One of my first Creative Directors from Periscope, Brien Spanier, came by Pixel Farm for a visit on Friday. It was good to see him. When I met Spanier back in '00, I was a snot nosed kid with something to prove. One of my first jobs for Spanier was an Arctic Cat ATV shoot in wine country, California. We were shooting action footage in front of some beautiful mountains, but what the camera didn't catch was all the cow shit that got caught under the ATVs. When those ATVs pulled up to us, Spanier immediately slid underneath one of them and started brushing patties off without thinking twice. He didn't know it, but Spanier blew my mind. Here's my Creative Director, lying in mud, scrapping cow shit. Doesn't he have people for that? Heck, shouldn't I have people for that? In that moment, I realized being a good leader had less to do with how you tell people what to do, and much more to do with how you show them.

I got to be Spanier's art director for 6 years, and in all that time, he only yelled at me twice. I was definitely wrong both times. What he was more prolific at doing was giving me great opportunities, including my first brand TV spot for Arctic Cat. The last Arctic Cat spot I did for him almost wasn't a spot. Writer, Tom Witkowski and I came up with a concept we loved, but it didn't match the lead print campaign and it was way out of budget scope. But Spanier knew how much we believed in it and gave us time to revise and room to present it. Miraculously, it was approved. But how the f were we going to make it? Budget didn't match up with our vision. Spanier, with the help of producer, Abby "Blade" Stavig, worked out deals with Warren Miller Films and director Kent Harvey to shoot the necessary footage and Pixel Farm to do the post production. Pixel Farm artists, Kurt Angell, Tom Doeden, Rich Haesemeyer, Tom Jacobsen and Deb Kirkeeide turned our vision into reality with their awesomeness. Little did I know this was just the beginning of my relationship with Pixel Farm...

But none of that would've been possible if a CD didn't believe in his creatives. I'll never be able to thank him properly, but I know brushing cow patties with Spanier will always be more valuable to me than any award on my shelf.