Director first. Everything else follows.
I am David Martin, a creative director in North Vancouver, BC. I build ideas, direct creative systems, and use emerging technology to make ambitious work possible.
Eighteen years running DJC Media. Eleven years owning content, brand and proposals inside a technology company. Eight years each inside two major creator networks.
- Based
- North Vancouver, BC
- Education
- BSc and Diploma in Engineering, Mount Allison University
- Languages
- English, business Japanese (JLPT Level 2)
Where the time went.
- 2008 – nowFounder and Creative Director, DJC Media.
Independent studio. Every discipline directed in-house: story, design, animation, edit, publishing. 261.5M+ views directed.
- 11 yearsContent, brand and proposals, technology sector.
Owned content, brand and proposals inside an established technology solutions and managed services provider: brand refresh, website rebuild, campaigns, events, sales enablement, proposal systems.
- 8 yearsMaker Studios (Disney).
Creator network operations at YouTube scale.
- 8 yearsBroadbandTV.
Multi-channel network: content systems and creator partnerships.
- 2000 – 2010Kansai, Japan.
Early childhood education director, curriculum designer, Japanese-English corporate translator.
Creative leadership.
Creative leadership is not about having the loudest idea in the room. It is about creating the conditions for good ideas to survive.
- 01Give people a clear brief.
- 02Create room for experimentation.
- 03Know when to challenge the work.
- 04Know when to get out of the way.
- 05Protect the quality bar.
- 06Connect creative decisions to business objectives.
- 07Translate between creative, technical and business teams.
- 08Make the decision when the room cannot agree.
The best creative teams do not need someone telling them what to do every minute. They need someone who can give them direction worth following.
Direction vs. execution.
I am comfortable getting hands-on. I write. I storyboard. I generate. I edit. I build. I experiment. I learn new tools. But hands-on production is not the same thing as production for its own sake. The reason I stay close to the work is so I understand what is actually possible. That lets me direct with more specificity.
From “we should make something cinematic” to “let’s separate the character identity pass from the camera motion, build the environment independently, and assemble the final sequence in post.”
The closer I get to the technology, the better I can direct the creative. I don’t need to do everything myself. I need to understand enough to know what is possible.
Creative with a business brain.
Creative work exists for a reason. A campaign has an audience. A brand has a business. A video has an objective. A website has a job. A sales asset needs to help someone make a decision.
I have spent my career working across creative, content, technology, sales and business development. That means I am comfortable moving between the idea and the reason the idea exists. I can talk creative with creatives. Technology with technical teams. Business outcomes with executives. And translate between all three.
Good creative gets attention. Great creative knows what to do with it.
Get in touch.
For professional inquiries about the work in this portfolio.