I first met Hei two years ago, and he was one of the few very talented and hardworking kids I had ever met.

If you've been in the advertising industry for a long time, you'll probably notice how deeply ingrained laziness is in us as the original sin of the human species. That's right, thanks to the clear division of labor, every child in the job can learn how to use the principle of "each doing his job" to avoid the knowledge he should learn and the responsibility he should have when connecting with the work. Planner only needs to use what he has learned according to the brief, and analyze the brand positioning and future communication plan through a bunch of data; The Account (customer service department) only needs to have a good relationship with the customer, write the brief clearly (or even don't use it in many cases), fill the deck page and do a good job of beautifying; The copy writer of the creative department only needs to write the creative elaboration and copywriting beautifully, the strategy and design are not important, the designer only needs to be proficient in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and other software, what strategy, what copy, what idea is best all have nothing to do with me. Everyone thinks day after day about how to deal with their Party A, how to get off work early, how to miss a few times when attending, whether the company will travel this year, where the destination is, and how much bonus they can receive on the annual meeting or the Spring Festival.

I don't know what it feels like when Party A, who has to compare baht, knows that part of every high market budget becomes the salary of the above-mentioned people.

But the little black I know definitely doesn't fall into any of the above categories.

When I took over Yaoxuan's creative department, there were up to 11 people, and Xiao Hei was the most silent young designer among them, with a tall and handsome appearance but a quiet and introverted and shy personality.

Jiang Bailing uses a part of one of the floors of Yaoxuan as a canteen, and specially hires a team of chefs to provide each employee with a nutritious, balanced and delicious lunch for free. During the lunch break, you will see that the crowd will roughly divide into three directions: a group of people will solve the problem of eating directly in the cafeteria, and at the same time start nothing more than celebrity gossip and short topics in parents; Another group brought the food to their workstations, put on headphones and began to catch up; The rest of the group went out directly, looking for all kinds of small restaurants for the tooth festival.

It is difficult to divide Xiao Hei into which group of people, this child will always be alone, of course, a small group of young women who have just arrived will undoubtedly be attracted by Xiao Hei's handsomeness and mystery, so they deliberately seek opportunities to walk with Xiao Hei during the break, but with a period of contact, no one can maintain a long-term enthusiasm for Xiao Hei's woodenness and incomprehensible amorousness. Xiao Hei cooks alone, hides in the workstation alone and eats in a hurry, but he can always ensure that the rice bowl is cleaned and there is no leftovers, and then he began to study the drawing for nearly an hour.

That's how I started to pay attention to Blackie.

When people have rare leisure, they often choose to hide in their preferred comfort zone first. So there are those who get together to play mobile games, those who get together to watch ball games, those who simply get together at the desk and Zhou Gong, those who get together to catch up on dramas, and those who go out to do some simple exercises to breathe fresh air, and Xiao Hei is always the only one who makes pictures at the workstation.

The pictures made by Xiao Hei have nothing to do with work at all, they are not company cases at all, and it is impossible to be an external part-time job, you can see it with your own eyes - the kind of weird painting style that is difficult for ordinary people to accept, and the use of materials that do not consider copyright issues at all - just to make the picture in his head. Even if the workload of the day is overwhelming, even if it is only a short half hour of rest, Xiao Hei will seize every second to repair and paint.

When I asked him why he was so obsessed with doing such a non-fun and unpaid job every day, he replied very seriously and simply: "In my opinion, there is nothing more enjoyable than making pictures." ”

Everything he experienced later confirmed his puzzling and enviable interest - there was no software on his personal computer that had nothing to do with drawing and drawing, and he collected and forwarded a large number of drawing and drawing skills in his private social account, whether it was videos, graphic stickers or paid teaching; The only topics that can keep him talking about are how to make pictures, the drawing skills of the great gods, and the details of every update of Adobe's software.

Thorough drawing maniac, but not limited to one drawing.

Later, when he learned that I had worked for a certain 4A company for many years, he kept asking me about everything related to advertising, marketing, and communication, even the division of labor and workflow of 4A.

He took meticulous notes on the research on marketing and communication strategies during the meetings, and he collected and organized the cases I shared, the decks I had written, the headlines (ad headlines) that went out on the street and those that didn't, the insight analysis, the annual Effie award-winning cases, the Cannes Golden Lion case and the TVC launched during the Super Bowl. You think he's just a collector? Then his strategy of working backwards on his own notes and his creative poster based on it will definitely make you marvel at the talent and diligence of this child.

He does not miss any opportunity to learn about the field of advertising, and he does not miss any time he can improve his profession. After a few brief reminders, Xiao Hei became the brightest star of the entire creative department, and I have never met an advertising talent like him who is only bent on making the right strategy and making amazing designs.

But in terms of human sophistication, Xiao Hei really handled it in a mess.

What happened two years ago is proof of that.