Sean PERON

What was your very first job?

My first full time job out of University was as an English Language teacher in Japan. Fresh out of school in the US, I had no idea what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted an adventure. That was 13 years ago and I haven’t moved back home since!

Please describe, in your own words, what your job is and what work it entails.

I’m the Director of Marketing Strategy for G-Star RAW. In Marketing Strategy, we steer G-Star’s both long and short-term brand planning, the result of shaping the creative and design forces of the brand together with our business and channel objectives. It’s important for us to sit at the cross-section of the creativity and commerciality in order to help the most creative ideas come to life.

How did you discover that the creative world was right for you? Was there a time in your life that you credit to this discovery? What was there train of events that brought you to where you are today?

Since I was young I’ve always been into doing something “ creative"… writing, music, acting… but I never stuck to one specific outlet, and there was never a moment of time when everything "just clicked.” Simply put, I don’t think there is any other kind of work that I could do that would keep me as motivated and excited every day as what I do now, and that would allow me to work with so many talent people in so many different fields.

In your constantly growing and expanding industry, how do you find inspiration to keep your work fresh, innovative and relevant?

For me, staying fresh requires that I continue to push my brain to work outside of the context of the industry. That means reading a lot- fiction, poetry, and psychology-  travelling as much as possible, and continuing to learn new languages. Keep my mind fresh allows me to be more open to the unexpected and the unseen- and that’s usually where the best work is waiting to be discovered!

If you had to pick one piece of work or project that you are most proud of, more for the creative work and innovation it required, rather than its recognition or industry “success,” what would it be?

G-Star RAW's FW16 Brand Campaign, “RAW.”, which focused on showing- not telling- the story of the brand through the people that live it daily in our HQ in Amsterdam. Not only did it require tremendous effort and ingenuity from our internal creative studio to allow the brand to open up its doors for the first time ever, but also demanded the time and cooperation of individuals throughout our entire organisation- from Finance, to IT, to design, to even our Architecture department. It is the only campaign I have ever worked on that required such internal multi-discipline interaction, and one that made be proud to be a part of the brand. (The Campaign is live here https://www.g-star.com/en_nl/raw/index.htm)