Robb’s been a digital creative of one sort or another since 2005 - when he realised that his twin obsessions, the internet and colouring in, could be combined for fun and profit. In the last six years he’s art directed and designed award-winning campaigns for people like Louis Vuitton, Speedo, British Red Cross and WWF (not the wrestling), and had work featured in Creative Review, Digital Arts and New Media Age.
Four the last three years he’s also been illustrating, art directing and designing for a range of private clients as LiteralKid. At the moment he’s half-seriously attempting to rekindle a long-dormant musical career, with limited success.
We spent five minutes chatting to Robb to see what he’s been up to…
Tell us about yourself – who are you and what do you do?
I’m Robb Green. Most of the time I’m Creative Director at SiftGroups, a digital advertising and marketing agency in Bristol, but I also do my own thing as LiteralKid, which is an outlet for the stray ideas that periodically tumble out of my head.
What are you currently up to? Are there any exciting projects ongoing?
I’ve been getting really into hand-drawing and calligraphy lately – when you spend as much time as I do pushing pixels round a screen you forget how nice it is to make something slowly with your hands, so I’m doing a few LiteralKid things based around that at the moment. We’re really busy at the agency as well – we just launched a new inspiration / collaboration project for young artists called REcreative with Louis Vuitton and South London Gallery, and there’s loads of new stuff kicking off as well.
Who or what inspires you?
All kinds of things really. Old robots, Japanese sports cars of the 1980s, typography, David Bowie, the weather, synthesizers, colours, shapes, that sort of thing. Design and ideas are everywhere if you look hard enough.
What’s your best project/work to date?
Professionally, probably REcreative or Traces of Hope, which was an alternate reality game I art directed for British Red Cross back in 2008. Personally, it’s a bit hard to say – I always really like whatever the last thing I finished was!
Anything new going on? Or in the pipeline?
Yeah, there’s a couple of really exciting new projects just getting underway at SiftGroups. I’m not really allowed to talk about them at the moment, but we’re working on a great social media campaign for a major UK charity and also a big project for a magazine that’ll revolutionise the way people interact with print publications online.
When you’re not working, what do you like to do?
At the risk of sounding quite boring, I spend most of my spare time thinking about digital media and drawing pictures. You can’t beat a good draw. I’m also a big fan of cooking stuff and then eating it, and I’m a keen but fairly rubbish flamenco guitarist.
Finally, what tips or advice could you give to other creatives just starting out?
As a young designer I received two pieces of advice that have stayed with me ever since. Number 1: Fail harder. If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough. Number 2: Don’t be a twat. Passion and vision are essential, but you need to be pragmatic as well – nobody’s right all the time, not even you.
