Remco Graham on Why Kindness Is a Creative Superpower
Freelance creative director Remco Graham reflects on his journey from a midlands mining town to the advertising industry, and the experiences that have shaped his approach to creativity and leadership. From fighting to pursue a creative career against his father’s expectations to finding his place in freelancing, he has always been drawn to doing things differently.
In conversation, he discusses why the hardest briefs can often produce the most rewarding work, his belief that “kindness is a superpower”, and why leaving ego at the door can transform the way freelancers work with teams and clients. He also shares how AI is changing his creative process, allowing freelancers to effectively become their own creative departments, while still making space for craft and real-world filmmaking.
After two years of freelancing, Remco says he’s having more fun than he has in the last 15 years of his career. From working with independent agencies on “crazy, silly, funny” projects to discovering a supportive freelance community, he explains why this new chapter has given him the freedom to experiment, take risks and simply enjoy making work again.
LBB> What first drew you to your craft?
Remco> When I first started out, I was living in Birmingham and studying to be an artist. I had work exhibited at the The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, and I was really drawn to that world, eventually moving into art direction.
Then, while I was at foundation art school, a tutor from an advertising course in London came in to give a talk, and it completely changed my direction. I realised I could combine the craft and creativity I was developing with real messages -- work that could influence what people thought, what they bought and how they behaved. That combination of art, craft and persuasion really fascinated me. I just thought the melding of the two was incredibly interesting.
LBB> What sorts of projects get you most excited to work on and why?
Remco> I find the hardest, most ’boring’ accounts the most interesting. Sometimes they’re the products or clients that most people would go nowhere near. For me, if you can create genuinely great work for a client that isn’t known for great work, that’s true creativity -- and you get a few extra marks for doing it, too.
I’m drawn to the projects where the brief isn’t immediately inspiring, because that’s where the real challenge lies. I once worked on a weedkiller project that we turned into a really strong piece of work. I still have people in the industry tell me they use it as an example of how you don’t need an exciting client to make exciting work.
That’s what I find rewarding: taking something that initially seems boring and finding the idea or creative opportunity that makes it interesting.
LBB> What’s something about your craft that people outside your role tend to misunderstand?
Remco> I think there’s a misconception that creative directors need to have an element of fear around them. That’s a terrible way of being a creative director, and I’ve worked at big agencies where there was an expectation that you had to be tough, or even nasty, to get the best out of people. I work very differently. I go into agencies, client meetings and any teams I work with with real kindness and positivity. I’d much rather put my arm around someone than intimidate them. I genuinely believe positivity gets better results than fear.
There’s sometimes a perception that, as a creative director or ECD, you have to behave in a certain way -- that you have to be the most intimidating person in the room. But I don’t believe that. There are some great agencies with great teams who understand that, but there’s still a lot of fear in the industry. For me, leadership is about creating an environment where people feel supported enough to do their best work.
LBB> Tell us about your favourite project or campaign that you worked on. What was the biggest or most interesting challenge, and what did you bring to it?
Remco> One of my favourites was a project for the Women’s Equality Party. There’s a point each year when, because of the gender pay gap, women effectively stop earning compared to men, so we created an ‘out of office’ email for that day. We then sent it out as a guerrilla campaign, getting senior female directors and business leaders to use it. It went worldwide, even reaching Hillary Clinton, and we spent no money at all. I love it because it was so different, unexpected and a little bit rogue. I’m drawn to that kind of work.
Another project I loved was a Honda film I worked on at dentsu with director Chris Palmer. It was built entirely around illusions, at a time when there was a real cultural fascination with things that didn’t feel possible on camera. We worked with some of the best illusion makers in the world and built everything for real.
We had an illusion painter creating perspective, a room where the perspective constantly changed, and cars moving through these impossible-looking environments. The challenge was that everything had to work in-camera. We’d literally be looking around the camera asking, “Is that real?” And it was. That kind of craft still really appeals to me, particularly now with AI.
I’m a huge adopter of AI because I think creativity is about change and adapting to whatever comes next. I’ve made projects entirely through AI and completely changed the process of making TV ads, and I’ve loved exploring that -- but I still love making things for real. For me, there’s something incredibly satisfying about creating something that nobody else could do, and proving that you actually made it.
LBB> How would you describe your creative process?
Remco> Taking risks, and having fun. It should be fun, but I don’t think enough people are feeling that. Having been a client, briefed agencies and worked with agencies, I’ve found that when people are enjoying themselves, you get better, more interesting and more diverse work. For me, having fun is part of creativity. I also like pushing against the things I’m told not to do. Those are often the areas where the risk – and the most interesting ideas – are hiding.
LBB> What recent work of yours might we have seen?
Remco> I’ve been working with a lot of independent agencies recently, and one project I particularly enjoyed was for Airalo, an eSIM brand, which I wrote and shot with Florence Poppy Deary at Biscuit, and Uncharted. It was one of her first pieces of work there. It was a bit stupid, a bit funny and a bit risky. It had that old-school humour I really enjoy, with a slightly lo-fi feel and a nice twist on normal logic.
We also recently worked on a project for TopCashback, which again isn’t an obvious client for big creative work. We sold in a rough script and then built the whole thing using AI, but the process was what made it really interesting. We spent two weeks with the post company and a group of creators, starting each day with the script and seeing where the AI took us. If we liked what it produced, we changed the script. I was feeding in drawings and all sorts of different things, so the AI was genuinely changing the direction of the work rather than just executing an idea we’d already decided on. It became one of the most creative processes we’ve had.
I work a lot with Laura Jordan Bambach at Uncharted, sometimes alongside her as a partner and sometimes with junior teams straight out of university. We just create, experiment and laugh our arses off. We thought, ‘What a great way of making work.’
LBB> How is your craft changing and how were you navigating those changes?
Remco> I think AI is having a really positive effect on my craft. I use it as a creative partner and a springboard. I have plenty of my own ideas, but it helps me explore them, move quicker, and do more.
For freelancers, that’s a really interesting shift. In the past, you had a specific role and a certain amount of output, but you often still needed a creative department around you to service a big client. Now, you can go in as a single person and effectively be the creative department. I’m doing a lot more work directly with clients now, handling everything from strategy through to creative. AI has given me the ability to operate in that way, and I think that’s an important mindset shift, particularly for people coming into freelancing. You’re not just a creative anymore, you’re a creative department.
I don’t mind the work being quicker, either. Creatives can worry about speed, but speed isn’t a bad thing if the output is good. I’d rather have more time at the back end to craft the work properly. I can come up with things very quickly now, but I still want to spend the time making them really good.
LBB> Looking at how you got to where you are today, what's a part of your personal story that doesn't fit on a CV but is essential to understanding who you are?
Remco> I wear kindness on my sleeve. It’s incredibly important to me. I’ve worked at agencies where being kind was almost seen as a weakness or an issue, but I think it’s actually a really powerful thing to have.
Especially as a freelancer, I spend a lot of time with the teams I work with, trying to help them become amazing. I’ve worked with some of the best people in the industry, and I’ve always tried to help them get to the places and positions they want to be in. Kindness is a strange word in our industry because it can sometimes be seen as a detriment to being a strong creative leader. But I think we’ve let it seep out of the industry a little bit, and we need to bring more of it back. I think it will keep people in the industry for longer, too.
I believe kindness is a superpower. You probably won’t find that on my CV, but it’s hugely important to who I am.
LBB> How did the community or environment you grew up in shape your approach to your career?
Remco> I’m from a little town near Birmingham in the midlands. My dad was a miner, and I’d see him come home from the coalface every day covered in soot. I knew I wanted to get out and do something very different with my life. It was a bit of a ‘Billy Elliot’ start to things.
I had to fight quite hard for creativity, too. My dad saw it as something that wasn’t particularly ‘manly’, so I’d fight him about wanting to be creative. That gave me a lot of passion, push and rigour. I came to London wanting to do something great, but I also arrived in the middle of a deep recession. It was so bad that we’d hear about only a handful of creative teams getting jobs each year, but somehow, my partner and I managed to break into the industry.
Growing up in the midlands also gave me a certain toughness. We’d go to miners’ clubs to do karate and learn to protect ourselves because it could be quite hardcore. Looking back, I think there’s a connection between that and my career: I’ve always been willing to fight for what I believe in. I had to fight to be creative, and then I had to fight to get into the industry.
LBB> What's your secret talent?
Remco> I think I can train cats. A long time ago, my father-in-law told me I couldn’t train cats, and that I definitely couldn’t tell them what to do. But whenever somebody tells me I can’t do something, I really want to prove them wrong.
We have a lot of weird Bengals, strays and rehomed cats, and I’ve trained them to do all kinds of things. Admittedly, they’re mostly doing it because they know they’ll get something out of it, and they will stop when they want to. But it still tickles me every day, because I can train cats.
LBB> Who and what are your cultural and creative influences?
Remco> I think good creators are collectors. They collect everything: interesting music, opinions, art, people, ideas. I don’t really have a specific list of influences because culture is changing constantly. Every day there’s something new, and that’s what’s so exciting. You can’t just pinpoint a couple of people or things because inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere.
Freelancing has opened that up for me even more. You come across people you might never have encountered otherwise, doing really interesting things. Like Nick Tasker, who nominated me for this interview. We’d been talking about a project without really knowing each other or having seen much of each other’s work, and it struck me how many different people and perspectives you discover when you’re freelancing.
I think you have to be a collector and a sponge for everything.
LBB> What is a non-work related topic that you could give a 30-minute presentation on with zero preparation, and why does it appeal so much to you?
Remco> Pilates. I got into it just before lockdown, when I was working at BBH and doing 14-16 hour days on Barclays, one of the biggest pieces of business in the agency during the pandemic. I was working constantly and developed a pretty bad back, so my osteopath suggested I try Pilates.
I ended up training with someone very highly regarded in the country, and although I’d never done it before, I quickly realised how good it was for creatives. It’s obviously great for your body, but it really calms your brain too -- and being calm is a very useful thing in this industry. I know a lot of other freelancers who’ve gotten into it for the same reason.
I’m also fascinated by the history of it, going back to Joseph Pilates and the original exercises. I’ve trained with a BASI Pilates instructor who was trained by the Royal Academy of Dance and by the person who brought Pilates over to the UK from New York. I’m now almost at instructor level.
It’s quite funny, the image of a middle-aged guy doing Pilates, but I could talk about it for a very long time.
LBB> What's the key to finding your place with a new team or company?
Remco> Come in with no ego. One of the most helpful things I’ve found about freelancing is learning to strip the ego away completely. I’ve had to have a bit of ego in the past, but it’s amazing how much more effective you can be without it. I try to come in simply as a helpful person.
Plus, I ask teams and agencies what their real problems are -- the biggest, gnarliest things they’re trying to solve.
Leave the ego at the door, be useful and find the problems that really need solving.
LBB> What do the best companies do to integrate freelancers well, and what do they often get wrong?
Remco> They should tell you everything about the project. To do your job properly, you need to understand the whole picture. I’ve gone into companies where they think the problem on the table is the problem, when actually it’s something else entirely. Because of my client experience, I can often see that the real issue is somewhere underneath it, but I can only solve it if I know everything.
The companies that don’t integrate freelancers well tend to throw you in at the deep end without properly briefing you or giving you enough time to understand what you’re there to solve. Without that context, you can’t do your job well.
Every problem should be everybody’s problem.
LBB> What sorts of teams, cultures and setups do you most enjoy working with and why?
Remco> No-ego setups, where people genuinely want to do something different and exciting, and have fun doing it. The best cultures are fearless, focused on the work and not too concerned with hierarchy. I’ve found that particularly with indies and mid-sized agencies, and even some of the larger agencies, it really is all about the work, and it always should be.
I’ve probably had the most fun of my career over the last two years, going into different indies and making some crazy, silly, funny projects with incredibly kind, interesting and slightly bruised people from across the industry (in a good way!) It’s a great community.
LBB> How do you find community as a freelancer?
Remco> It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve experienced. I’d never really experienced community in that way until I went freelance two years ago. There’s an incredibly kind culture of creatives trying to work out what they’re doing, make the best work they can, stand out from the crowd and, ultimately, pay the bills.
In the past, it was often about where you and your agency were. Now it feels much more about how you work and what kind of person you are.
There’s also a lot of payback in the freelance community. I try to reach out to anyone I can to help them get a job, and they’ll often do the same for you. If I see someone having a hard time, I’ll get in touch and have a chat, even if I’ve never met them before. People really appreciate that bit of time.
There are some great people in the freelance community who put themselves out there to help and give advice. It’s a wonderfully kind culture.
