CB Hot Suit Takes: Nahum Hendricks, Creative Studio Manager, Nani

CB Hot Suit Takes is our new Q&A series for senior leaders and senior suits across the WA industry ~ covering careers, creativity, challenges and the song that sums it all up. Next up in the hot seat is Nahum Hendricks, Creative Studio Manager, Nani.

1. What made you get into advertising?
It was an opportunity to bring words, visuals, graphics, sounds – the creative arts, into a paid gig and make a career out of it. I was the kid who would write, draw, paint, cook, dance, build dioramas, and redesign pop album covers, I knew from an early age that I was made for the creative industry.

Beyond this, the industry offered the chance to connect with people with authenticity. In the work that I do, I generally get to create and produce for social good.

2. Which piece of work are you most proud of, and why?
For young people, understanding court orders and navigating the justice system is a tough gig. With the After Court Support project, Nani worked with the New South Wales Department of Justice to develop messaging and create a short, animated video to assist young people who had just received court orders. The idea was to have young people subscribe to receive push notifications to help them understand what’s required of them.

The success of the project is in-part owed to the process of consultation which guided the creative. We worked closely with NSW Department of Justice case workers who engage with this cohort daily. Through collaboration we could test messaging concepts and illustration styles with the audience to ensure there was resonance. One key guiding insight emerged – that our audience often had low to no literacy rates, so choice of visuals, spoken language, and tone needed careful consideration to ensure the audience could understand the message.

Beyond the animation, we extended the illustration and design elements into posters and contact cards for the young people to take away with them.

3. What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role right now?
Like many I’m sure, it’s AI.

I’m less worried about being replaced by a robot, and more challenged by a lack of foresight or honest public discussion. The biggest challenge in my role is the proliferation of AI slop (outputs) and the lack of meaningful discussion around the impacts for blind adoption. The world is rushing headfirst into AI (and who can blame us? Who doesn’t love automation!). On paper it makes business sense, and I agree, innovation and ideas have always played a tremendous role in enhancing what we do. But I feel the use of AI (as with anything), needs more voices at the table.

As a ‘suit’, there’s an assumption that productivity means more. “Work smarter” is often code for “Work smarter, so you can work harder”. The seemingly mundane tasks: filing, managing folders, project plans, checklists, and regular updates seem to be the first tasks allocated bots. I love an efficient process (historically called automation), but as I’ve become busier (branded as ‘more productive’) I’ve also seen my creativity suffer and found myself on the edge of burnout. For me, I’ve learned that simple tasks offer moments of reprieve and reset when caught in the flurry of complex creative problem solving and people management.

In our industry, I’d love to see more discussion around AI that puts the person back in the centre of the work.

4. Was there a moment, a course, an experience, a mentor or advice that really kick-started your career?
In early 2016, I felt my career was at a standstill. I knew what I wanted to do but struggled to find fulfilment or the sense of creative challenge I needed. I wanted to continue creative work and making content but wanted to offer more of myself. I wasn’t watching much free-to-air TV at the time, but I happened to catch a little of the 2016 Logie Awards. That year Noni Hazelhurst (Play School mum) took out the Hall of Fame, and Waleed Aly, the Gold Logie.

At odds with the world of bad news and bad ideas, Noni, in her acceptance speech, advocated for a media industry that tells more stories about the good things happening in our world. This was a timely reminder of the power of storytelling and the way it can influence the public’s shared perception of the world.

Not long after, Waleed dedicated his win to a fella he met that night. The fella’s name was Mustafa – but in the entertainment industry, he was known by another name, something more common and apparently ‘more palatable’ for Australian audiences. I, with a non-Western sounding name, understood this moment all too well and this moment, together with Noni’s pitch for a better world, helped me shift gears as I began to focus on shaping creative working environments where people can bring their whole creative selves to work.

5. What’s the most recent thing you’ve learned – professionally or personally?
Two things. First, clear is kind, and this is something I learn every day.

Second, meaningless admin tasks are often not meaningless. They offer an opportunity for the creative muscle to rest and recoup, while I continue to grow in my understanding of the project and remain productive.

6. What song best sums up your career so far?
Human Nature – Michael Jackson. It’s really just one of my all-time favourites, but one line has particular resonance for anyone in our industry – “Why, why?… tell ‘em that it’s human nature”.

Read previous Hot Suit Takes below:

Jo Bulline – Trilogy
Brendon Lewis – The Brand Agency
Georgie Frampton – KWP+Partners
Nicole Lennox Gray – Wildlings Creative Agency
Hannah Muirhead – Chapter
Silvana Visinoni – Workhouse Advertising
Nat Green – Block
Kelsey Fraser – VML
Simon Stewart – Rare
Kate Kenyon – Berlin 
Nita Davey – Trilogy
Magda Wood – Gatecrasher Advertising
Amber Martin – Hypnosis
Samantha Hassall – Moonsail
Adelina Eisen – Anthologie
Georgia Sharman – Block