When you trace the creative DNA of some of advertising’s most iconic campaigns, you often find unexpected origins. For Ron Taft, it all began with a guitar and a strategic decision during the Vietnam War. As the founder of Ron Taft Brand Innovation & Media Arts, his journey from military band musician to Emmy-winning creative director illustrates the power of following your creative instincts. In this intimate conversation, Ron reveals how his musical foundations shaped his approach to brand innovation, leading to celebrated collaborations with entertainment giants like David Copperfield, Garry Shandling, and numerous Grammy-winning artists. His unique ability to find the rhythm in visual storytelling has earned him 31 Graphis Awards and established him as one of the industry’s most versatile creative voices.
Introduction by Bruce Nelson, Former Vice Chairman, Omnicom Group
Ron Taft, as longtime aficionados of Graphis know, is one of the foremost graphic designers in the world. This is not new news. He’s been doing it project after project, award after award, for five decades. After all this time, counterintuitively, the work always seems fresh. And remarkably, he never seems to waver. This brings us to the portfolio at hand: Music, Arts & Entertainment. Here, Ron uniquely captures the energy of entertainment. He brings to that energy an elegance, a cleverness, and a clarity of expression. It’s a trifecta that raises the bar we all aspire to.
What do you consider to be the most significant influence on your expansive advertising and design career?
I’ll have to travel back a tad to answer that question.
As a young boy, I had a penchant for both music and fine art, though music was my first love. My mother dabbled in art but also loved dancing and was quite the melophile. I had played guitar in bands throughout high school for all the reasons guys pick up the guitar. Then, 1965 came along, and America found itself at war in Vietnam. At the time, the lure of earning money by playing in bands was greater than my desire to finish high school, so I made a hasty decision and started playing in various bands around town. As luck would have it, I was primed to be drafted into the US Army, where, as I got closer to 18, the odds of being sent to Vietnam were high.
Now comes the more informed, strategic choice.
After much deliberation, I decided to enlist in the Army. Doing so allowed me to audition for duty in the 7th Army Band in Europe. This became my MOS (military occupational specialty), and I was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. It was a fantastic tour, and I was proud to serve.
Music saved my life. While in Europe, I was able to study composition through a special correspondence course provided by the Berklee College of Music in Boston. By the time I was discharged, I was ready to begin my career as a musician. It was my good fortune to have the GI Bill help me through college.
Life is full of surprises, and I surprised myself when I decided to switch my college major to fine arts. I studied painting, sculpture, photography, and design. I wound up seeking a career in advertising, where I felt I could celebrate all facets of my creativity—including music—in a single, all-encompassing vocation. I discovered early on how the fundamental precepts of music were homogeneous with those of the visual and performing arts, which enabled me to adapt easily to their respective disciplines. The duality of music and design became an intrinsic element in all my creative work. I was hooked.
What areas of design do you enjoy the most or find particularly challenging?
As my experience and expertise grew, the world of branding became increasingly salient because it unified and codified a brand’s messaging into a simple, singular expression: its unique, emotional heartbeat—just as the counterpoint of instruments in an orchestral composition can be woven into a distinct, memorable, musical moment.
And speaking of themes, I’ve worked on many different types of advertising and branding over the years, including automotive, consumer electronics, and fashion, as well as many luxury brand products and corporate initiatives. Film, televi- sion, and performing arts projects became a recurring theme— often in an orbit of one kind or another around music.
My passion for music served as a magnet for attracting music-related branding assignments and NPO participation. I have served on the boards of both Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation and the Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium and directed promotional initiatives for NARAS and NAMM.
I have also developed communication strategies and event promotion for the Berklee College of Music, spearheaded organizational development and cultural enhancement initiatives for Guitar Center (which included interior design for 90,000 square feet of their corporate offices), and have taken on numerous award-winning brand innovation and media arts assignments for studios and individual artists.
To me, music and the performing arts have always celebrated the highest aspirations of the human spirit.
What is your process for concept development?
I always look for the inherent drama in an idea. Whenever possible, my goal is to execute it in an iconic form. Most importantly, I strive to surround myself with brilliant thinkers who are often music people. One of my partners, Matthew McCauley, is an extraordinary composer. We met many years ago on a project that took us to London to produce a major music package for a new cable TV launch. Matthew had written the music and conducted the London Symphony Orchestra for the on-air package. We have remained friends and collaborators ever since and actually worked on a very exciting project for NASA where Matthew’s science and mathematical prowess contrib- uted immensely to the project’s success. (Something about math and music sharing space in the same brain, right?)
Another partner, Frank Nuovo, a genius product designer/engineer and an equally gifted drummer, has been an invaluable collaborator over the years. There’s that special music connection again—left brain, right brain.
Point being: The process of collaboration is a great thing. To me, musicians (at least the good ones) develop a unique feel for collaboration. It is born out of improvisation—where you listen and creatively build upon an established groove. So, whenever I have an idea, whether music-related or not, I love to bounce it off the people I trust. It’s a creative feedback loop I value deeply.
Cliff Einstein is a preeminent copywriter, creative force, and longtime partner (and, though not a musician, definitely a bilateral brainer). Music is in Cliff’s genes. His son is a Berklee College of Music graduate and has become one of the most sought-after commercial directors in advertising. That music connection seems to find its way into every aspect of my personal and professional life in some way or another.
Someone once said, “Music picks up where words leave off,” intimating that not every emotion can be translated into words. But sometimes words can bring music to your ears. I love how Netflix cleverly branded TUDUM as their website.
Which clients or projects gave you exceptional satisfaction as they relate to the influences in your background?
Rob Goodchild, former studio manager for United Record- ing, brought me in on an assignment to rebrand the studio and celebrate its expansive, rich heritage. Rob has always been a champion of good branding practices but chose to leave United Recording when it fell under the purview and in-house creative of its corporate entity.
Right out of the gate, I saw an opportunity to marry the company’s name with a tagline that spoke to the bigger idea behind the recording of music, and that was that MUSIC UNITES US—a perfect pairing of name and shared purpose. It was a strategy that led to many inspired ads and promotions that resonated with both producers and artists. Rob was an executive who knew how to relate to his clients, and the work speaks for itself. United’s branding spoke from the soul of musicians and recording artists while leveraging the legacy and technical prowess of a reimagined recording facility.
It’s hard to find executives who don’t buckle under corporate pressure today. Great campaigns must be effectively and consistently championed by people who understand the long game, or the vision can fade. There’s always that pesky battle that looms between artist and enterprise. But these agendas are not mutually exclusive, and it’s magic when they coexist.
Amy Andersson, music director of Orchestra Moderne NYC, created a concert performance series in which she conducts a live orchestra for her award-winning documentary Women Warriors: The Voices of Change, which she also produced and directed.
Amy’s timely and compelling film highlights the lives of more than 65 human rights activists. It debuted at Lincoln Center to rave reviews. Lauded for its stunning orchestral soundtrack composed by a team of eight renowned female composers, it had won over 20 international awards—but not the coveted Grammy for music.
Amy needed a compelling, iconic idea for her upcoming 2022 Grammy campaign that would capture the essence and power of her film score but, most importantly, an idea that would attract academy voters. Grammy campaigns are very competitive, and studios spend vast amounts of money on consideration campaigns. Hence, it’s hard for a newcomer to the Grammy world to rise above the noise level and get attention. All the more reason you need a visual idea and tagline that really pulls the voters in.
There’s a lot of added pressure when you are asked to design something for someone who has put their heart and soul into something for years, and you are the person who needs to deliver the idea that puts the Grammy on the shelf. Having a client’s unconditional confidence and trust, as I did with Amy, is a wonderful thing. The only thing better—and you know what’s coming here—was seeing Amy bring home her first Grammy.
But I have to say that one of my most exhilarating and rewarding experiences—by far—was working with Garry Shandling on The Larry Sanders Show. Garry and I hit it off early on when I became the go-to creative director on his campaigns and promotions. Garry had seen some of the award-winning entertainment advertising I’d done as creative director at Columbia TriStar Television (CTT). He told Brad Grey to set up an appointment with the president of CTT and, at the meeting, asked if they would be willing to loan me out to work on The Larry Sanders Show’s first-year Emmy consideration campaign. The studio head said, “Yes, of course—as long as you let us syndicate The Larry Sanders Show when the time comes.” Then and there, the deal was made. After I left CTT, Garry continued insisting that I be brought in to be his creative director wherever he went.
Garry was a former adman, and he and Judd Apatow were always champions of out-of-the-box thinking. One of Garry’s things was to always trust your audience. Let them discover the message. “Lose the elbow in the ribs.” The key to our campaign was to carry over the Larry Sanders character’s neurotic obsessions to the ad campaign. Every year, the show received numerous awards, and after 56 nominations, Larry (Garry) finally realized his dream with three Emmys. Our Emmy consideration campaign broke new ground and was one of the most celebrated campaigns in the business.
I deeply miss Garry.
Years earlier, I was executive creative director at a global branding agency when David Copperfield contacted our New York office. He wanted to discuss the possibility of our agency working with him to develop new concepts and marketing strategies for future shows. I was ECD in our Los Angeles office then, and that particular new business opportunity was determined to be handled exclusively from New York, where David lived.
When David and his agents visited the New York office, David noticed a particular campaign I had done out of LA, and (sound familiar?) he insisted that I be brought in to work with him directly. And here’s the caveat: no agent, manager, or account director—just one-on-one, no middle-management go-be-tweens or filtering committees. David flew me out to meet with him at his amazing rooftop palace, and it was one of the most pleasurable, incredibly productive meetings I have ever had. One meeting of the minds, and we were off executing ideas.
From then on, I understood the advantage of having direct contact with the ultimate decision-maker at a company, the one who can actually say, “Yes,” cutting through so many superfluous processes. That’s not to say that typical agency protocol is not effective or appropriate in its own way; it’s just that direct communication feels right to me. The model was set for me to start my own brand marketing and communications company, which I greatly enjoy today.
Ron Taft is the president and chief creative officer of Ron Taft Brand Innovation & Media Arts. He has received 31 Graphis Awards and numerous international design and industry awards, including two Emmys for Columbia TriStar Television and two artist award-winning Grammy campaigns. Ron brings a string of celebrated brand innovations and media arts to market. His many disciplines emanate from his advertising agency, television network, film studio, and music industry background. Ron formerly served as the executive vice president/creative director of Dailey Interactive (an IPG company) before founding his company in 2008.
