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Creative Leadership

Creative Leaders on Failure: Somesuch’s Sally Campbell

We’ve talked to five of CR’s Creative Leaders 50 about how they have handled failure in their own career, and how they advise others to cope when things don’t go according to plan. First up is production company Somesuch co-founder, Sally Campbell

By Eliza Williams 24/09/2018 2:23 pm

Sally Campbell founded the production company Somesuch in 2010 alongside Tim Nash and Nick Gordon, and the company now boasts some of the most significant directing talent working in ads and music videos today, including Daniel Wolfe, Kim Gehrig and Aoife McArdle.

Campbell started her career in advertising, working at WCRS and BBH, before moving to production, spending ten years at Academy Films, first as a producer then as joint MD. Since co-founding Somesuch, she has championed female talent at the company, across both its roster and its management team.

Below we talk to Campbell about the difficult subject of failure: of how it has impacted her career, and how she encourages her colleagues and the directors she works with to deal with it.

Creative Insight

Tom Hingston on designing for arts venues

As Hingston Studio’s type-led identities for the Serpentine and the V&A greet the general public, the designer talks to us about the importance of creating designs that give institutions flexibility in these times

Creative Inspiration

Channel 4 releases new Paralympics epic for Toyko Games

The ad reveals the challenges that come with being an elite sportsperson, and features the provocative line, ‘To be a Paralympian there’s got to be something wrong with you’

Creative Insight

How branding can help us reach a greener travel future

Car brands have spent years, and millions, shoring up our reliance on petrol and personal vehicles, but change is arriving fast. Can a new wave of design and branding persuade us to move to greener forms of transport?

Creative Insight

My Career Journey: Calmatic

The LA-based director behind music videos for Pharrell, Lizzo and Lil Nas X reflects on his journey from afterschool computer club to Grammy-winning director

Creative Insight

My Career Journey: Polly Nor

Polly Nor creates striking, satirical drawings of women and their demons. We speak to the illustrator about her up-and-down career journey, the perils of imposter syndrome, and using art as an emotional release

Creative Inspiration

Explore the work of influential 20th century designer Tom Eckersley

A new book by Paul Rennie is packed with iconic poster designs created by Eckersley for the likes of London Transport and Guinness

Creative Insight

Marina Willer and Stuart Watson on ‘aimless’ creativity

During lockdown, Marina Willer and Stuart Watson turned their house into a home for painting, doodling, monster-making and music. Here they talk about being creative as a family, and why making work for pure pleasure is essential

Creative Insight

The changing face of travel

The pandemic has been the catalyst for all of us to reassess our relationship with travel. As the world slowly begins to reopen, we speak to the travel brands that are shaping what our holidays of the future might look like

Creative Insight

Jump on 25 years of making motion graphics

Jump is responsible for the titles of some of the UK’s biggest TV entertainment and sports programmes. Here two of its co-founders look back on a turbulent 25 years in the industry, and what it takes to make a successful creative business

Creative Insight

How Foundation empowers creatives to make money

As part of our series on creative businesses set up during the pandemic, we speak to Foundation, the auction platform for digital art and NFTs about how their digital-first approach is working for them

Creative Inspiration

BBC Creative launches Tokyo Olympics 2020 promo

The corporation’s in-house agency has teamed up with Nexus Studios and Factory Fifteen to create a film that reimagines the host city

Sport and Creativity

In this report, we look at the way that creative thinking is influencing sport, including in advertising, TV, branding, design, photography, illustration and more

Creative Inspiration

Cannes Lions 2021 Grand Prix winners in full

It’s a bumper year for Cannes Lions this time, with the awards honouring work from 2020 and 2021 after last year’s event was cancelled. Here you can view all 35 of the Grand Prix winners

Creative Insight

How Strava built a billion dollar fitness app

We examine how Strava became the app of choice for both professional athletes and amateur fitness enthusiasts, plus its ambition to create the biggest sporting community in the world

Creative Insight

An oral history of… the London 2012 Olympics branding

As the Tokyo Olympics approaches, we look back at one of the more controversial Olympic identities, Wolff Olins’ London 2012 branding, which prompted a storm of press and public opinion. CEO Sairah Ashman and chairman Brian Boylan remember the project

Creative Insight

What’s next for the battle of the burger brands?

We look at the creative ways in which fast food brands are appealing to our tastebuds and standing out in a saturated market – from piggybacking off the vegan movement to embracing the allure of nostalgia

Creative Insight

The stories embedded in the design of homes

The Museum of the Home’s new displays put storytelling at the centre and illustrate how our homes are rich with design and cultural history

Creative Process

How to make a thrilling sports promo

Sky Creative’s Simon Cole explains the process behind making sports promos, including how to appeal to younger audiences and why he takes parodies on the chin

Creative Inspiration

Ikea Norway introduces the Trash Collection

Ikea’s latest sustainability push sees the brand repurpose furniture that has been found as trash on the street, to be sold in a new secondhand store

Creative Process

The role of the sketchbook in creative work

Despite the dominance of digital, the humble sketchbook is still a vital tool in making creative work. Here, we speak to three creatives about how working in a sketchbook is an important part of their process and also their favourite books to work in

Creative Insight

Greg Williams on the art of the candid shot

The photographer discusses his journey from documenting war zones to capturing candid moments of some of the biggest celebs on the planet, plus why the best images often aren’t technically perfect

Creative Insight

Unrecognised and unloved: Patrick Burgoyne on the state of creative education

Education is vital to the UK’s phenomenally successful creative industries. Yet its value to the country appears to be going unrecognised in the government’s plans

Creative Process

The colourful world of Autumn de Wilde

The photographer and director has injected striking palettes into fashion photos, celebrity portraits, vibrant ads and her feature-length debut, Emma. She talks to us about navigating these different arenas and building worlds through music and colour

Creative Inspiration

Ryan Reynolds creates a Father’s Day cocktail: The Vasectomy

Reynolds brings his irreverent advertising approach to Father’s Day with a new cocktail for dads, featuring a good slug of Aviation Gin, natch

Creative Insight

Why the time has come for game title sequences to shine

Territory Studio’s Andrew Popplestone discusses the evolution of games credits and title sequences, and how they’re moving ever closer to the world of film

Creative Insight

Why it pays for brands to go local

In an age of turbulence, brands are seeing the benefits of a localised approach over a global one. Here, Ben Sillence, strategy director at Lewis Moberly, explores what this may mean for designers and creatives

Creative Insight

Can we design a more sustainable internet?

With the internet now accounting for roughly the same amount of carbon emissions as global air travel, we look at what designers can do to help tackle our digital waste problem

Creative Inspiration

Early 2000s nightlife in all its chaotic, shiny glory

Matthew Smith’s new book brings together his photographs taken across the flourishing British nightlife scene at the turn of the millennium

Creative Insight

Tony Barry on why advertising should move people

The director and former Wieden + Kennedy creative director looks back on the lessons he’s learned about peeling back the ‘veneer’ of advertising to make people laugh, cry, and truly believe in what they’re watching

Creative Inspiration

Cephas Williams project features letters from Black boys to their future selves

The letters are addressed by the children to their older selves, and detail the world that they’d like to see in the future. The project, which will appear on billboards in the UK, is created to mark the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder

Creative Insight

The ups and downs of being a hybrid creative

In today’s complex media landscape, creatives are often expected to work across multiple mediums. CR speaks to those who’ve broadened their practice to understand the benefits and challenges of the multi-disciplinary life