Q&A: WIRED head of creative and ECD Billy Sorrentino; a speaker at ADMA’s Creative Fuel

Q&A with Billy Sorrentino, head of creative, executive creative director, WIRED, who is set to speak at ADMA’s Creative Fuel event on August 6 in Sydney

1. Tell us what your job entails as the head of creative, executive creative director at WIRED. We understand it’s a bit of a three person job. You’re responsible for the print, tablet and digital versions.  Is that the same for all creative staff, or are most dedicated to one aspect of WIRED? And do you get any sleep?

 No rest for the wicked! It’s been a transformative few years here at WIRED, as we’ve grown from being known primarily as a print magazine to a fully rounded story-telling platform that distributes through our print magazine, tablet editions, WIRED.com, our video channel, and our events like WIREDXDesign. Whichever medium is most appropriate for the story, we deliver it there. The first thing Scott Dadich, WIRED’s Editor in Chief, did when he took the job in 2012 was combine the WIRED magazine and WIRED.com editorial groups into a singular WIRED editorial team. When I came aboard as creative director, I did the same thing with the creative department. We combined our print designers, UX designers, video team, and photo team into one uniform art department. My art directors and photo directors spearhead and create their stories across all of our WIRED outputs. It’s a lot of work, but there’s immense pride within the team having the flexibility and creative vision to see their story executed in a variety of ways – knowing the levers to push and pull to make the story the most beautiful, impactful and rewarding in each medium.

2. What does creativity mean to you?

 Anyone who answers that in seriousness probably isn’t very creative…

3. Do you think creativity can be taught?

Artistic mastery, theory, philosophy, principles, values and self-confidence can all be taught, and those are some building blocks of creativity. But creativity itself I think must be found, not taught.

4. Where do you get your inspiration from?

I’m really inspired by music. You know, George Louis was creating those iconic Esquire covers as his night-job. He was an incredible ad-man by day. I’ve always found that really inspiring. I’ve been playing (some would argue poorly) in bands as long as I’ve been making art. I’ve gone through periods where I quit my band to concentrate purely on design, and I’ve quit design to dedicate myself full-time to music. Personally, I’m most inspired when I make time to do both. While I’m designing during the day, I’m excited about band practice or a gig that night. And when I’m playing with the band, I’m excited about the various design challenges of the next day. They push and pull on each other, creating a healthy friction that keeps me inspired.

5. Where are some interesting intersections happening with creativity and technology?

Two that we’ve been watching closely here at WIRED is the beauty and love being put into long-form stories on the web, and the rise of VR filmmaking. There’s a fear that this will become the next 3-D TVs, but with creatives like Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin pushing the art form, I think we’re going to see some real incredible growth in that area.

6. The recent WIRED.com redesign received a lot of attention for the design work (take a bow), but it was the first redesign since 2007. Why so long in coming and why did it take two years to execute?

 WIRED.com is one of the oldest content sites on the web. WIRED created the web banner, which still blows my mind. So after 20 years, we had a lot of dust under the hood. Specifically 17 different instances of WordPress and over 150,000 stories archived. We also have a loyal readership of the site, so our engineering team was tasked with making an omelette without breaking an egg. It wasn’t until we had a modern, stable infrastructure that the design work could start. Scott and I worked together back in New York City at Condé Nast’s Editorial Development Group where we fine-tuned a UX principle of having each piece of design actually have physicality – a space to live. Where gravity and layering truly effect the interaction. By applying and refining these as fundamental principles for the WIRED.com redesign, the design work itself became relatively easy. We look at the site as being in its birth year, and we have some really ambitious and exciting plans for the future.

7. Will print magazines continue to lose ground or do you see a resurgence coming?

Some will lose ground, some will gain. Where there’s tension, there’s always creative pushback showing us something we’ve never seen before. I’m excited for the future of print.

8. We know you’re on Pinterest with 637 followers as of yesterday. Does that social media channel help you with inspiration?

I’m a big Instagrammer (@billy_sorrentino). A picture says a thousand words, right? Within my design department, we use Instagram and private Pinterest boards as our new design walls. We share inspiration, illustrators, photographers, typographers, fashion designers, architects, motion-graphics, and directors with each other. It’s amazing to be able to tap into my designer’s brains from my phone at dinner from anywhere in the world. They’re beautiful tools.

9. What do you do when you get creative director’s block? For example, we understand you have a rock band called Brothers NYC? Is that a way for you to decompress and get the creative juices flowing?  When’s the CD coming out?

 Everyone has a frustrating day or two, but keep moving. Keep pushing. Don’t slow down. It never lasts as long as you think it does. My band serves as a way to stay creative without burning myself out, plus the guys are some of the most inspiring, creative, and weird people I’ve ever met… they’re family. I think it’s important to surround yourself with people who won’t let you get away with any bullshit and keep you real. I’m really lucky to be surrounded by both them and my WIRED family. And for that last question, we’re on Spotify and Apple Music and 12″ vinyl for our first record BROTHERS: Volume 1. Our follow-up record is recorded and being pressed now, so lookout soon.

Billy Sorrentino will be speaking about the redefining of ‘a magazine’ at ADMA’s Creative Fuel event at the Seymour Centre on 6 August. Book your tickets at: http://www.creative-fuel.com.au/.