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It's quite hard to find creatives who blog, there are some writers doing it, but not many art directors. Gwen Yipp is an exception to the rule, she has a coupe of blogs including one documenting her experience in the London advertising world, that uses a mix of drawings and commentary.

Influx tracked her down for a quick interview.

1. Can you give us some background on yourself?

My name is Gwen Yip. I'm an art director from Hong Kong. I've worked at Grey, Ogilvy and Leo Burnett for five years. I want to see more, that's why I got a holiday work visa and came to London in March 06.

When I'm not working at office after work, I usually stay up late working on personal projects. I put my works in a website, I've published two books, comic travelogue of my first trip to Europe and another trip to Russia along the Trans-Siberian railway. I make puppets. I design my own tees. I make silly animations. I'm always busy for nothing.

2. What inspired you to blog about your job hunting experience?

People may think that I blog the job hunting experience for job hunting. However, that's not the case.

Hong Kong is a very small city. To me, such a small person (I'm really small in size) from this small place, all I've experienced in London is shocking. I really hope to share all those to people in advertising industry in HK. It may not be an interesting story, but at least I'd like to make them aware of the big world outside our small world.

That's the origin, purely and simply, to share.

3. Has blogging helped or hindered your creativity?

It doesn't affect me much at all. It gives me motivation to work harder on the drawings as I know people are waiting for new postings when I read the
comments.

4. What reactions have you got from potential employers to your blog?

Some, not many, have approached and seem to be interested to know more about me. I haven't sent the link out to the creative directors I admire yet, should I?

5. What differences do you notice between the agencies in HK and London?

It's a big question.

I don't know much about the situations at other agencies in London. I've freelanced at Wieden + Kennedy only so far. And I think the way they work is quite unique.

To be honest, it's still a shock for me. I need some time to digest and tell in detail. It's exactly what I'm going to tell in my blog. Watch out for new postings!

6. What other blogs do you read?

I usually read blogs in Chinese, they are written by my friends in Hong Kong. I'd like to recommend you one from Japan, it's a photo blog on a Japanese family. I've been reading it for 5 years, the older daughter was still a new born baby at that time. Reading this blog makes you feel a neighbour of this family. They are so sweet!