Intro
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Hi, my name is Walt Viviers. I’m the Creative Director at Menzies Media, and a dedicated family man. I’m a father to a beautiful baby girl and stepfather to two wonderful teenage girls. My wife is my best friend and in my spare time I fancy myself as a bit of an artist and philosopher.
Walt Viviers
Creative Director
Menzies Media
Walt Viviers
Creative Director — Menzies Media
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Skills
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Throughout my career I have acquired the management and creative skills required to get the job done. I also possess the ambition to keep those skills sharp, along with the drive to acquire new skills, as needed, to keep getting the job done in the future, and to do it better.
Creative Direction
I motivate and guide my team with knowledge, skills and experience related to advertising, marketing, graphic design, writing, fine arts, motion graphics and related fields.
Strategising
To make relatable graphics and write engaging prose is one thing, but those things are not effective on their own and need strategising to focus everything around a measurable goal.
Research
I prefer data over guesswork. I'm also a quick study; If I don't know it I'll figure it out. The more you know the more you can do, see what others have done, look at the evidence, follow the facts.
Graphic Design
Print, digital, raster, vector... you name it, I've done it. I started freelancing during high-school and was officially employed in a serious graphic design position in 2006.
Photography
My eye for design, art, and the ability to use Adobe Photoshop gives me all the tools I need to create a beautiful photo. Because you don't take a good photo: you make one.
Creative Writing
I studied creative writing at AFDA and have been writing ever since. I've written all the copy on my website, and enjoy writing blog posts, short stories and poems in my spare time.
Art Direction
My first love. Solidifying the vision of the collective imagination while resolving conflicting agendas and inconsistencies: bringing out the best in everyone to complete a collaborative artwork.
Illustration
I've been drawing since I was able to hold a crayon. These days I prefer to do my illustrations in Adobe, or with acrylic paint on canvas. I absolutely love creating clean illustrations using vectors.
Fine Art
My grandparents were art school lectures, my mother and father are both artists. Making art runs in my blood and lives in my bones. I feel about artists the way other people feel about musicians.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” — Albert Einstein
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Experience
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I’ve been an artist and a fan of technology my whole life. With over fifteen years of experience in the media, advertising and entertainment industries, and over five years working as a creative director; I have the experience required to find creative solutions to everyday business problems.
Creative Cloud
I have my own Adobe account. It is my toolbox and my sandbox: it pays the bills and brings me joy. I'm a fan of all their apps. Not having access to their full toolset is not an option for me.
WordPress
I was introduced to this Content Management System by Nick Hunt-Davis in 2011, and I've been a fan ever since. It's a powerful tool with many benefits, a weapon of mass media.
Facebook Business Manager
I've done over a Million Rands worth of advertising on Facebook's powerful business platform since 2015. It is an incredibly effective advertising platform.
Adobe Photoshop
To say that I love Photoshop would NOT be an over-exaggeration. It has brought me many hours of joy and its power and versatility never cease to amaze me. It is been my primary design tool for one and a half decades, and I would feel very lost without it.
Adobe Illustrator
Simply put: the best vector-based design and illustration tool on the market. I use it every day of my adult life; for work and for fun. I love how it integrates with Photoshop and other Adobe applications; combining their power to achieve so much more.
Adobe Premiere
Photoshop has some useful video and animation tools, but when you need some serious video editing at your fingertips it's difficult to beat something as powerful as Adobe's incredibly comprehensive and integrated movie-making tool.
Google Business Tools
The power of Google is universally felt. I am a huge fan of their online advertising and business tools. Especially the Drive, Docs and Keep.
Shopify
A robust platform for online shops as well as physical ones. Everything you would ever need to sell your goods on the world wide web. Shopify, in my opinion, is the king of its domain.
MailChimp
A highly popular mass email service, MailChimp's customisation options and company ethics makes it one of the most respectable ways to acquire and distribute emails to your subscribers.
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour.” — William Blake
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Interests
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Skills and experience are without a doubt important qualities in any worker, but what about their passions and interests? If skills and experience are part of the recipe for making a cake then interests make up the quality of that cake’s ingredients:
Science Fiction
Visions of the future. Imagination. Dreams. Robots. Spaceships. What is there not to like about science fiction? From space-operas to hardcore sci-fi, I am infatuated. H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Michael Crichton, Frank Herbert and so many more, they are visionaries, the kings of imagination.
Philosophy
The great granddaddy of arts and science. Philosophy is the hallowed birthplace of logical thinking, deep questions, and the quest for discovery. As an artist, and a scientist, I have a natural attraction to questions that involve the meaning of life, what it means to be human, and how to live to my full potential.
History of Art
Essentially, it's the 'history of capturing events in a visual format' - thoughts, fantasies, visions, history, everything in-between and everything on the sides. It is a glimpse into the human psyche: looking through the eyes of imagination in times gone by, helping us to see where things are going.
Psychology
The human mind is a Pandora's box of mystery. What are people thinking. And why? What am I thinking, and why? What is it to be human? What makes us, us? I don't think there's a person in this world that couldn't benefit from a bit of Psychological understanding.
Biology
Oh, how I admire the methodology of science. Atoms to genes, creatures to memes. If psychology asks: who are we? Then biology asks: what are we? Biology is a way for us to figure out what we are, where we came from, and where we might be going.
Technology
Toys, tools and robots... the next phase in human evolution? Artificial intelligence, manufactured existence, technology is modern magic. I find it difficult to fathom my existence without cars, electricity, computers and running water.
“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts.” — Charles Darwin
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Think Tank
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I constantly work diligently and loyally to find solutions for my employers and clients, utilising media and strategy, proactively directing my team, creating high-end graphics, and providing creative input.
Creative Thinking
What does a box of matches and a lobster have in common? How much is eleven divided by green? So, you want out-the-box ideas. How far down the rabbit hole would you like me to go? Most of the time it's the less fantastical problems that require creative solutions.
Motor Mouth
Once I start talking strategy you might have to stop me or I could go on forever. Brainstorming, starting conversations, bouncing ideas around, these are things that I thrive on. That said, I do practice the art of listening more than I talk, so that what I say has value.
Conversation Starter
I'm always ready to talk. With a world brimming to the edge with content, and the internet constantly delivering it to our pockets and desks, what isn't there to talk about? Conversations lead to ideas, clarity of vision, and relationships.
Fresh Ideas
In order to have fresh ideas, one must understand stale ideas. An idea is not stale because it is bad, like a pie at your local grocer, the longer an idea sits on the shelf, the mouldier it becomes. You don't always need to change the recipe of the pie, but you do need to keep baking fresh ones.
Out of the Box Thinking
Sound is vibration. Vision is refraction of photons. Vibrations and particles, flowing towards us, intercepting us. The world is one way, and we experience it another way. Thinking out of the box is just a matter of looking past pre-defined labels.
Scientific Method
1 + 1 = 2 and Blue + Red = Purple. Some things are just opinions, but some things are facts. Opinions are like assholes: everyone's got one, facts however are immutable: it's just the way things are. I like to work with the facts, I prefer to operate from a place of understanding.
“Education is something you can’t finish.” — Isaac Asimov
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Upskilling
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There are so many incredible and interesting things in this world. More things than is possible to know in a single lifetime. Thanks to the power of the internet there is now no excuse not to learn something new every day. Along with practising French so that I can learn a third language, I am also actively pursuing these certifications:
HTML, CSS, Javascript
SoloLearn Certification
Facebook Blueprint Courses
Facebook Certification
Fund. of Digital Marketing
Google Certification
“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” — Marcus Aurelius
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Personality
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Ethics & Philosophical Naturalism are the basis of my morality and decision making. I embrace human reason, and I’m a friendly and good-natured. I love a good laugh but I’m also a serious person and a survivor. My personal creed I love by is this: “You can prepare, but you cannot control. So always be prepared.”
Leader
Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal; directing workers and colleagues with a strategy to meet the company and clients needs.
Humanist
I am informed by science, inspired by art, motivated by compassion, and choose to affirm the dignity of each human being. Supporting individual liberty and planetary responsibility.
Sceptic
I prefer to vet claims through systematic investigation via scientific understanding and empirical evidence. I'm not afraid to have an opinion, but my opinions will change with the facts.
Artist
What is an artist? Someone who draws and paints? For then, I am an artist. But for me, art is more. It is a way of looking at the world. An appreciation for the details. A connection to things on an atomic and cosmic level.
Loyal
Loyalty is the ability to put others before yourself and stick with them in good times and bad. All for one, one for all. I give people the benefit of the doubt, and they will only lose my loyalty if it is not reciprocated.
Family Man
I adore my wife, our daughter, and my three stepchildren. Playing games, telling stories, hanging out. Every minute is a gift. I live for my family. Looking after them is my greatest motivation.
“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” — Carl Sagan
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Outro
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The quotes on my site are all from inspirational people; my guides; my mentors. These are ideas I meditate on. I believe in the wisdom of those who have come before me. I believe in people. I‘m a person, I believe in myself. I make things for people. Real people, everyday people. From the caveman to the astronaut, for me, life is art.
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Going Up?
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