O'Neil EDWARDS

1.What was your very first job? 

My first job was Photography Editor / Coordinator at AMC, this role gave me the ground works to learn my craft the creative team and wider partners provided me with encouragement and tools to develop my skills and goals.  

2. Please describe, in your own words, what your job is and what work it entails. 

Innovative, creative visual campaign manager. Producing creative end-to-end brand campaign production eco-system . I manage creative brand campaigns, I collaborate with clients, partners, stakeholders, I am responsible for high qualityproduction management, I critically manage strategy, I manage efficiency of brand production on a global level across all multichannel productions. 

3. How did you discover that the creative world was right for you? Was there a time in your life that you credit to this discovery? Was there a train of events that brought you to where you are today? 

I was not a very academic child growing up providing that my sibling is a doctor, my parents (Maxwell & Daphne), brought me a camera when I was eight which just consumed me. I steadfastly documented our family life, my parents getting ready and going to parties, events, our day to day lives, my friends etc and the images that I created the visual tone, emotion, colour, ideas gave me a feeling of wow I kept shooting and discovering my passion for visual imagery, that and a high dose of classic American movies which my mother Daphne and I would devour at every occasion.  

4. In a constantly changing world, how do you find inspiration to keep your work fresh, innovative and relevant?

 I am an optimist I look at visuals be it video, photography as a representation of who I, we are I constantly look at the challenges and capabilities of visual communication. During the first lockdown I spend my days creating images, video of the world around me the visual fear of the empty streets, closed shops, lack of people could be a deterrent but my prospective is we are living though world change and we must create a visual memory as in the future we can use this content to reflect. 

5. If you had to pick one piece of work or project that you are most proudof, more for the creative work and innovation it required, rather than its recognition  industry “success,” what would it be? 

The one project I can say would be VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards CampaignsThis was a step change in the direction of campaign brand advertising for a music channel collaboration with America’s fashion bible.- innovation by working decisively with art director, creative teams, extended brand promotion partners.- Inventiveness by my thinking outside the box as it were to engage with our fashion partners by forward planning, I picked up the phone and arranged a meeting with Vogue’s Director of Photography, Ivan Shaw, to listen, learn, understand, gain knowledge. Sharing this knowledge with my in-house teams and partners.- bringing together teams across channel promotion to collaborate. - engaging fashion photographers, stylists, creative teams.- creating innovative visual and systematic game changer in campaign end-to-end production. 

6. Which creative disciplines do you commission most, and are most interested in seeing more of and why? Which of these disciplines are you most interested in seeing at CONNECTIONS? (ie photo, film, production, social, experiential,vr, cgi, animation etc) 

The disciplines I commission most are film, photo, CGI, social, production, experiential. This does not limit my visual curiosity I absorb every element of creative and it informs, educates and provides knowledge.