The Many Side-Quests of Darick Maasen

Darick Maasen is a creative problem solver with 20 years of experience turning ideas into meaningful campaigns. As creative director at Chicago-based brand commerce agency Blue Chip, he blends artistic talent with strategic thinking to develop engaging concepts that drive business.

He leads teams of skilled creatives, guiding ideas from concept to execution with care and precision. His work spans national TV, experiential and in-store marketing, with brands like Daisy Sour Cream, Merrell Footwear, and Gallo Winery.

Beyond client work, he’s active in Chicago’s art scene – participating in group shows, designing tiki mugs, and running a long-standing weekly figure drawing club.

Darick sat down with LBB to discuss being a self confessed disciplined artist and side-quest junkie, early mentors that helped him find his creative talents, and his proudest work.

Person

I’d describe myself as an equal parts disciplined artist and side-quest junkie.

I grew up at the end of a gravel road in Missouri, raised on a steady diet of Nickelodeon, ‘Ninja Turtles’, and ‘Godzilla’ movies, and I drew constantly to escape boredom.

Luckily, I had mentors who kept me on track when structure like school wasn’t clicking. Mr. Benke basically saved me from dropping out by letting me earn my diploma through his commercial art class, where I learned you could actually make a living off creativity.

Later, drawing caricatures at Six Flags taught me speed, confidence, and how to create under pressure while strangers judged your work in real time. Those lessons in discipline and craft stuck with me, but so did my pull toward the weird.

I’ve built a side career in the Tiki world just because I liked the mugs, and now my designs sit in bars across the country. I’ve jumped into hotdog-themed shows, ‘Godzilla vs. Chicago,’ pinewood derby art cars – whatever oddball project comes along. And about 12 years ago I started a figure-drawing group that still meets weekly, blasting death metal while sketching models who are anything but standard.

So, yeah: disciplined, but happily distracted by the strange and unexpected.

Product

Daisy Sour Cream is at the top for me. I love the ‘Daisy Dash’ work because it came straight from my life. I’m the guy who won’t touch tacos or potatoes without sour cream, and yes, I’ve sprinted to the store just for it. Since then, building the surreal Daisy ‘world’ where everyone knows the jingle and vibe has been a wild ride.

Merrell’s ‘Take a Hike’ campaign is another favourite. I’m an avid walker, but for me, a hike is just as much hauling a toddler through city streets as climbing a mountain. It reframed the idea of hiking into something everyday people could connect with.

And then there’s Frogtape ‘ReMoveables’ – a quirkier project that pushed the brand beyond a functional product and into a fun, relatable space about making your place feel like your place. The projects I’m proudest of always connect my own quirks to something bigger that other people feel too.

Process

When I’m stumped, my creative process is about giving my brain space to work in the background. Walking, drawing, or even binge-watching something completely unrelated all serve the same purpose: distraction.

While I’m busy sketching my son’s wild monster doodles, sketching with my loud and chaotic figure-drawing group, or watching police-stop videos on YouTube while scrolling Reddit, the quieter part of my brain keeps chewing on the problem until something clicks.

It feels like having two workers in there: one flashy and loud, demanding attention, and another who only shows up once I stop hovering. My best ideas usually come from balancing both, deliberately trying to solve the problem and also getting out of my own way.

Press

Clarity and honesty, even off the record, go further than any overstuffed brief. I’ve lost count of the times a kickoff turned the corner when someone finally admitted, ‘We just need something flashy for the end-of-year meeting.’ That kind of candour cuts through the noise and actually helps us deliver.

I’ve also had plenty of texts, emails, or late calls after the ‘official’ meeting where the client drops the corporate filter and tells us what they really want. The best work happens when expectations are clear from the start and everyone’s willing to be upfront about what success actually looks like.