Walked into an ad agency in Austin last week and it felt like a museum

I stopped by this agency I used to freelance at back in 2010. The whole place was decked out with vintage print ads in frames, old storyboards on the wall, and a stack of hardbound annual reports on the coffee table. Nobody was even looking at them, they were all staring at their laptops or phones. I sat down with a buddy who still works there and he told me they haven't pitched a print campaign in over two years. It was weird because I remember when that place was all about selling billboards and magazine spreads. Now it's all programmatic buys and influencer stuff. Makes me wonder if any of that old craft even matters anymore. Has anyone else felt like the industry is leaving behind the hands on stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

theac631mo ago

Heard a similar thing from a friend who works at a shop in Dallas... she told me they've got a whole wall of old Letraset sheets from the 80s just sitting there as decoration. Nobody under 30 even knows what they are. She said the creative directors still pull out markers and sketch pads for initial concepts, but the juniors just scroll through Pinterest and call it research. Kinda makes you wonder if we're losing something real when the physical stuff becomes just decor.

davis.ruby1mo ago

creative directors still pull out markers" - same at my old gig, worked way better than staring at a screen.

miles2791mo ago

I read what you said about the Letraset sheets and it reminded me of something a buddy told me about his agency in Houston. He said they had an old light table in the corner that nobody touched for years until an intern asked what it was. The intern thought it was some kind of fancy coffee table. My buddy said a senior art director got up, pulled out a roll of tracing paper and a marker, and drew out a whole layout on that table in about ten minutes. The intern just stood there with their mouth open. The funny thing is that layout ended up being the one the client picked. So I think there's still a place for that hands on stuff, it just gets hidden behind museum glass now.