Today we are talking with Leighton Hubbell, a designer-illustrator based in Orange, California. He has a portfolio spanning multiple industries including automotive, entertainment, retail, technology and travel-tourism. Among his many clients you’ll find names such as Toyota, Warner Brothers, Starbucks, PepsiCo, Sprint and Hilton Hotels. Let’s find out what he’s been up to, and where he feels he’s headed.

Hile Design: Hi, Leighton. Many designers found 2008 challenging, due to the uncertain economy. You have a diverse client base and a wide range of creative services, which is helpful in an economic downturn. How’s it going for you and your clients?

Leighton Hubbell: Well, it hasn’t been easy. I have definitely seen a decline in the number of projects that have come my way. There have been a lot of submitted proposals, but unfortunately a good percentage have either been scaled back or put on hold. At the very least, they’re still calling.

It’s situations like these that make me glad I can participate in many different types of projects. When logo design is slow, then illustration might take its place for a while—and so on. It helps pay the bills.

Since everyone is really watching their pennies these days, clients and marketers have to be extra-savvy about how they spend their ad dollars. In my situation, I can help direct a client into an appropriate type of medium and still keep the work in-house.

HD: You’ve been in business 20 years. Back when you started your career, only a few creatives were using computers (the Mac Classic was released in 1984). Did you begin with a T-Square and parallel rule? And since we’re talking about your history, can you share the three biggest highlights of your career so far?

LH: I started out in the traditional sense, T-square and triangles, ink and illustration boards. Can you say “Haber rule”?

My first full-time job was a great introduction to that world. I was one of four art directors working in an in-house art department at a bicycle manufacturer.

Back then, you had a lot of different people you had to work with and trust to get the results you were envisioning. You had photographers, retouchers, typesetters, color separators and even proofreaders. You had to have a lot of good hand skills to communicate your ideas and make things happen. Rough layouts really were rough sketches. It truly was like opening a Christmas package when the work was printed. The client (owner) really had to make a leap of faith that the piece would turn out like the marker comp. Now, everything is very complete and refined before it ever gets to the printer.

I started using a Macintosh SE (with 3MB of RAM) in 1988, when my employer made the investment of three workstations. Businesses back then really thought they could get a Mac and start replacing designers with all the “productivity” the computer would provide them. Now of course, everyone realizes it’s just a very versatile tool.

I’d have to say that my biggest highlights would have more to do with my growth as a designer and business person, than anything else.

My first highlight would have to be seeing my first produced, 4-color print ad in a national magazine—an ad that I had created. I was beaming and really felt like I had finally arrived. I remember working out the headlines and concepts, then toiling over colors, working with the photographer and doing all the paste-up myself. It was a pretty cool feeling.

Someone once told me early on, that you haven’t really been in advertising until you’ve been laid off at least once. The first time I got laid off sticks in my mind as one of the lowest and most depressing moments of my then-career. You feel like you’ve just been dumped by your girlfriend. The fortunate, bright side comes from the word getting around town that you’re available, and the phone starts ringing! I had solid work two weeks after leaving the agency. That felt pretty good.

The last highlight that sticks in my memory is landing my first big client contract. I remember meeting with the client for the first time and being pretty nervous. We had been introduced by a former client of the agency I had recently left. She was now working as a marketing consultant and spoke very highly of my work to this new prospect. The company was in a category that I had very limited experience with, so I thought I didn’t have much of a chance.

Well, they were impressed and asked me to submit an estimate. So, I went back to my studio and put together some numbers. I thought I had a pretty fair and buttoned-up proposal. The marketing consultant took a look at it during our lunch meeting the next day. Then she said something I’ll never forget, “Double it, and we’ve got a deal.” I was in shock. Really?

When the deposit check showed up, it all of a sudden became reality. Here’s where the rubber hits the road. Don’t screw this up!

As it turned out, the work was some of my strongest at the time and produced several design awards. I thank them for giving me the opportunity.

HD: Like any entrepreneur whose business spans a long period of time, you must have gone through periods where you felt less than inspired. How do you rekindle your creative fire and keep it burning?

LH: It’s easy to get in a creative rut, especially in my situation where I don’t have other creative people in my studio. Not much on water cooler chat!

The key to staying creative is to have a balance in your life. You can’t expand your creative horizons if you have too much of the same influences all the time. Some of my more creative colleagues are into things that aren’t in the regular scope of art or design. The cool thing is, you can see that influence in their work. That is how fresh, new work is started, by blending seemingly unrelated things together to create something special.

My brain is always going. Many times something will come to me and I need to sketch or write it down. I find if I don’t do that right away, I may forget about it and move on—thought lost. After a while, I have a stack of little papers collecting on my desk.

One of the things I do to keep a little sanity in all this is to keep a sketchbook with me. I paste these little gems along with magazine clippings, photos, receipts, letters—anything that may inspire me—in the book with scribbles and notes included. This gives my noggin a rest and allows me to work on the task at hand. I can go back and refer to my sketchbooks any time I need a little inspiration.

I love going to bookstores and thumbing through the hundreds of magazines on the shelves. There’s stuff in there I didn’t even know existed. Good or bad, it does a lot to make me feel connected and to inspire me, too.

There will always be highs and lows in any creative person’s career. It’s easy to get down on yourself when things feel less than creative. We also feel a certain pressure to perform at our best to please our clients and hopefully get more work.

I firmly believe that our brains are working on a project or problem in the background, while we’re working on something else. I usually go through the preliminary materials and research for a bit and then let it simmer. When the time is right, I go back to that project and get a good jump-start on the work. It’s amazing what comes to you when you just relax and let go!

HD: You’re on your own now, but your background includes working for large ad agencies. Have you ever considered going back to the agency life?

LH: I don’t know. Working at a large agency has its good and not-so-good things about it. On the one hand, you get these amazing opportunities to create something that could be the next “Got milk?” campaign—something that becomes part of pop culture and the American thread. On the other hand, there are days you feel like you’ve sold your soul for a nice paycheck. I tried the big agency thing, but I prefer closer interaction with the client, like a boutique shop.

The biggest thing I miss is the camaraderie. Not the politics so much, but the people and the energy. There is always something buzzing at an ad agency and it’s so infectious. I’m sure that’s one of the many reasons clients love to tour an agency, because it’s nothing like their world and it looks like fun!

I won’t say never, but I sure enjoy the studio situation I have now.

HD: You wear several different hats including marketing adviser, creative director, art director, graphic designer, illustrator and salesman. Do you have a favorite, and why?

LH: You forgot IT guy, phone answerer, FedEx preparer person and maintenance guy. Just kidding.

No seriously, that’s a tough one. I’m a bit torn, because there are certain facets of each role that I do enjoy. If I had to pick, it would be illustration. I still love to draw and create conceptual, interesting images. Plus, I can concentrate on technique and not worry about all the other components of the project—just my part.

HD: What haven’t you done yet that you would love to do, given the opportunity?

LH: Probably movie or TV titles and credits. I’ve always wanted to do the typography for a major movie. I know it sounds odd, but I’ve seen some pretty cool treatments over the years. Something like Six Feet Under on HBO. That would be fun to try.

HD: Having your own business can be all-consuming. How do you balance your job with your personal life?

LH: First and foremost, I really make a concerted effort to have regular work hours. My family is very important to me, so I try to be there for the important stuff. Not to say that work things don’t ever come up, because they do, but I have my priorities.

I also mountain bike or hike at least three times a week on a regular basis. Sometimes, I get in an extra ride on the weekends. Being able to enjoy the outdoors and stay healthy is an important part of my staying balanced. One of the great benefits is that it also allows me to think about things without distraction for a little while. A lot of cool concepts have been devised on a long ride. I highly recommend it.

HD: Can you speculate about the future of advertising and graphic design and where you see your own business headed?

LH: At a certain point in time, they were very separate entities. It seems like they get closer and more integrated every year. Businesses are always trying to get face time with their target audience by doing it in as many ways as possible.

It seems to me that it’s all about the evolution of the various media. Technology will continue to add more ways that we can communicate with each other. As that evolves, there will also be more opportunities to promote and create.

I will continue to try to stay ahead of the curve and learn as much as I can about new techniques. There will always be a need for something new, and I want to be there to help create it.

Thanks for sharing with us, Leighton. Our best wishes for a successful 2009 and beyond.
If you’d like to see more of his work, visit Leighton’s website or check out his blog.

Tags: Leighton Hubbell

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.