What Did Ad Industry Creatives Say at the MvVO Ad Art Show Panel?

November 12, 2024

When OUTFRONT hosted the MvVO Ad Art Show last month, we did more than just announce the winning artists; we also presented an artist panel discussion moderated by Sabrina Sanchez, Ad Age Senior Creativity Reporter. Entitled “After Hours Artists: The Hidden Creative Edge in Business,” the panel discussed the intersection of advertising profession and artistic passion. Here are some of the most powerful insights from the conversation.


Deb Fong, Global Health Clients & Strategic Initiatives Leader, Omnicom, on the voices that tell stories:

“A lot of what I do in my core responsibility is focused very much on the mission of curation and connection with community, and all of us understand the importance of selecting team members with mindfulness. Our clients and ourselves internally are demanding that we are much more thoughtful and much more creative about how we identify, source and bring together unique sources of talent…at the end of the day, so much of what we're doing in advertising is telling important stories - powerful, poignant, effective, unique stories that resonate with our audiences.

Anderson Cupid, Graphic Designer and Art Director, Delta Airlines, on how personal art informs his professional work:

“Know who you are…It benefits everyone when you show up as your full self. And you remind yourself that you are an artist first. When you're navigating a massive brand like Delta, you can get lost, get really hooked on what does Delta want? What does Delta need? And then after a while, you almost detach your creative self from the position that you're in with the brand. I didn't know what my value was because Delta didn't see me as an artist yet, and so I had completely forgotten that I was an artist first. I think in order for you to navigate those systems, you always have to tap into that creativity that's outside of that system.”

Eddy Herty, VP & National Creative Director, OUTFRONT, on the importance of passion:

“A lot of times conflict happens because [brands] are too focused on an agenda versus why the hell they got into business in the first place…[creatives] need to speak up, not be worried that we're going to offend the client. I'm trying to help you get your passion in front of thousands of people in an authentic way. The more we can remind people about that, the better it's going to be...

“Whenever I get a brief that says ‘Target audience, women 16 to 45,’ it's like, ‘Oh, because they're all the same, right?’ Why does that particular woman want to be a customer? Tell me about her day or her customer journey, what she's going through, how we understand the passion that you had to start that business, and the benefit that you're handing them.”

Maria van Vlodrop, Founder, MvVO Art, on how brands and agencies can support artists:

“Artists themselves have to feel empowered…accept that you're an artist in a professional environment and see how you can share that with others and whether what you do can help the business. Often it will. It's just sometimes, artists are a little shy for us to come out and say, this is valuable for business. I think that artists are very valuable for business, especially in a world where AI has no feeling and no imagination.”

Anderson, on how brands use art to create connection:


“Delta said, we want to incorporate art into the message that gets out to people. How do we do that? We thought of this really neat idea where we would go out in the wild, and had these artists set up and ask you, what is your favorite travel memory.

People would sit down, they would talk to an artist, tell them, ‘Hey, when I was a kid, I remember flying on Delta for the first time, and I met a pilot,’ and an artist would literally sit there and sketch out an artwork that spoke to that memory. After, they would have that connection, they would have this piece of artwork that they could walk away with that was provided by a Delta-funded artist.

We thought people would be happy with just having the artwork. What we didn't realize were people were so emotionally connected to this memory you may have never thought about in 20 years.

As an artist, it was super taxing because we're absorbing all of this emotion, but we're creating these little mini pieces of art that people can say, I got this from an activation at Delta. I got this experience through this brand that actually wanted to connect with me and listen to my stories.”

Eddy, on real emotion and its impact in advertising:


“As creatives, as artists, we need to be more vulnerable. We need to allow people in a little bit more, so they see all these different dimensions of who we are. It's incredible what impact that actually has on our overall ability to engage with people, because we focus on the work and we focus on our clients.

But at the end of the day, we are telling stories that we are trying to reach audiences. When you put your heart out there, you change lives. That's such a beautiful gift that we all have."

For a more visual representation of the overlap between art and advertising, check out the Artsy MvVO Ad Art Show gallery featuring all 100 of this year’s selections.

Author: Jay Fenster, Marketing Manager @ OUTFRONT

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