Getting to Know You: Alex Paradowski Gives Us an Inside Peek Through the Eyes of a Creative

in COLUMNS Getting To Know You by Chelsea Moosa — June 30, 2010 at 4:04 pm | 2 comments

Walking into Paradowksi Creative you can see the mind behind this agency is just that, a creative. Celebrating his 33 year anniversary with his company in August, Alex Paradowksi isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. He sits across from behind a very unique desk which of course, he helped design. It is suspended from the ceiling by a single chain, and his office is open and overlooks much of the building. This is just one of the many creative additions to the company’s newly renovated office built back in December.

To say that Alex Paradowski is into art would be an understatement. Everything about this man and his agency screams creative. Paradowksi begins by telling me that even as kid he was always interested in art and drawing. The idea to join an art program came in his early days at a Junior College right here in St. Louis. He started Paradowski Creative when he was just 27 years old. The reason for starting his own agency? He said, “I think a lot of designers think about going out on their own for control and for the opportunity to do it your own way.”

As a young designer on his own, most big companies wouldn’t take a chance on him. He did more of his work with smaller agencies that didn’t have an art department or teamed with ones that had an overflow of work. After 6 months, Paradowksi hired his first employee part-time, and 6 months later two more were added to the team. Finally 5 years later with a team of about seven people, Paradowski hired a sales director to contact companies directly to gain more business.

I asked Paradowski what a typical day is like for the boss man at Paradowski Creative. He says, “I get involved in some of the creative brainstorming, and a lot of it is helping a little with this job and helping a little with that job.” Paradowksi says the difficult part is not knowing which projects he needs to be involved in and which ones he doesn’t.

But his success did not come without challenges. In the early years of his agency, he says it was tough getting someone to trust a small firm with an important project. But the biggest hardship he has dealt with came more recently. Paradowski told me that the hardest thing he’s been faced with in the past 33 years came about 2 months ago. He was forced to layoff 8 people, something he had never done.

Paradowksi tells me the secret to the firm’s success lies in the effort from the employees. He says, “The people are really dedicated to doing a great job, which I have nothing to do with. We have a culture here of working very hard, doing a great job, and providing a lot of service.”

Paradowski says people do not often leave Paradowski Creative. They have employees that have been around for 15 and 20 years, and they have all grown into a close family. But, the agency isn’t all work and no play. The employees at Paradowski Creative have fun even when they are hard at work. Paradowski told me the firm recently finished working with Circus Flora. The agency designed the posters, website, billboard, and graphics for the television spot. In fact Paradowski himself  served as honorary ringmaster for the Circus in St. Louis on opening night.

And of course, he did share a funny story with me from his early years in the business involving the famous Ed McMahon. McMahon is most well-known for his work with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Paradowksi told me he had McMahon signed on for a photo shoot to be the spokesperson for a client. Paradowski says, “Ed showed up at the shoot with all his things, but Ed was always up and down with his weight so they were all different sizes. Some of them fit and some of them didn’t. So he had to suck it in before we shot, to take the stress off the buttons.”

Even though Paradowski has many stories from his past, he also has a strong view of the future. He says the business has changed to be much more digital. The process went from making things with your hands to designing them on the computer. Paradowksi notes that the thinking is the same, but the process is completely different.

As for the future? Paradowksi says there’s no telling what the next 15 years could bring, but he did tell me that as we all know, social media is changing the way we communicate. He says, “That is probably the fastest growing segment of our business. The first big change was from hand to computer and now social media has changed the business once again.”

And this man’s words of wisdom to the young are to be as multi-faceted as possible. He says in the “old days” it was important for designers to be able to understand printers. In his early years, Paradowski had the reputation for being able to get the most out of a printer, and now that idea is the same with digital media. He says, “You really need to understand how the programming works and how social media works so you can take the very best advantage of the tools at your disposal.”

And although no one knows what the future holds for the world of design and advertising, you can bet Paradowski will be giving his two cents in the most creative way possible.

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