Jerry Ketel’s Keynote address:

Thank you, it is a pleasure to be addressing you, my fellow creative professionals. And thank you for the introduction, although I think I will read to you what the Willamette Week wrote last week about this address, and I quote:

“This graphic designer managed to graduate art school AND get a job. Now he has to convince everybody else there is a future for art majors.”

Well, I don’t have to convince everybody that the world needs art majors. I mean, have you been to Gresham? Or Beaverton? Or Detroit? The world needs some imagination, don’t you think?

I mean, look at us (directing attention to commencement faculty all dressed in cap and gown). Can’t we get some help from the fashion designers in the house?

We creative types have a whole world to change!

Willamette Week then suggested that someone who would be more qualified to address you would be servers, personal assistants or telemarketers, (you know, for an approximation of what art school will really be like.)

Well, believe it or not, a former waitperson and bartender IS addressing you today.

OK, I know, I’ve probably shattered your image of me as a demi-god, among the pantheon of artistic greats like the guy who invented paint splattered aprons. The truth is, I was simply the guy who outlasted the competition. My very first job as a creative professional, I was fired. In fact I was fired 3 times in my career as an art director.

But let me back up a little…

From a very early age, I was fascinated with the arts. Probably, like you, I found myself drawing pictures and sorting colors in the crayola box, or simply melting them all together with my mother’s iron to see what color you get. Minus the wax paper.

But my mother knew I was going to be a creative at 16 months when she discovered me enraptured by the ads on TV. Actually, she thought I had ADD.

Because whenever the TV show was on, I would be playing in my cage, I mean playpen, slobbering on rubberized animals and lead paint. But when the ads came on, I would stop, get very quiet and watch the commercial.

It could have been an ad for hair coloring or halitosis or hemorrhoids, it didn’t matter, an ad man was born!

After a few years, it seemed evident that I was either going to go into demolition or art school. I choose art school. What a mistake that was!

But honestly, it was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Don’t you agree class of 2008? Didn’t you find it hard?

Well, I have to tell you, it doesn’t necessarily get any easier. When I first got out of school, like you, I walked into the loving arms of a recession. Except this recession was the worst in Oregon’s history. 1981, Timber was going away and at the time, there was very little to replace it. Nike had barely been born. So what did I do?

I bartended! And I worked during the day as a freelancer. Slowly eking out an existence and building my portfolio until I got a job at an honest to goodness advertising agency. Right here in Portland.

And I became very excited, because my boss was a man of experience and he had big dreams! We were going to go far, and be part of the creative firmament! Yes, because he was the man who at a former agency in LA, was responsible for ads for Krazy Glue and The Ron Popeil Pocket Fisherman and the Vegematic!

Yes, he knew how to get a response out of people, make the phones ring, sell product! Sell, sell, sell!

I was so starry-eyed that I wasn’t listening. This was the man who was responsible for some of the worst advertising ever. Today’s equivalent would be to work for the people who did the Head-On commercial. Head on. Apply directly to the forehead.

It didn’t work out. But would I do it again? You bet I would. Because it was a chance. And I took it.

Because, like you, I have dreams.

My career has had many blunders and mistakes and failures.

Like the time I was offered stock options consulting for Starbucks in the early 1990s. I thought, how many coffee shops could there be?

I’ve been kicked in the teeth by an unappreciative client, backstabbed by jealous rivals and partners and sidelined by everything from volcanoes to 9/11.

I’ve had to work harder than my competition, staying up until the wee hours of the morning, living on coffee and cigarettes for days until I deliver a project just in time and later find out that the project was killed because the client needed to go on vacation.

See what you have to look forward to!

Is it all worth it? Yes. The answer is unequivocally yes. There is no other job in the world like a creative job. You get to go in every morning and play. And you get the best toys to play with–computers, and fabricating machines and ideas. You get to create things! Use your mind to come up with crazy wacky designs and ideas that no one wants to believe until you make them believe.

Sure, you might have to work until 2 in the morning, or maybe even seven. But at least you aren’t gouging your eyes out with spreadsheets.

I have had more fun than any accountant, lawyer or stockbroker I have ever met.

And so, my fellow creative professionals, while the road is hard, it is rewarding. BUT there are a few tools that you will need to survive in your creative careers.

The top three things you need to succeed (aside from a thick skin), as a creative professional are Talent, discipline and passion.

Yes, you know by now that you need talent, Talent includes smarts as well as creativity–you need to be as smart as you are creative. Creativity is useful talent.

Second, you need discipline. When you walk out that door today, know that you will need to be working on your skills every day, constantly sharpening and honing them.

In fact, I think discipline is more important than talent. If you work hard, you can overcome more talented but lazy professionals.

Third, you need to stoke the passion for your craft. This may sound like a no-brainer for you now, but trust me, continue to find new ways to challenge yourself and excite the passion within. Keep stoking the fire.

Talent, Discipline and Passion. Remember those three things and you will be a successful creative professional.

Because we need creative people in this world, people who solve problems, create beautiful things, and make our society a better place to live through their vision.

We need your creativity, class of 2008.

So tell me, is there a future for art majors? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you, is there a future for creative people?

Stand up. Is there a future for you guys?

You bet there is.

Thank you.