Senior Director o
f Branding
In 2 words: Gets it
At Empathos: Filter for all Empathos stands for and delivers
Career: 25-year ad man
Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts
Sideline: 3 kids, a wife and a dog
Learned the hard way: A bad boss can teach you as much as a good one
A little more about me
Blaine thought art theory and methodology were “crap” when he first heard these concepts as an undergraduate at the Minnesota School of Art and Design.
Today he gets it. These notions help him think a little bit deeper, peel the proverbial onion a tad more, to get into the skin of the target audience, and arrive at solutions that appeal to them. It’s what trips his trigger, to break through the clutter, bypass the cliché, locate that hot button, and create something relevant that resonates. In a nutshell, it’s an empathy thing. Which makes Blaine a good match to nail the brand strategy for Empathos.
Blaine has developed award-winning creative for many projects over a 25-year career in advertising and design. But none of these were about suicide—until now. Blaine admits it was “very scary to climb into those shoes” and immerse himself in suicide as the “project.” But this was vital to create a logo for Empathos that hits the mark.
So dig deep he did, building a brand strategy and graphic mark that reflects concepts central to current best-practice treatment of suicidal people—connectedness, empathy for the suicidal wish, and standing on common and equal ground.
Paying homage to the time it takes to create something worth having stands as a sentinel in Blaine’s office. It’s a monolithic all-metal British Imperial typewriter, circa 1940. For Blaine, it reminds him of beauty in form and function, and the juxtaposition between a fast solution and a solution that works.
The same can be said of treatment of suicidal people. The solution that works may take time, but the outcome is undeniably worth having.