My academic background has nothing to do with what I’m doing now, although I guess you can find similarities between a teacher and a Creative Director. Somehow, at some point in my life, I ended up working as a scriptwriter for one of the local TV channels and what came after was a pretty standard path: copywriter - head of creative - starting my own agency.

Because it is never boring. One day you’re knee deep in banking and finance, the next day it’s natural juices, the day after it’s plastic surgery and the rest of the week it’s environmental awareness. Can’t think of another job where you get to explore this many different spheres and topics.

Also, once you realize you can make a living by just coming up with ideas, it’s impossible to go back.

I’m the Creative Director at Zuck&Berg, Zuck for short. We’re a creative agency based in downtown Yerevan. I started it three years ago, with my friend Arman, who is now the Art Director. At first, most of our work was focused on digital channels, but now we are mostly known for our integrated campaigns.

As for what I do, I’m heavily involved in both management and the creative processes going on in the Agency. One of those is more fun than the other – I won’t say which one.

Honestly, not much. Just because something is creative, doesn’t mean it’s valuable, effective or even useful. Creativeness is one of the many, many factors that distinguishes good work from one that is bad or mediocre.

Newness. Not sure if that’s even an actual word, but most of the time, when I find myself calling something “creative”, what I really mean is that I haven’t seen it before. So, if the question is, “How to make something creative?”, I’ll say - do something new.

My creative process is a constant, never-ending loop of gathering knowledge, experiences, information, inspiration and courage from the world around me, then using it all up for my work, then gathering more. And so on.

When a project is truly challenging (and we do our best to choose projects that are), there always comes this moment when you feel like the problem is just impossible to solve. It’s this really unsettling feeling that I’m sure every creative has experienced – the feeling that you don’t really know what you’re doing and every success up to now has just been a lucky accident.

I love moments like these, because they make sure that we never get too confident and push us to keep growing.

The one word I’d use to describe my (and Zuck’s) creative style is - bold. A lot of our work breaks conventions, pushes boundaries, divides the public and enrages the narrow-minded.

It’s not like we’re aiming to make something controversial. It’s just that the best solution to the problem often happens to also be the bravest one.

Definitely. For instance, playing with the Armenian language is a big part of our creative process, especially the everyday, non-formal spoken Armenian that’s constantly changing and evolving.

As an agency working in a small country with a newly formed advertising industry, it’s important for us to make sure that our work is outstanding not only by the local standards, but also internationally.

Receiving this award is validation that we’re on the right path.

The CalenDare Against Plastic is an environmental campaign for one of Armenia’s biggest brands: ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK. It started with an unconventional calendar composed of 4 paper bags and grew into an integrated awareness campaign spanning digital and OOH channels. Armenians are using plastic bags at an alarmingly high rate, so much so that this small country of less than 3 million people goes through 3000 tons of plastic bags every year. As a result of the campaign, we not only raised awareness about the issue, but actually got hundreds of people to accept the dare and make a pledge to switch to better alternatives.

Despite the technical difficulties with designing and printing 4 paper bags built into a wall calendar (from finding the right paper to making the bags come off without tearing the whole thing apart), the biggest challenge was getting the people to care about the issue we were raising. Plastic pollution isn’t the most discussed topic in Armenia, so we had to make sure to get the right message to the right people at the right time.

It has reinforced our commitment to creating social responsibility campaigns.

The Industry isn’t just there to solve problems for brands – it can be a part of the solution for many of the world’s most difficult problems. We want to make sure that we do our part.

The creative process.

The raised eyebrows on clients’ faces when they first hear the idea. My team.

The weird sense of humor, and the fact that as a country, we’re in the middle of a massive transition, from a deeply traditional, old-fashioned society to, well, something entirely different.

I have no idea. That’s the beauty of this industry. If you asked creatives this question 10 years ago, I’m pretty sure none of them would predict that in 10 years, the whole industry would be revolving around a worldwide pandemic.

The only way to thrive in this industry is to be totally, passionately, shamelessly, unapologetically yourself. That’s how you come with truly original ideas. And, no less important, that’s how you have the most fun.

1. A piece of (preferably recycled) paper.

2. A pencil.

3. An indefinitely open and curious mind.

4. Maybe some coffee.

You’re not creative (talented, educated, etc.) enough to make it in advertising.

Never have and never will say that to anyone – anyone can be great at advertising if they work hard enough. I might say “You’re too lazy to make it”, but luckily, haven’t had the chance.

Every person I have ever met. Everyone is fascinating in their own way. If I ever meet someone not fascinating at all, they’ll inspire me to be as different from them as possible.

Fear. I call it the right kind of fear – the fear of staying in one place, the fear of not realizing my full potential, the fear of not expressing myself fully, the fear of not having enough adventures, the fear of living a normal, unremarkable life.