On My Radar: Sam Hope

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?           

Well, apart from all the lovely work we have been making at Picasso Pictures, a campaign I absolutely loved last year was the This Girl Can for Sport England. Nothing since has quite had that ‘Yes!’ moment, it really stayed with for me.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

Google – is that a website? I love asking questions, I love finding answers, and it is so immediate it’s magic. I know I probably sound like a granny, but it is amazing all that information at our fingertips.

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

I tend to buy things and keep them until they become obsolete. So I suppose my Fitbit is the most recent, I love its little nagging presence on my wrist.

Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?

Facebook. I like to be connected to family and friends, it makes having a full time career so much easier, as I don’t feel I am missing out on their lives quite as much.

What’s your favourite app on your phone and why?

The weather app. I am obsessed with knowing what the weather will do that day, if my plants will get enough water and it helps me choose my clothes and shoes for the day. I ignore chance of rain unless it’s over 50 per cent.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

I love Who Do You Think You Are? I have really got into my family tree and have managed to trace back to 1875 on my mum’s side. I feel a bit like a detective searching for names and clues, it’s pretty addictive.

What film do you think everyone should have seen?

One of my all time favourite films is Lover Come Back, which to me seems like a slight mismatch of a title for such a funny quirky film featuring Doris Day and Rock Hudson as two rival advertising execs in the 1960s (I only have it on VHS if anyone wants to borrow!).

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

The last time inspiration struck was at The Pompidou Centre in Paris [below]. The collection of modern and interactive art was incredible. It was 10pm and fairly empty and I felt like a small child exploring the contents of each room, which evoked different feelings and thoughts from one to the next. I couldn't sleep that night as my mind was processing everything I had seen. It was incredibly inspiring.

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

Probably the technology. I worked on the first Apple Mac, with a tiny black and white screen, and then as softwares became more available, you would find you were no longer spray mounting storyboards onto card for a PPM, but making them in Photoshop.

It was really amazing as animators started adopting Flash for creating 2D animation without filming each frame. Plus the 3D animation software has continued to evolve and still is, which is really exciting. Back in the mid 90s, when I started, I couldn’t produce most of the work I make now.

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

Maybe just the speed at which it wants to pursue the next ‘new’ thing; the pressure to constantly supercede.

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

It would have to be the directors I have worked with over the last 20 years who have influenced my career the most. I have worked with some really great creative directors and artists, and without them I would have not had anything to produce and not had the career that I have loved, and still love.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know…

In the 90s, before becoming an animation producer, I wanted to be a presenter on a shopping channel. Talking about juicers, ear-rings, slippers and stretchy trousers and having an ear-piece that tells me when sizes have sold out.