80's

This AM I was in my 42nd floor apartment looking out at an early morning NYC vista and dancing to Lime. That's a group that was popular in the early 80s when I lived in Miami. I started thinking about the somewhat odd trajectory of my life - there have been quite a few phases...

Back when I was in high school there were the rocker years. Then, there was the helicopter, Porsche, Cigarette boat years. That's when the Saudis came to town and my girlfriend was seeing Don Johnson (oh gosh!). Then, I was redeemed by art and I moved to EARLY South Beach (lived in the apartment building Gianni Versace made into a private home) and co-founded an art "movement" ahem... Next, I moved to NYC and started all over again. When I was working as a receptionist at a PR agency, one of the VPs came back from a trip to Miami and said, “Val, you're a little well known down there.” Who knew? Hey, I needed a re-invention.

And now here I am, in the WORKING phase. That phase in which you seem to WORK all the time. I missed the baby producing years, sigh. Oh, and I rediscovered my faith, something I guess I had all along and got me through all the SCARY years...

Well, we're about to launch a new business, so I'm thinking about my past. Honestly, if I could do it over again there are DEFINITELY things I would do differently. But you can't go back, just forward. So, I'm looking forward to my future and getting ready for a new phase that's looking pretty darn good from where I'm sitting (on the exercise bicycle in my gym). LOL!

I used to represent a man that I personally feel is one of the most creative, most intelligent individuals in the advertising and branding business. He had this incredible handle on popular culture and historical references. He could connect past movements in film, photography and art with current trends and bring them to life in advertising campaigns that would resonate without you ever really understanding why.

I always enjoyed talking to him because I knew I would learn something new, and because he inevitably validated things I was sensing but felt were too far “out there” to matter, at least at that time. Good trend watching keeps an eye on the near-ish future. Too far out, and you lose people. He was always super far out (while he was reaching back), but he was also able to keep a finger on that emerging trend that was just about ready to bubble into the collective consciousness.

Anyway, what’s the point? In our business it’s critical that we are able to put our ideas and concepts into cultural context. I remember back in the late ‘80s on Miami Beach when a heady mix of visual artists, poets and performance artists populated the seaside town. My friends and I did an event every Thursday night at a theater on Washington to promote artists. When I told my quite a bit older boyfriend at the time what we were doing he smiled that sweet, slightly condescending smile that I find I smile these days as I’ve grown older, and informed me that our event was known as a “happening” circa 1968. Okay, nothing new under the sun. But it reminded me that what you don’t know can hurt you… In our business that’s a fact, so if you’re in communications do your homework. My mother always teased me when I was young because I was enamored with old movies, the Beatles, Che Guevara, the Civil War (not to mention the Etruscans and The Lord of The Rings). But I’m glad I spent time looking back, it’s helped me to be a better communicator today.