Phill Bonnell– Creative Director at SapientNitro
Brad Huffman – Designer at SapientNitro
SapientNitro, part of Sapient® is a new breed of agency redefining storytelling for an always-on world. Phil and Brad explained that they are changing the way their clients engage with today’s connected consumers by creating integrated, immersive stories across brand communications, digital engagement, and omni-channel commerce. SapientNitro is a fascinating company with over 12,000 employees and 31 globally connected offices. They have three main accounts that they work on out of Toronto which are Harley Davidson, Chrysler/Jeep, and Loblaws. They also work with many other companies such as Porter Airlines, TD Bank, Scotiabank, Canadian Tire etc.
PHIL: NOTHING ENDURES BUT CHNAGE
BRAD HUFFMAN: LIFE IS ART, LIVE TO CREATE
Phill Bonnell, now the creative director at SapientNitro started out his career at York University in the BFA, Visual Arts program. He said that this program taught him critical thinking. This is a very powerful skill to be able to think quickly in this industry. He then worked as a shipper/receiver and as he explained it, reality set in. He decided to return to school and chose Sheridan College’s New Media course. This taught him how to be a design professional. He said that you owe it to your clients to be professional. In his experience working for Henderson BAS and Teehan+LAX he learned how to make mistakes, but fail gracefully. He also learned how to take ownership and be accountable for his own work. He also learned how to tie a tie. He then started working for SapientNitro where he learned strategy, stewardship, empathy and how to make epic stuff that makes a difference in people lives.
Brad Huffman is currently a designer for SapientNitro. His educational background is Advertising at Algonquin College. He had a difficult time after graduation finding a job because in the advertising industry in Ottawa you need to be bilingual. He ended up finding employment at Home Depot and working as a freelance designer. This lead him to the decision to return to school and he chose Sheridan College’s Web Design program. After graduation he started working for SapientNitro and he said there is a lot of late nights but he has learned a lot in his time there.
PHIL BONNELL PRESENTING
Brad and Phil showed us a lot of the companies portfolio which included a lot of work with Harley Davidson. They also showed us their work for Presidents Choice where they did the Decadent Cookies 25 year campaign. I thought this was really fascinating. They talked about how they implemented the ideas and even how the one staff member created all the chocolate chip designs (with real chocolate chips!).
Harley Davidson www.harley-davidson.com
SapientNitro has hosted the grad show for Sheridan College’s Web Design program in the past so we were able to ask them a few questions to help prepare ourselves. Some of the advice they gave us was:
- Rely on each other as much as possible
- When splitting into groups, pull your weight
- Introduce yourself
- Be friendly
- Support each other
- Be confident
- Hopefully you will be leaving with an interview set up
- If there is an agency that you are interested in, persist, shake a hand and get contact information
- Bring a CD pack, resume
- Online portfolio
- Try to put in work that alines well with the business you want to work with
- Focus on what your good at
PAY ATTENTION TO TYPOGRAPHY CLASS
Brad and Phil also gave us a little more information on SapientNitro and stated it is a good company to work for. They also have a lot of events that they put together for the staff. Some of the events are skateboard night, Movember, Movie night and Axe throwing. They also work with a lot of charity organizations and try to get out to help the community as much as possible. When you work with 300 people there will be someone interested in the same community project as you. They suggested to make sure you take yourself out of our comfort zone and meet everyone. SapientNitro also has a lot of options to travel, you just put up your hand for different pitches you are interested in and you can get the opportunity to travel to the other offices where the pitch is happening. I think that sounds like a lot of fun and overall SapientNitro sounds like a very social company which can make work fun. I’m looking forward to seeing SapientNitro again at the grad show and get the chance to show them my portfolio.
To learn more about Phill Bonnell, connect with him on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/phil. To learn more about Brad Huffman connect with him on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/brad
Here are some additional links:
http://www.sapientnitro.com/en-us.html#home
MICHELLE FARLEY 