Brandon Joseph BAKER

LA AV RENTALS [email protected]

1.)   What was your very first job? 

My first job after college was as a photographer at The Kansas City Star shooting advertisements for the newspaper and editorial magazines. My very first job was mowing lawns in suburban Kansas City.

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

My role as Senior Producer is to create photography and videos for all of The North Face’s global marketing needs. I lead a team of talented producers and collaborate with a creative content team who help develop all the collateral for The North Face.

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? What was there train of events that brought you to where you are today? 

I’ve always enjoyed showing my art and consider the work that I make for a client as an extension of that. A billboard, website, store experience or broadcast commercial becomes my gallery. I’ve also always believed that the best way to get ahead is to be really good at what you do, work hard and find some dumb luck. That dumb luck is usually the right place at the right time, like when I met a guy at a bar shooting photos of a band I loved. I gave him my card and a year later he called me to make a documentary with him and to go to The Sundance Film Festival. That random interaction was a lucky break that propelled my career into a direction I could have never planned for.

4.)   In your constantly growing and expanding industry, how do you find inspiration to keep your work fresh, innovative and relevant? 

I’m lucky to have a community of creative friends that I share and collaborate with regularly. We all share the personal work we are doing or find inspiring in other artists. I like to look outside of my industry for inspiration, especially within local or niche art scenes and mediums that have nothing to do directly with photography or video like writing, comic books, sculpture and music.

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

Imagination by The North Face is a short film I produced from 2017 that earned awards from Cannes and a Clio yet it wasn’t tied to any marketing push. It grew from an idea of using childlike imagination to explore the world. I believe firmly that ‘making cool shit’ can bring creative reward and industry accolades if your idea is interesting and you’re working with the right team.