5 minutes with... Barry Christie - JWT London...

Barry Christie

Creative Director

JWT London

JWT London is an integrated creative agency of international imagination. Our heritage of innovation, our scale and experience of the world, along with the quality of our people, defines who we are.

What do you actually do?
Turn blank pages into spaceships, hydron colliders, ads and digital delights.

When and why you joined?
Been here for about six years now - christ! (no blasphemy intended) . I Joined because i'd never worked for a big agency before and I far prefer it.

How did you get started in the industry?
I went to art school to make films and discovered the internet and it all led from there, graduating into the dotcom boom and some very silly amusing times.

What would you be doing if you weren't in the industry?
I’d be riding bikes over alpine passes and eating French cheese.

What's your current favourite piece of creative work?
Very tough call. On a self-indulgent hand it must be our very sexy little Toni&Guy iAd but I'm really into interactive video/TV at the moment and a great example is Unit9's http://forgetmenot.tv/.

What do you love about your job?
Making stuff is one of the most rewarding parts of life and we get to make stuff, invent stuff, change the way things work, turn things on their heads – it doesn’t get much better than that. If you’re not making you’re faking.

If you could give one piece of advice for someone starting out, what would it be?
Make everything 1,000 times better than you think it is possible to do so, but remember you’re making stuff for people, not machines or yourself.

If you have one Super power what would it be?
Hmm I’d have to flip a coin between teleportation or being able to stop time.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
In classic little boy fashion a spaceman, then a pilot, then a geologist, then a film maker, then this.

What was your worst job and what did you learn from it?
My soul almost died as I worked in a fast food chain paying off debts for playing too much, but I learnt that I couldn’t ever just do a job and that I needed to make stuff.

You have already worked with some amazing brands, who would you like to work with next?
Anyone that wants to make exciting work! You can make amazing things for shampoo, mouthwash and biscuits as well as glamorous technology or seductive brands. As longs as they have the appetite to make good, brave work..

Your favourite app or website?
I love fubiz.net one of my daily go to places.

Facebook or Twitter?
Right now Pinterest tops both of them, but 6 months ago it was twitter and tomorrow it will probably be Facebook. Certainly not Google+, it’s just a bit of a donkey to aid search logarithms.