Fork in the Road: How strategic decisions fuel creative potential

As a designer, you make hundreds of decisions a day. But what about the big decisions? How do you find not just the right job, but the right career? Why is who you work for as important as what you do? And what do you do when life throws you a curveball?

John Lindner, founder and Chief Creative Officer of 93 Octane shares his experiences from running an in-house advertising department, to leading direct response and advertising agency creative departments, to forming his own marketing business. He discusses his work, as well as the choices he made along the way that have helped him navigate the ever-changing design field, nurtured his creativity, and helped him find satisfaction in a 25-year long design career.

About John and 93 Octane

There’s a civil war going on between the left and right part of John’s brain, and everybody seems to win. Especially clients. His ability to generate brilliant ideas (including his company's name) with a businessman’s focus on results has been valued by some of the country’s biggest direct response agencies – and clients including AMF Bowling Centers, ChildFund International, Genworth, Lay-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, Massey Cancer Center, Nordstrom, Medarva, and St. Joseph’s Villa.

93 Octane was formed in 2002 in an effort to create an environment where strategy, creativity, execution (and a TON of expertise) could come together without the “big agency” bureaucracy. Their staff is lean. You won’t find an “assistant” anyone or a “VP” of anything. Instead, they have a team of seasoned professionals who spend their time actually doing the work, not managing middle men. Their nimble structure allows them to bring in players as necessary (say, a media buyer, for example), without the overhead of a bloated staff.