I am deeply suspicious of anyone who claims they knew what they wanted to be at seventeen. I didn’t even know what haircut I wanted. Careers are seldom linear and plans are, to evoke the Yiddish proverb, a cosmic punchline. And I just never thought that far ahead.
So an apprentice marine-engineer became a fine art student, became a graphic designer, became a writer and, finally, a verbal identity specialist. Wandering purposefully in a hundred different directions from London to Leeds. Manama to Amsterdam. Manchester to Manhattan.
For every ‘what on earth have I done?’ there was a ‘look what I can do.’ For every accidental mullet (actual quote: “I want it kinda long but also kinda short”) there was an accident of fate that put me in the right place at the right time— with the right people.
Joining Reed Words feels like the latter. An unmissable opportunity to work with the best brand writers in the industry— in a company that’s working to change the way people think about verbal branding. What it is, what it can do. It’s a chance to take everything I’ve learned in 20 years of brand storytelling (and welding, and painting, and strategy, and haircuts) and use it to tell new stories in new ways.
We are all, in the end, the sum of our adventures. And while the unplanned journey is often harder, slower and less predictable, it does have one distinct advantage: It gives us something interesting to write about. And I’m excited to start the next chapter.
Neil Whitfield joins Reed Words New York as our new Creative Director.
Say hi.
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