What About Me?
I’m Scott Cullins. Creative Director. Content Marketer. Designer. Writer. Mountain Biker. Songwriter. High Altitude Junkie. Desert Nomad. Blogger. Husband. Father.
When I’m not working, you might find me on a mountain. Maybe a desert. If I’m not on two wheels I may be on two planks. Or I may be in a coffee shop, strumming six strings and playing three chords.
Long ago, I moved from my birthplace of Los Angeles, California, to Idaho. And later Utah. I moved from the coast so I could do all the things I love and make a living at the same time. Now I split my time between Salt Lake City, Utah and Teton Valley Idaho.
I work in Salt Lake Salt Lake. In the Tetons, I work at not working. Both are a long way from L.A.
If you’re interested in the work I’ve done as a marketing and media creative professional:
Keep reading if you like. I’m going to be spinning a long yarn about stuff you may not care about. Nobody’s ever gonna write my biography, so I figure I might as well record a bit of my life for posterity. And this is website, so I can write as much as I want about whatever I want.
I’ll try not to bore you.
Mountain Lifestyle
I chose the rural mountain lifestyle when I moved from L.A. I get a whole lot of rural in Idaho. But I also love the urban/mountain lifestyle that the Greater Salt Lake region and the Wasatch Mountains offer.
I dwell on foothills of the Wasatch Mountains (see marker below). That big mountain in the image below is Mt. Olympus. It’s what I look at every morning as I take my coffee on the front porch.
From that same porch, I’m 20 minutes from mountain biking on IMBA Gold mountain singletrack trails (that means they’re pretty good trails) or tree skiing in Wasatch Mountains. I’m also 15 minutes from downtown SLC, where I can be listening to local music and drinking weak but expensive designer cocktails.
In the winter, I can ski mornings at any one of seven resorts in the Wasatch Mountains, and be in the office by 1 pm.
Snow is great, but it’s cold. I grew up in Southern California and I prefer flip flop weather sports like mountain biking. Check out Wasatch Rider, my mountain bike lifestyle/trail advocacy blog.
Good Vibrations
In addition to graphic design and writing, my passion for the creative arts extends to music.
As youngster Los Angeles, I got hooked up with some wonderfully bad influences that led me to believe I could be a big rock singer.
So I spent the next many years chasing music. Music really wasn’t a dream of mine. I was just going with the flow and having fun. When my first son was born, I realized I needed to knock it off and get serious about life.
Taking a break from music
Don’t get me wrong…I had been gainfully employed in all of my life. But I never gave the skills that paid the bills the effort they deserved.
The pressure of fatherhood motivated me to do better at the one thing for me that had always been too easy. So I put down my old guitar, which was really more of a symbolic gesture. I eventually realized I didn’t really need to give up writing music. Music wasn’t what was holding me back at all.
Rediscovery
When I moved to Utah City, the new environment inspired me and my songwriting matured. I began to consider more serious themes and my style shifted to more of an old style. Not the bluegrass my uncle shared with me when I was a kid, but more earthy for sure
I began playing at open mics and open jams. I even joined a cover band. My God, what a mistake that was.
The photo at the top of my home page was taken at the Hog Wallow in Cottonwood Heights. I’m the guy second from left with the knock off Les Paul.
I even produced a song and placed it on all the major streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music etc. This was more of an experiment. I needed to prove that I could do it. Take a listen below. I wrote and recorded Mosaic the same night. The lyrics were written spontaneously as I recorded.
I also got very active in promoting local music. I produced an Intermountain Songwriters’ Showcase as part of the Made in Utah festival. I also started the local music blog Salt Lake Bard. Check it out. I’m currently trying to figure out what to do with that.
I do intend to release a CD, but its a lot of work and my day job rightfully hogging most of my free time.
My Day Job
Like many, it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I briefly touched on this earlier. After attending architectural school in Arizona, I ended up in product design.
An old neighbor convinced me to move back to L.A. and he got me a job with the Hughes Aircraft company, working on a drafting table designing helicopter components.
I did that for a few years but wasn’t loving it. I was more interested in music and writing.
Fast forward 30 years and here I am…on a quest to be the best creative director I can be. (This may seem like an odd statement, but if you work in SEO you’ll get it.)
Had enough? Download my resume now.
I really wasn’t qualified for the the position. A lot of people were probably scratching their heads, wondering how an architectural student-turned product designer could weasel his way into a position at such a prestigious magazine.
Let’s just say I always believed in the fake-it-’til-you-make-it approach.
I had been working as an aerospace product designer for a few years when a friend in the print business convinced me to buy a mac. He knew I must have some skill and he was hoping to get me to do some graphics for his business on the side.
The Early Days in Publishing
I got my real start on the media side of the creative industry when, in the late 90’s, I landed a gig as art director for Bon Appétit magazine. At the time, it was the largest food magazine in the world.
I soon decided that graphic design and writing was much more satisfying than designing weapons of war, so I quit my job and joined the local chamber of commerce.
Next thing you know, I won a contract to publish the chamber business directory and suddenly I was a publisher. Still faking it…clearly.
That experience eventually got my foot in the doorfor a position as art production manager at Bon Appétit. From there, I was able to flex my design skills and, when the art director position opened up, I was In Like Flynn.
Making the Move to Marketing and Advertising
A few years later, it dawned on me that trying to make a career in the magazine business—while living on Los Angeles—was very limiting.
There was only one other major publication in town and that was another Condé Nast publication, Architectural Digest.
So I made a strategic decision to get into marketing and advertising ASAP. Once again, I bamboozled my way into a job and snagged a position leading the design team for the in-house agency at Health Net, a Fortune 500 health insurance company.
We cranked out more than 450 pieces of collateral and advertising in my first year there.
This position had it all, We did some digital and print advertising, a ton of marketing collateral, a lot of outdoor and even some television. The image below is me on the set in Malibu with my team.
Over the next 20 years, I made all kinds of moves, including:
- moving to Idaho to lead the marketing efforts for an internet startup
- starting my own boutique ad agency
- publishing my own magazine and selling it on newsstands across the U.S. and Canada
- publishing a tourist map that, to this day, is sold at retail locations in Idaho
- moving to Utah and taking a job with Salt Lake magazine
Today, I’m a creative director at Arena, one of the largest political advertising agencies in the country.
A lot of people were surprised at this move. But like any industry, political advertising and marketing has it’s professional challenges. I’m very competitive and always strive to be the best in the business.
As such, my goal is to become the best creative director in the political advertising business.
Creative communications is like skiing and gold…there’s always room for improvement.
Work With Me Here
Visit my contact page and hit me up if you’re interested in talking about work, music, mountain biking or skiing. And thanks for taking the time to hear my story.