I had a meeting this week with a couple of team members from a potential client. It was your standard intro call, but quickly went off the rails in the best ways and somehow was all dead on for what we all needed to know about each other. Not so much what we do as prospective client/creative relationships go, but why we do what we do.

Not all calls go this way, but when they do it's a sign that (creatively, at least) the planets have aligned. Effortlessly gushing about why you do something, and that actively feeding into what you do is not necessarily easy or natural in most conversations. So when it does happen, it's a nice moment to practice some gratitude that you've landed in the right profession.

All that to say, the core of what this call ended up being about was fandom. This presented itself as personal stories and anecdotes of growing up creative and how certain IP called to us. My side of this was an affinity for toy packaging, and how it took me decades to realize why I was obsessed with keeping the boxes of my toys as a kid. (To be clear, not necessarily keeping the toys unopened, but just physically keeping their boxes because I loved the way they looked.)

My story's a few decades old now, started in the 90s with my favs TMNT, The Real Ghostbusters, Toy Story, Jurassic Park, Batman, the list goes on… But the point is that I'm not alone, not even close, and funnily enough, it looks like we all grew up to be creatives and some of us lucky ones found our way into the licensing industry.

To put my money where my mouth is, here I am in my first professional headshots for our studio a few years back. I love this stuff. Always have. So much so that I've paid people to draw some of my fav characters on my arms with needles!

Our fandom fueled our childhoods, and we carried that spark through to adulthood, and here we are, playing TCG's in our neighbors basement at 11pm on a Thursday night while our kids sleep. We love this stuff, and we always have.

Our fandom fueled our childhoods, and we carried that spark through to adulthood

Now, the real magic comes from the creativity we bring to the modern licensing world. Every brief written by a Creative Director has foundational fandom built into it, and every creative asset that is made from that on our end just extends that. When those combine we end up with an end product/asset/whatever that connects with fans better because in all reality that idea or asset came from fans.

So I know that word gets thrown around a lot, and may feel like it loses its meaning when it's the high-level tagline on a website, but for those in the trenches it means something pretty special. We personally work fandom into every single creative project we touch. Whether it's a merch capsule, a trend-driven style guide, or even a brand identity system, it all extends to and through fandom.