Guest opinion: Cultivating Huntsville’s creative form

I’ve been a digital designer in one form or another in Huntsville for roughly 20 years. My experience has spanned from working with internal creative services departments in large corporations in Cummings Research Park to a small design agency out of Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment when it was just establishing itself.

Through this time, I have seen a real change in Huntsville, not just from continually expanding its footprint as a high-tech and space exploration catalyst for the world but also from the deep creative pool the city has developed. Huntsville’s rich, diverse, and eclectic art and culture foundation, which has historically been overlooked, is now becoming impossible to ignore.

But, with this solid foundational design power comes great responsibility. Creative leadership in Huntsville needs to recognize what this seemingly hidden creative community has to offer design professionals while finding ways to help cultivate it.  

As creative director at Bold Agency in Huntsville, I am part of many wonderfully creative and exciting local projects that continue to put this town in the national spotlight. Projects that cross-promote the recent addition of the professional Huntsville City Football Club; campaigns showcasing Toyota USA’s philanthropic initiative of injecting millions of dollars into Huntsville City Schools through tech programs; the rebranding of Huntsville sports districts for national competition and many more.

It is exciting to be part of efforts that think of Huntsville as  a national brand rather than just the northernmost significant city in Alabama or, Saban forbid (Roll Tide), something more than an engineering town or the “Rocket City.” 

So what makes up this cornucopia of creative juggernauts in Huntsville, and how can  people help perpetuate the scene?

There are multiple opportunities for students and young creatives to gain facetime with advertising and design professionals. Every March, students can join the American Advertising Federation of North Alabama and PRCA’s annual Student Roadshow. Here, we gather a board of local professionals to travel to campuses across North Alabama to discuss the day-to-day design and advertising careers and how students can apply their newly acquired skills.  

In my role as the Student Relations chair for the AAFNA, I help educate students on how to break into the local advertising/creative scene and foster their creative career paths through work critique. I also encourage students to submit their projects to the AAFA Awards (Addys) and highlight AAFNA as an organization for growth support, maintaining a vibrant influx of creative talent to North Alabama.  

Another initiative developed by Bold Agency founder Lauren Gowins is Design Week  Huntsville. Held in April, DWH is an annual, multifaceted week-long event series that unites designers from different industries, agencies, students, and young professionals to promote and discuss great design in our city. Establishing Huntsville as a place to support the job paths of young creatives allows them to grow within a flourishing area. 

Fundamentally recognizing that keeping local creatives local and having some of the  infrastructure to support them is the first step. The second is putting our money where the art is. This means you.

Think hyper-local for everything. From buying locally created art at Lowe Mill, going to shows here at the Orion Amphitheater or Mars Music Hall instead of Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta, etc., to convincing your company to spend advertising dollars with Huntsville vendors.

We can certainly find our musical fixes locally and just as design students do not need to go to bigger cities for quality creative careers, Huntsville companies do not need to go to bigger cities for quality creative work. We can be our own biggest proponent, we just need to recognize our potential.  

To the other creative leaders in Huntsville, my call to action is to find ways to keep and  support talent here by encouraging participation at the local events mentioned above  or seeking out new ways to foster creative growth.

As with any initiative, “a rising tide lifts all boats,” and Huntsville is fortunate enough to have both the engineers to build the boats and the creatives to make them beautiful. 

Tom Patterson of Huntsville is the creative director for Bold Agency. He is on the board of directors as the Student Relations chair for the American Advertising Federation of North Alabama.