Sep. 26th, 2013

Brian Scheyer, Creative Director + The Man With a Thousand Secrets.

brian_exposed

Once in a while, a Mortaron comes along who blows us out of the water. One who’s weirder, braver, funnier, and has had more run-ins with the cops than all of us combined.

Brian Scheyer recently joined us as Creative Director at Mortar, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have him. We admit it’s mostly for his bizarre, sounds-like-BS-but-it’s-not stories; but Brian also happens to bring a crapload of talent with him – more than we can fit in a blogpost you’d be willing to read. Wherever shall we begin?

Brian was born in Los Angeles, but grew up in Augusta, Georgia. After graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design, he began his career as an art director at Howerdd/White in Augusta. The agency was James Brown’s photographer, and Brian incidentally became pals with the Godfather of Soul. The man. The legend. THE Sex Machine. Somewhere on an answering machine tape, he has a message from James yelling frantically because he needed photos and couldn’t find Brian, who had moved to San Francisco.

Jackson-Brown

Alright, we faked this photo – but smartphones didn’t exist back then! We know Brian’s story is pure as gold. Feel free to verify it by calling up his buddy Drake.

 

Brian migrated to SF during the dot-com boom and thrived at industry leader Lot21, where he and his teammates pioneered many of the interactive techniques that we now couldn’t imagine the internet without. He quickly moved on to the role of Associate Creative Director at Carat, and then Isobar/Freestyle. Most recently, he was Creative Director at TEAK, refining his broadcast and digital chops for Google, RelayRides, Roku, and Dockers.

As a creative, Brian’s skills are innumerable: conceptual thinking, art direction, graphic design, motion graphics, video editing, UI/UX design, web development, illustration…and that ain’t even half of it. Which is probably why he went and found himself a second job.

In 2006, Brian and his wife Jill launched a women’s ready-to-wear clothing line called gr.dano. The line is now distributed nationally, and has won awards and recognition from Elle magazine, 7×7, GenArt, The California Design Biennial, and more. Brian and Jill’s philosophy is to create unique pieces that are also approachable and easy to wear. They collaborate on the design of every piece; then Jill handles the pattern making and sewing, while Brian does the cutting as well as the company’s marketing. A man who doesn’t just have style, but creates it? We’re still waiting for Brian to pull off his mask and admit he’s not real.

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Stylin’ threads from the gr.dano collection.

 

In lieu of filling the next 27 pages with Brian’s absurd life achievements, we’ll leave you with this nicely bulleted list of our select faves:

• Every time Brian orders a pizza, he asks for it not to be sliced. When it arrives, he folds it and eats it like a taco. He calls it the “pizzaco.”

• Once on St. Patrick’s Day in downtown Savannah, he started a conga line so huge it made the news.

• (Ladies, don’t read this if you ever want to be happy again. Men, don’t read this if you’d rather not have to hurt Brian.) Brian massages his wife’s feet every night for an hour. Every night. For an hour. We told you not to read it.

• At a Jimmy Buffett show, the video crew asked Brian to go live on the big screen during the song “Volcano” because of the giant erupting volcano hat he’d built. The crowd went wild, he was dubbed “Volcano Head,” and they used that footage at every show for a year afterward.

• He’s been asked three times to not enter a Halloween costume contest so that it would be fair to the others.

• He’s banned from entering any KB Toy Store for the rest of his life. (Don’t worry, it’s not what you think.)

 

Welcome to Mortar, Brian.

Comments

  • Sep. 26th, 2013

    I’ve had the privilege of knowing Brian for many years. I used to doubt the stories too, but then one day a FedEx envelope showed up with a cheese sandwich. That’s all I really need to say about Brian.

    Good luck with the new gig, fortunate is the agency who lands this legend.

  • Oct. 3rd, 2013

    In addition to all his other traits, let’s add modesty. I didn’t even realize that Brian was the anointed CD. Congrats to Mortar for snagging him and congrats to Scheyer for finding a place that appreciates his twists and streaks. Incidentally, I’m one of the 3 people who’s asked him not to totally feck up a Halloween costume contest for everyone else.)

  • Louise Byrne
    Apr. 21st, 2014

    I was there. I saw the Volcano. He had a pull chain rigged into it and it released an aerosol for a smoke effect. If he can give that detail on his volcano hat; imagine the detail he gives on something he gets PAID to do!!
    Brian is awesome.

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