It?s coming to Songkran again next month. I guess this scorching heat has slowed me down enough to reflect a bit. It was a year ago I came back to Thailand and set up my own company here.

Last year, I quit my job after almost 2 years as Executive Creative Director of a multi-national advertising agency in Vietnam. I had not only taken them from obscurity to number one, I had also completley redesigned the new state-of-the-art offices there.

My eclectic career has spanned 27 years across 5 different countries, and led me to travel and adventure in many more. I had gone as far as I wished to go in the ?corporate game?, with multi-national advertising agencies.

But, like my father, ?retiring? is never something I entertain, or probably ever will.

There were things that really thrilled me about my job when I first started as a pimple-faced junior all those years ago, and these same things always propelled my spirit and kept me going all these years. I love to create and make things happen, whether it?s design, music, film, interiors or whatever. It?s the exact same joy I felt as a boy when I loved to make things. I have never considered what I do to be work.

So, now I have set up my own creative consultancy here. I am slowly gathering clients in Thailand and across Asia and will also start to lecture part-time at an international design school in Bangkok next month. Later this year, I will run some private creative workshops for people who want to learn how to be more creative in work and business.

I am looking for new clients (large or small) who may need to:

- Design or overhaul their logo, stationery or entire corporate look.

- Create new and complete strategies for marketing, advertising or promotion.

- Start a new business (e.g. bars, nightclubs or restaurants) and need interiors, designs, business strategies and/or marketing.

- Design packaging, books, CD?s or exhibitions.

In Thailand, Songkran is a time for cleansing and renewal for the New Year ahead; a time for making resolutions and ?washing away? the previous year to make way for new opportunities.

It seems right that I?ve finally found a place of peace, inspiration and sanity, where I now live, work, play and create.

You can see some of my previous work at my website:

www.marcsmithcompany.com

Please don?t be shy to send me an email or call.

don't be shy??? I won't be shy...

www.marcsmithcompany.com - bookmarked

Thanks Sas, appreciate it

The more people who know what i actually do, and CAN do for them, the more things will grow.

Ever work for J. Walter Thompson???

Nice site, but.......... although your obviously a very talented and creative person it looks like your spreading yourself a bit thin with your many different skills. I'm sure you are more than capable taking it all on but for the client it all looks a bit broad. How about a site for each section, one site for advertising, one site for design, one site for interiors, and so on. Make them look more of a collective rather than a single person under one umbrella.

Then again what do I know.

(Thats the most I've written on TF in three years without writing *****/****/wank/****.)

Thanks for the constructive comments about the website guys. I do appreciate.

The website is a temporary site to simply show some of the work. A new site, with all improvements is coming soon.

Meanwhile, please note the contents, rather than the vehicle!

Hey Beej.... yes... one of my clients is JWT both here and in Tokyo. I have worked on regional projects and worldwide too.

Actually, Im not spread too thin at all. I am very capable of doing all of the different tasks. If a project requires resources, of course I bring them in when required for that project. While the company is in my name, I have many very talented people around me in Bangkok and all over Asia for support.

Marc i do remember i have seen your website before

good pro work: easy to surf , fast , and elegant design

i will take time to see more

greeting from paris

Like I said mate, I don' think you are spread too thin and think you can handle it all no worries, its just the appearance to potential clients that the site gives. Its just how it makes me feel looking at it from a clients point of view.

Beej: "its just the appearance to potential clients that the site gives. Its just how it makes me feel looking at it from a clients point of view."

Good point beej. Thanks mate.

interesting. i thought we had mutual friends. now i know we do.

clearly you are competent and with wide experience. but in image, impression, and advertising, less is more and clarity and simplicity shouts and gets recalled. is the purpose of the site about you or the work you can do for me and my company?

that said, opinions are like assholes. everybody has one and i dont expect anyone to get excited about mine

PJack, please PM me if you believe we have mutual friends.

As for the website, it was the first thing I did last year when I got to Thailand. The purpose of the website then was to get my work and range on the screen as simply and as clearly as possible. Originally, my clients were only agencies, but as time goes by, I now get approached by companies directly.

The new website will be split (in a way as beej already mentioned above) so that ad agencies can see what they need to see and another for my capabilities and some case studies directed at companies directly.

And you opinion is valid and appreciated. Thanks.

good site and good work.

i have to disagree with beej though--albeit with the following qualification:

if you make it clear that you're running a COMPANY and it's not just you (even if it is). and emphasize the full service, wire-to-wire, one stop shopping aspect of it.

it's obvious you can do pretty much anything they throw at you; maybe add a 'how it all fits together' tab. it's not immediately apparent how interior design fits in with a campaign but if you bill it as part of an identity program, so it's all one comprehensive service, that may be appealing. you'd know far more about these kinds of clients than i would, however. just offering up a different pair of eyes.

PeeMarc, also i'm not clear on what the 'stories' tab on the website will (or should) contain.

and P'Jack... if no one's excited about your a**hole, you probably just haven't visited the right soi yet (and i'm not saying that's a bad thing, just that somewhere out there..... someone would get excited if they only knew)>