EUGEN SUMAN
Eugen is associate creative director at Slovakian agency Jandl, Bratislava. His work in advertising was a natural decision. “I love to write, was young, creative and thirsty for great things,” he says. “It couldn’t have happened any other way.”
Image: Eugen Suman
The first thing I do in my day is...
Drink my coffee and listen to music. Honestly, I can’t do anything before I’ve had my coffee. After that, it’s the everyday excitement of working in a nice ad agency. Now that I think about it, that excitement was always with me - no matter the agency I was at. Whenever I felt the magic fading, I left. Life is too short to spend it in a place that doesn’t make you happy.
At the moment I am working on...
Three really interesting projects, but I’m afraid I can’t disclose too much about them. Suffice to say that you might just see some of them in Lürzer’s Archive in the coming months.
The best piece of creative work around at the moment is...
It’s hard to say to be honest. There are lots of really nice campaigns and ads, but I haven’t seen anything mind-blowing lately. The quality of what we do, as an industry, is diminishing year after year.
It probably has something to do with the bean counters of the big holding companies and it most definitely has something to do with the fact that the great creatives start leaving the industry and go to places where they feel they can fulfil their creative ambitions better. But to answer the question, I’ll go with Old Spice’s “Wolf Dog”. Because it’s the only one they did that actually comes close to the first one.
I am inspired by...
People, books, video games, travel, music, science, history, math, old shoes and dead president masks. What I’m saying is that everything can be an inspiration for the creative mind, because everything is basically brilliant if you look at it from the right angle.
This year I’ll be attending...
Cannes Lions and probably Golden Drum too.
The next big thing in advertising will be...
There is no such thing. The biggest thing in advertising is and always will be a great idea based on real simple human insights. And idea that both awes and sells. That’s it. It takes a copy and art duo for that magic to happen. The rest is, well, infrastructure. Sometimes I feel that agencies are starting to forget who actually makes their product (i.e. ads). Can you imagine an advertising agency without a creative department? That would be pathetic.
The piece of digital advertising work I wish I had thought of is...
The Crispin Porter + Bogusky “Subservient Chicken” campaign for Burger King, because it was the first truly viral ad which opened up the flood gates. In general I don’t spend too much time thinking about ideas that have already been done, I’m thinking of those that haven’t yet been done.
In a movie about my life, I would like to be played by...
I may be a narcissist, but I’m not that narcissistic to think about movies about my life. So to answer your question, I would let the director decide. After all, that’s why he’s making the big bucks.
My last social media update said...
“What the fucking fuck, Google?” in response to their completely ridiculous idea of killing Google Reader.
My dream collaboration is...
To see what Chuck Palahniuk and Thom Yorke would come up with if given a blank brief: “Do something together”; maybe with the help of Michel Houellebecq. Perhaps I could take some notes or something.
A piece of criticism I’ve received was...
Criticism? What’s that, I’m perfect. Well okay, it has been said that I sometimes lack patience. Which is true, but then again, who has time for inane things?
The last piece of music I listened to was...
“Grupul Stereo”, a proto-electro Romanian band from the communist period.
Video: Old Spice "Meet the Wolf Dog" by Wieden + Kennedy
