The Punk Rock Nature of Creativity with Hayden Scott

Hayden Scott is a creative director and writer based in Mumbai. He has worked across major global networks (Ogilvy, DDB, Hakuhodo), independents (Famous Innovations), and boutique creative shops (StrawberryFrog, Metal), shaping brand narratives across India and international markets.

His work spans strategy, culture-led brand building and product innovation. Notable projects include reinventing the Raymond brand, rewriting global taglines for Nestlé to spotlight girl-child education, creating an accessible paintbrush for foot-artists (DOMS Stationery), using apples to bypass a state communication blackout (Radio Zindagi), and co-creating a music video with John Legend for Johnnie Walker.

Hayden’s work has won 75+ recognitions including D&AD, One Show, Cannes Lions, Effies, Abbys and Kyoorius. He has been named among India’s top 40 under 40 in Marketing and Advertising and awarded Copywriter of the Year. His perspectives have been featured in Economic Times, Campaign, Financial Express, VICE, Times of India, CNBC and others.

He currently leads creative at VIRTUE India, where he focuses on building brands inside culture in an age of goldfish attention spans.

Hayden also mentors emerging creatives at Miami Ad School and the National Institute of Design, and works independently as an illustrator (new collection releasing 2026) and musician under the moniker Citizen Koi.

Hayden sat down with LBB to discuss early creative inspirations growing up in Bombay, the fearlessness needed to excel, and his creative process.

Person

I was born in Bombay in 1986 and grew up in a home obsessed with art, music and films. My father and grandfather were both political cartoonists and painters, so creativity wasn’t a hobby, it was the family language. I found my creative voice in the 2000s while living and loving in Bandra – one of Bombay’s most vibrant suburbs. Everyone I knew was a creative-something. Me? I was obsessed with guitars, graphic novels, and heavy metal and my one ambition was to write and shoot a horror film!

Those early years taught me a few things just by virtue of being around incredible artists, musicians and writers.

If you have an idea, don’t let it live and die in your head – put it down on paper. That turned me into a finisher. An idea is only an idea if it lives in the real world. Everything else is academic.

Fearlessness. Creativity, by its very nature, is punk rock. Countercultural, anti-establishment, designed to make people feel.

Ideas are badly behaved. They don’t turn up in the places you expect them to be. So you must cultivate many interests and keep your mind curious if you are to catch them with your butterfly net. That explains why I find my ideas through music and art, though I am a writer.

Product

Creativity should make you feel something, which means it has to be fearless. Early in my career I relied heavily on gut instinct and that worked well as a copywriter. But once I began managing creatives, I needed a way to evaluate ideas without relying on taste alone. That’s when I developed ‘One Wrong Thing.’ The logic is simple: great work contains something ‘wrong’ – a rule bent, a format broken, a convention challenged. Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ broke how tragedy could be depicted. Charanjit Singh broke Indian classical music to spark Acid House. Breaking creates energy.

Some of my favourite projects embody that spirit. A paintbrush designed for foot-painters (DOMS), a sticker book that helped vinyl collectors buy records without shame (The Revolver Club) and using apples to communicate through a state blackout (Radio Zindagi). None of these sit neatly inside advertising as we know it – which is exactly why they work.

A mentor once told me, “Nobody remembers the front-bencher. But they always talk about the naughty kid.” I think the industry needs more naughty kids breaking formats, formulas and category codes.

Process

My creative process is built on two simple rituals: get curious, then get cracking. I don’t start with decks or frameworks, I start with context. I need to know what world the idea will live in, how that world behaves, what it cares about, what it laughs at and what it absolutely rejects.

That means a lot of listening, reading, and observing before I write a single word. I’m nosy by nature, so this part is genuinely fun.

Once I have cultural context, I look for tension. A good idea always has something to push against. A habit, an assumption, a system, a stereotype, a convention. If I can find that raw nerve, I know I’m in the right neighbourhood.

Tools-wise, I’m a maximalist. For thinking, nothing beats pen and paper. I like to sketch, diagram, and make nonsense lists that slowly start making sense. For building nothing beats old-school voice notes for catching ideas mid-walk. I also save music, visual art, photography, and film references obsessively. If you saw my YouTube history, you’d assume I was five different people.

When it comes to collaboration, I’m a big believer in creative friction. Give talented people a clear problem, a shared sense of taste, and the freedom to be wrong and you’ll get somewhere interesting. The last step is always editing. I’m ruthless about cutting anything that doesn’t move the idea forward emotionally or strategically.

For me, the work only ends when it feels alive. If it isn’t saying something, challenging something, or making someone feel something, then it isn’t done yet.