get to where you need to be.

Do you have any favorite work experiences or highlights?

I’ve worked on a lot of fun projects, but my favourite experience I’ve had at Rethink so far was Camp Rethink. Because it was Rethink’s 20th anniversary in 2019, they wanted to do something big to celebrate, so our Vancouver office went on an overnight trip to a camp in Gibsons. The whole thing was branded (of course) and there were typical camp activities like archery, crafts, marshmallow roasting, etc. It was my 7th month working at Rethink, so it felt like a total fever dream.

Please describe your process and what’s in your design toolkit these days? Have you learned any new tools since graduating?

My process has always been to start wide and narrow in. I’m a big fan of word association lists, so I’ll usually start a project by writing down as many words as I can that are related to the subject matter. That usually sparks an idea, and even if it doesn’t right away, it’s handy to have a list of words I can refer back to at any time if I get stuck. 

In terms of tools, I’m still using the classic Adobe suite for most of my design work. But I’ve also stayed true to the good ol’ pen and paper, especially when it comes to logo design. Something about pen and paper feels so low-pressure and allows me to sketch all sorts of ideas, even if they’re terrible. Once you tell the self-critical part of your brain to shut up, that’s when the magic starts to flow. You have to allow yourself to get all the terrible ideas out first to clear up your mind and allow the good ideas to come out. My sketchbook is like my judgement-free safe space. 

What’s in your communications toolkit these days and how has your work life changed since the pandemic?

Work has changed a lot since the pandemic. I had only been working at Rethink for a few months before we started working from home in March 2020, and I’ve been WFH ever since. It was a strange experience for me because all of the career development and milestones I’ve experienced have all happened inside my little bedroom/office hybrid. But I’ve gotten very used to WFH now and I prefer it. My coworkers and I do meet up in person for things like shoots or recording sessions, which is a nice change of pace!

I use Zoom and Slack every day and it’s become very second nature at this point. While Zoom can’t replicate the energy of an in-person meeting, I’ve definitely gotten into a good groove of doing virtual presentations or meetings. I’m thankful I’ve been able to adapt!

What types of projects have you recently or currently been working on?

At Rethink I’ve been working on a lot of TV spots recently which has been fun. The most recent spot I did for Shaw (shown above) takes place in an intramural hockey game, and while the spot turned out really funny, it was a challenge to make. It turns out you can’t rent out an ice rink during the day, so we had to film overnight from 2 AM to 12 PM. I think I was awake for 36 hours by the time we wrapped and was so delirious I probably would’ve spilled my deepest darkest secrets if someone had asked.

I get to do lots of other types of projects too. I’ve worked on a few mass campaigns which include a scary amount of media buys (OOH, digital, social, etc) and that’s been a great exercise in applying creative to a wide range of deliverables. I also work on quite a few stunts/activations that focus on advertising through brand experience instead of ‘traditional’ advertising. I still get to do brand identities every once and a while, which is always a nice treat. 

Do you have any side projects or passion projects that you are excited about?

I’m currently working on a rebrand for a restaurant in Vancouver. It won’t be launched until March 2021, so I can’t say anything about it yet, but it has been a great experience so far and I’ve really appreciated being able to do some brand identity work after a bit of a lull. 

Tell us about the awards you won at IDEA School of Design and your most recent awards.

I won a handful of awards during my time at IDEA. That whole process actually gave me a much-needed boost of confidence. Like most creative people, I was incredibly insecure about my skills and dealt with a lot of imposter syndrome. The awards were a nice bit of external validation that helped me realize “Hey, maybe I’m not as terrible at this design thing as I think I am.” Now, I really do not recommend basing your self-worth on awards like I did (trust me, there are much more important things to focus on!) but at the time, that recognition gave me the push I needed.

Last year I worked on a project called IKEA Won’t Wake the Baby Ads. The insight was that parents use white noise playlists on Spotify to help their babies sleep, but if you don’t have Spotify Premium, loud ads can wake your baby up. So, our solution was to get the IKEA spokesperson to whisper some humorous IKEA ads instead.

This project won some big awards like a Cannes Bronze Lion, a One Show pencil, a Clio, and an Effie. I never imagined winning any sort of big awards like those at all during my career, so I feel quite fortunate to have worked alongside such talented folks on that project. Without them, it would’ve never seen the light of day.

Selected Accolades

2021 Cannes Bronze Lion - Native Advertising Radio & Audio
2021 Effies - Home Furnishings & Appliances Silver
2021 One Show Bronze Pencil - Online/Streaming Audio Advertising
2021 Clio Streaming/Downloadable Content Silver
2021 Clio Direct Audio Bronze
2021 Shopper’s Innovation Award Targeting Gold
2021 AToMiC Audio Branding Gold
2021 AToMiC Niche Targeting Silver
2021 Applied Arts Design Self-Promotion
2020 Strategy Digital AOY - Silver
2020 Epica Digital Media Innovation Gold
2020 Communication Arts Interactive
2020 Applied Arts Advertising Digital Series

Coming up in Part 2

In Part 2, Charmaine shares advice for current IDEA School of Design students, her experience in the program, and how proactive networking helped launch her career as well as meet some of her design heroes.

To follow along with Charmaine’s work you can follow her on Instagram or visit charmainecheng.com.