Brittnay PADON
Brittany Padon is the Global Associate Creative Director at HP Inc, for HP.com. Her daily responsibilities include: reinventing the digital experience of HP.com, upholding the HP brand and managing a team of designers to bring our ideas to life. Brittany's career began as a design intern at SapientRazorfish, while receiving her BA from the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. There she was hired as an associate designer to help build social creative posts for Samsung's ~2 million followers. 5+ years later, she helped grow the Samsung business to extend into Retail and B2B content creation and digital strategies. She's also had amazing opportunity to work with brands like Hulu and Lowe's. When she's not working, you'll find her soaking up the sunny rays in Los Angeles, planning a trip to visit family in SF, following fashion trends on Instagram or nerding out over her new film photos.
questionnaire
1.) What was your very first job?
• I was a restaurant hostess at a Mexican food restaurant, yelling out "Party of 3 for David" and cleaning menus that had salsa on them. Then, my first design job was creating magazine ads and large-scale poster prints for my father's comedy club in Las Vegas, Sin City Comedy. I even made them an iPhone 3 app!
2.) Please describe, in your own words, what your job is and what work it entails.
• Currently I work at HP Inc, as a Creative Director for HP.com. My responsibilities include: reinventing the brand's presence and digital experience, working with stakeholders to launch new products under the print vertical such as 3D Printers, creating a new homepage experience and building a creative department for HP.com as a whole. Phew!
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 been interested in drawing and photography for as long as I can remember. I had a cousin who was a graphic designer growing up and realized I could make a profession out of being creative!? I love learning and graphic design as a career forces you to stay on top of trends, software and techniques for its perfect for me.
4.) In your constantly growing and expanding industry, how do you find inspiration to keep your work fresh, innovative and relevant?
• Instagram is a pretty amazing place to find photographers, illustrators, animators and more. I also have too many Pinterest boards to count but I do save a lot of my inspiration there. But I have to say working with my team and getting their perspectives of what inspires me, inspires me the most.
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?
• One of my favorite projects to date was a mini-series of videos I helped create for Samsung called "Learnin' Stuff with Ron + Gary." I worked with a sitcom copywriter to invent the characters of "Ron" and "Gary" to help teach B2B customers how to use Samsung devices. We had to make it funny and entertaining all while making it a proper "how-to" video. We managed to develop it, shoot it and edit it within 2-months only for it to never go live. But it still makes me laugh watching it to date.
6.) Which creative disciplines are you most interested in and use the most? i.e.: photography, film, social, experiential etc
• My first love is photography. I still shoot on my grandfather's old 35mm Minolta. Excited to keep up this hobby and see where it takes me!