8 / Clare Brennan / Creative Director
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Clare Brennan one of the creative pillars in Ottawa’s advertising community, as a partner in Fifty Strategy + Creative, an instructor at Algonquin College and also the founder of Creativity in Common - a pretty cool initiative which shares creative inspiration and ideas on Instagram and LinkedIn.
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A big table. Lots of food and wine. Family and friends. And a dog or two. Maybe a parrot.
2. What is your greatest fear or challenge?
The unknowableness of the future.
3. What trait do you most value in yourself?
Openness. To connect with other folks, to find new answers, to do new things and to accept new ideas. I don’t always use it but I like it when I do.
4. What is the trait that you most value in others?
Weird humour.
5. Which living person do you most admire?
Cornelia Parker. Gosh she does lovely stuff. Stuff I wish I was smart enough to come up with.
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
Chocolate. Really good chocolate. Do you have any chocolate?
7. What is your current state of mind?
Questioning. Coming to the small years of life. What is next?
8. What do you consider to be the most underrated virtue?
Play. It leads to creativity, connections, joy and acceptance.
9. On what occasion do you break the rules?
When they are designed to hurt someone.
10. What do you most like about your life?
Oh, it’s a pretty good life. Maybe my red Adidas Gazelles.
11. What quality do you most enjoy in someone you work with?
Quiet confidence. I need someone who wants to work together. Not to be lead or to be followed.
12. Which words, phrases, or gestures do you most overuse?
F***ing.
13. What or who is the greatest love of your life?:
Jenny.
14. When and where are you happiest?
On the couch with Jenny and a book.
15. Which talent would you most like to have?
Musical. I wish I could play something effortlessly.
16. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Complaining.
17. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I turned doodling in Sister Helen Rita’s class into a career.
18. Where would you most like to live?
Here’s good.
19. What is your most treasured possession?
I don’t really have one.
20. What is your favourite way to spend your time?
Creating stuff. Digitally, on paper, out of wood, out of junk. But then you have all this stuff. What are you gonna do?
21. Who are your heroes in real life?
People who can do the things they want to do regardless of the world telling them “no”.
Live where they want, create what they want, love who they want.
22. What is your ultimate dealbreaker?
Backwards hats.
23. What is your greatest regret?
I should have got a degree. Or is it gotten? See.
24. What has been your favourite journey?
Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20th Century Fox, 1959
25. What kind of legacy would you like to leave?
None. The smaller an impact I can make on the planet the better.
To learn more about Clare’s creative musings, please follow him on Instagram at @creativityincommon and @c.brennan.creative and feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn.
