A little over a year after I moved to Toronto, I find myself in the market again. My time at Proximity BBDO has ended, and I am trying to replace them in my heart.
With this opportunity, I start thinking to myself “What do I really want to do?”
I have a little list of things I love, and want to turn into a larger part of my life. Here it is so far:
- Emerging Technologies: My wife Missy, used to work at this awesome place in San Francisco called Punchcut where she worked on these amazing interface design projects for mobile phones, television and touch screen kiosks. It was so interesting, and I’d like to make more of these technologies a part of my repertoire.
- Social Causes: If you read this blog at all, you know I am very interested in environmental causes, but I’m also interested in social causes. Things like community based food, local growing and the slow food movement. I’d like to see how I can make the most of this interest and start getting some design thinking behind the public face of small organizations.
- Large scale site design: In the last year, I have been focused so much on advertising and marketing that I’ve really grown to miss working with information architects. My best friend is an IA, and she has drilled the importance of good planning into my head. When we worked together, I loved sitting with her and working out a problem. I think my next position will include much more IA.
- True team community: It’s rare to find a true team community, but I’ve been a part of a couple in my time. It’s different from just working together, it’s playing together. When your team isn’t afraid to question each other, to discuss the problem they’re trying to solve rather than just follow a path, incredible work is possible. Not to mention what happens when that team starts enjoying time spent together outside of work. That’s when brainstorming in the office becomes a magical event, with full participation and no fear of saying something ridiculous.
There are other things I want to add to this list, and they are all just guidelines for what I’d like to see happen to my future. We’ll see what ends up happening, but for now the future looks pretty good. I have a couple of side projects I want to get finished as well, so I will be on the computer more than taking a vacation, but the next few weeks should be pretty relaxing anyway.
If you know of anyone in Toronto looking for a Senior Art Director or an Associate Creative Director, point them my way. The contact info is on the right, my resume is below.
michael_farley_resume_fall2009.pdf