Name: Stephen Greene
Business: STAN
Location: Manchester & London
Website: www.stanatwork.com
Describe yourself in three words…
Tall, demanding, thoughtful.
Tell us about your background…
I left my Atlanta home and came to London when a friend gave me a copy of Eye magazine in 1994. The thinking demonstrated and the design on show stirred my imagination.
I came over to work with the best and work in an environment that prized good work. Goodbye USA. Ever since then I've tried to raise the bar, creating and developing brands, designing websites and defining businesses to their customers.
Tell us about what you do!
As a career creative I’m interested in how we can connect the media and messaging to be more compelling.
What inspired you to launch your own business?
Choice. We’re all responsible for our work, at least at a day-to-day, but being able to chase your interests is more rewarding. I want to love what I do without ever having to worry about whether it is impossible. It’s an approach clients appreciate.
What’s your proudest moment so far?
Fatherhood, then immigration.
And your greatest project?
The next one. Past work is great, Beck’s, Microsoft, Sony and Toyota, but we can’t get stuck looking back. The creative work in front is where we have a chance to push things further, be more compelling and try new things.
Who or what inspires you?
A good piece of work, especially someone else’s work. It is like a red flag, an invitation, which demands a creative reply.
What do you hope to be doing in five years time?
More. A rest is just atrophy with your feet up. Success, whether modest or highly rewarded success, needs to be followed.
When you aren’t running your creative business, you are…?
Failing to write a novel, which references the genre, but does something more.
Anything exciting ongoing or in the pipeline?
An international website for Adobe, social networking site new2thecity.com, two innovative start-up businesses (future stars) and everything else. Between films, fiction and places to go and, importantly, client work there is a lot of wonder to enjoy and contribute to.
Finally, any words of wisdom to other creative people?
Use Post-It notes to summarise anything you’d print. They take up less room in the landfill, stick to all kinds of things and don’t use expensive toner or costly inkjet cartridges. Better yet, just sketch it.
