A Day: Irina Gingu cooks special desserts in the creative kitchen of pastel

Irina Gingu is art director and part of Romanian agency pastel’s team. She shared with us the way one of her days of work look alike.

Sometimes my friends ask me if I ever get bored at work. I always laugh and tell them “I work in advertising, it’s impossible to get bored”.  And this is so true! 🙂  Even when the day starts easy or seems to be easy, there is always something waiting around the corner.  A day in a creative office is full of surprises, but I’m lucky to work with a great team and there is no surprise that we cannot handle!

It is commonly known in advertising that people from the creative team are “the ones who think they are special”, “the weird ones” or “the ones who will always argue a brief”.  These stereotypes always amuse me and I like the reaction of new people or clients when they meet me and I have the chance to show them that we are normal people, we just have a higher artistic sense and we think we know better, and sometimes we do. 🙂

So, my days are never boring. Before I open the computer, I always make a coffee or a tea and say hello to my colleagues, wish them a great day. While drinking the coffee, I check the emails and my social media accounts. I think it is important for a creative to stay in touch with the industry.  The emails poor like rain and I smile, thinking how funny are my friends, worrying that I can get bored… ha ha! That is the moment when my Zen is affected for 5 minutes, but then I regain it, it’s important to have an optimistic attitude while working,  the emotions always reflect the work, even if we don’t want to admit this.

When I explain other people what I do, I compare myself with a Chef.  I tell them that everybody can make a sandwich or cook an egg, but I know my “kitchen” better than most of them and I don’t just cook.  I know the use of every tool and ingredient, and mix them to create something special for my clients. And because each client is unique, I won’t serve the same dish twice. So this is what I do every day, I design creative desserts, and think on special ways to present them at pastel.

Sometimes the “restaurant” is full and we have to stay late, but after winning a pitch, we realize that everything was worth it. Other times we have to create something extraordinary with just a few basic ingredients, the kind of project that at first you will say is not possible and then you see the campaign launched and say “WOW!”.

I won’t mention the hard times and the deadlines that make you go mad, they exist in every kitchen and it’s part of the job. You cannot cook and leave the kitchen spotless! My job is about being creative and understanding the client needs, is about team work and long hours brainstorming during coffee, it requires hard work and throwing 50 ideas to the garbage before showing that one idea to the client, it needs passion and it is sustained with even more passion, it’s about trying to always improve myself, about multitasking and doing all these things without losing the smile :).

About Irina

Irina Gingu is smiley art director at pastel and joined the team 2 years ago. With  6 years of experience in advertising, Irina puts her creativity to the table for clients in the Food & Beverages and Cosmetics industry. Irina Gingu cooks special desserts in the creative kitchen of pastel.