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Sean Topping's Secret Weapon? It's Simplicity
Grit's founder wields it like a sword to help Arrowhead and others cut through the clutter
When it comes to crafting campaigns, Sean Topping, founder and creative director of Grit Advertising and Design in Denver, likes to keep things simple. In fact, he says simplicity is a hill he’d die on.
“Our new Arrowhead line, ‘Arrowhead Spring Water. And Nothing Else.’ Or our Goose Island line, ‘Drink Goose. Have Fun.’ They have the whole philosophy in one line,” he explains.
“If you’ve got a great headline, take everything else away. If you’ve got a great visual, take everything else away. If you don’t have either yet, that’s when design can carry more of the weight. But always start by finding the simplest, cleanest way to present the idea first.”
Sean and his team specialize in building identities for CPG brands. Along with Arrowhead and Goose, key assignments include Sierra Nevada and Mountain Valley.
We spent some time with Sean to learn more about his background, his creative inspirations and recent work he’s admired.
Sean, tell us…
Where did you grow up, where do you live now, and how do the two compare?
I grew up in Denver, spent time working in San Francisco and New York, and eventually came back home, where I still live today. The city’s changed a lot in that time. It went from being a flyover, middle-of-nowhere town to a place young creatives put in the same consideration set as Austin or Portland.
Was there an “a-ha” moment in your life that made you realize what you wanted to do?
Not sure if you’re familiar with the old Bewitched TV series, but the husband, Darrin, worked at an ad agency and every episode seemed to be about him pitching a tagline or campaign idea, usually in some chaotic scene at their house over dinner. I was around 10 years old watching that, and I remember thinking, “That’s what I want to do!” Something about coming up with jingles and slogans just stuck.
Best career advice you actually followed?
This one came from Lee Clow, when I worked for a TBWA sister agency: Don’t get too attached to one idea too early. Iterate as fast as you can, push and pull in multiple directions. Sometimes you land on something better. Other times, it makes your first idea more bulletproof.
What’s a source of inspiration you return to constantly?
This is going to sound a little hippie-dippy, but I genuinely believe ideas are just out there in the universe—floating around, waiting to be picked up. Your job is to stay open-minded and be an antenna for anything and everything. That said, I still love print. We subscribe to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Thrasher, National Geographic, Texas Monthly, Interview Magazine and Monster Children. I try to read every word, every month. It’s still my favorite way to take in beautiful writing, photography, art direction and design. Online sources are great. But when something’s crafted to live in print first, it just hits different.
What’s one tool that changed how you work?
My iPhone. Kind of an obvious answer, but specifically the camera and note app. I’m constantly snapping photos of things I see out in the world. A color combo, a weird sign, a piece of packaging. It’s become an external hard drive for my brain. Most of Grit’s best ideas started as a blurry photo I took at a gas station or grocery store, or as a memo to myself at 3 a.m.
Tell us about a recent project you’re proud of.
The new Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water campaign. Water is one of those unique CPG categories that only exists because of branding. It’s a clear, odorless, tasteless product that most of us can get for free at home. It’s also an intensely competitive market, with every brand making some version of the same claims. So, we shot around L.A., to help tell the story that Arrowhead has always been Southern California’s local spring water. It’s straightforward. It’s exactly what it says it is.
Is there a mentor who helped you navigate the industry?
When I was a junior art director, I got to work with Jim Landry, who went on to become a CD at Fallon and a few other Minneapolis shops. Jim was the one who helped me stop fixating on every small detail and start looking at the bigger picture. Not just the individual ad or campaign, but how a big idea grows and evolves over years. He’s an incredible art director and helped me find my visual voice and focus.
What would you be doing if you weren’t in advertising?
The same day I accepted my first job in advertising, I also had an offer to build the play environments at the Children’s Museum in Denver. It’s this incredible place filled with things for kids to build, create and get lost in. I’ve always secretly wondered what life would’ve been like if I took that job, just hanging out and dreaming up cool things for kids to do. So, probably that.
You’ve got 2 minutes with the industry… what’s your hot take?
AI is turning out to be mostly a waste of time and money. In the short term, I think it’ll mainly be used to replace mediocre, mundane work with faster, cheaper mundane work. We’ve been using it successfully at Grit as a tool to comp our human ideas faster and iterate on different scenarios. And that part’s genuinely useful and great. But it’ll be years, if ever, before it can replace real human insight, creativity and passion. I just don’t think it will ever have the ability to learn good taste or genuine vibe.
