This year we’d like to take a bit of time to show off some of our talent here at Critical Mass. We are incredibly proud to have the best people in the industry, who also happen to be some of the best musicians, parents, athletes, friends, chefs, gamers, artists and beer- consumers. To share a bit of what makes CM special, we’ll serve up these Employee Spotlights with individuals from across all disciplines and offices. For January, allow us to introduce Reza Kay.

1. What is your role at CM?  How do you spend your days?

I’m Head of Design at CM London. Part of my day normally consists of reviewing the briefs, estimates and design work going through the studio.  Aside from the more administrative tasks, I will normally work with the Creative Director who I will collaborate with and then set design direction for every project/pitch. I also work closely with IA, Planning, AM’s and PM’s, and Tech to ensure that the creative and design ideas are always in place. More importantly, a large part of my role is to inspire, collaborate with and guide our designers, and to be a sort of ‘brand guardian’ for our clients… And yes, I do still spend part of most days designing in Photoshop.

2. What is the greatest thing about CM culture?

I think the greatest thing about CM culture has to be the openness, receptivity and friendliness of its people. It’s a company that cares, respects and looks out for its people. It’s the idea that we’re not made up of numbers or ‘staff’, but of individuals and personalities — fostered from the very top — which I believe builds the very foundation of CM culture.

3. What drives you? What are you inspired by?

Wow… what a tough question! I’m driven by my search for perfection and collaboration, though sometimes just perfect collaboration. I’m inspired by many things: the Interweb (obviously!) and it’s every changing disposition; my close friends and family; design, fashion, music, art and architecture (how clichéd!); science and the universe; the smell of spring in the air… Many, many, things really.

4. What was your greatest accomplishment of the past year?

My greatest accomplishment of the past year is hands down the book design for the Covers project. It’s a limited edition, 250-page book of hand illustrated magazine covers by my close friend and colleague JP Thurlow. Paying homage to the subject matter, the book was designed in a glossy magazine format. It was a fantastic, refreshing and inspiring project to work on not only because of the subject matter and the gorgeous illustrations but because it took me back to my roots in print design — it’s really something other than what I do on a daily basis.

5. What are your passions/interests outside of the workplace?

Hmmm, this sounds a lot like an online dating question…. Well, I love going out for drinks! I love to cook, have long strolls on the beach at sunset?! Truthfully and sadly, when I’m not out at the pub with friends, I spend most of my time on the Interweb checking out fashion blogs, listening to music, and getting lost on Wikipedia.

6. Who do you admire most?

I can’t say I admire one person the most. It depends on the subject matter though in general I tend to gravitate towards people who are inspiring and commanding. For design it has to be Dieter Rams and Josef Müller-Brockmann, for architecture it’s Santiago Calatrava, for business it’s Steve Jobs and Apple, so on and so forth. This could quite possibly be a book on its own.

7. Any interesting Reza-ism you’d like to share?

I don’t think there are any interesting Reza-isms?! I think the only thing I’m adamant about as a philosophy is to try to treat people as I’d like to be treated.

8. What is your favorite CM memory?

There are so many great memories with friends at CM, so to narrow it down:

At CM Calgary, my favourite memory would be the Rolex team outing in 2007 where we zip-lined down a 90 m high ski jump tower to the bottom of a hill. I’m deathly afraid of heights so that made matters worse, but I managed to overcome it and screamed my way down for 500 meters at 120km/h! In the end it was this incredible collision of mixed emotions… fright, exhilaration and catharsis.

At CM London, it would have to be our 2009 Christmas party where most of the office danced till the wee hours of the morning at an East End gay bar/boozer… we definitely felt the love!

9. How long have you been at CM?

I’ve been with CM for over four years. April will begin my fifth.

10. The centering point for the CM brand is extraordinary experiences. What does extraordinary mean to you?
To me, extraordinary means doing the unexpected and the unexpected can take many forms. It can be an idea, a word, a detail or a process. I believe the unexpected provokes thought and elicits a response.

Yesterday was a interesting day in Chicago. In the afternoon, there was the Blogwell conference which featured real life case studies from large organizations executing initiatives in the social media space. Companies like:

• The Home Depot
• Mayo Clinic
• H&R Block
• Sharpie
• US Coast Guard
• Allstate
• Walmart
• Procter & Gamble

And later that evening, I gave a talk at the Social Media Club in Chicago (above). In both talks I noticed a reoccurring theme. When companies engage a social manner, even the big ones—their initiatives are often powered by individuals. People with real names. faces, families and lives. In fact, most of the more successful examples included people who worked for brands who were beginning to become known on a fist name basis. The Home Depot for example has Sarah, who handles their Twitter initiative. This poses a question for all organizations. What happens if the Sarah’s of the world leave your company? Isn’t it better for a brand to just be a brand?

Enter the “brandividual“, a term I blurted out in my talk about personal branding later that evening. The phrase was born of a series of questions from the audience which all focused around the same topic. Where is the hard line between my employer’s brand and my own? The answer is not a simple one—but I believe that trends are pointing us to a blurring of that line whether we like it or not. “Brandividuals—people who represent your brand and their own, balancing the two may be something we see more of, not less as companies and brands try to figure out how to engage on a web that’s become increasingly social and personal.

Take this list for example—40 of the best Twitter brands and the people behind them. The title of the list is enough to make you think. For each brand on Twitter, there’s an individual (or individuals) behind that effort. It’s both business and personal. The two have become one. The tactic comes from a fundamental truth when it comes to the social spaces on the Web. People want to talk to other people. They want transparency. They want to know who they are talking to.

Who’s behind that masked brand?

And as the people—the “brandividuals” begin to reveal themselves, it wil create new scenerios where we’ll all have to think about the relationships between the brands we work for and the personal ones we build and maintain and how the two relate and mutually benefit from each other. As the dawning of the age of the brandividual comes upon us, we’ll all have to re-think the boundries between us as individuals, brands, and the brands who employ us.

Written by David Armano