Meet Jay Norman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Norman. 

Hi Jay, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started as many black city kids getting into design happen to…making stuff for my friends. I got access to a computer and learned early versions of Photoshop through trial and error, as YouTube (and the tutorials that makeup YouTube University now) was still a kind of new-ish thing while I was in middle/high school. So, while simultaneously starting a music production career, I jumped into design, getting an internship at the Detroit Freep, starting a side job as a party flyer and hair magazine spread designer for local businesses, and eventually starting my own design shop with a partner of mine after a couple of years at CCS. 

Fast forward some years, a bunch of failed projects and incredible new opportunities. I found myself in New York, signed to BMG Chrysalis as a songwriter/producer, working at an NYC Ad agency as a Senior Art Director. I got put thru the ringer, worked on many things I had never done before, and learned a ton. I’ll spare you some of the details in between, but I freelanced for a while after that, one of which was at an Agency called Huge, which was looking to open up shop back in my home state of Michigan. I took the job, stayed for three years, moved on to Doner, won some awards, and made terrific relationships, bringing me to Spotify. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Not at all. I tried to get work at agencies while in school to no avail. I spent a million hours trying to break into the music industry and got told no a lot. After being fed up, my friend and then-partner, Willie, and I opened a design shop and tried to do it ourselves. That was hard. We were naive and were taken advantage of several times by pretty big organizations. 

College was expensive, and affording CCS, even with a scholarship, was proving challenging. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a Creative leader, Marketer, and Co-Founder with a decade + commitment to designing campaigns merging culture and human emotional experiences. I’m known for being able to fortify creative ideas with intelligent social and cultural insights for the benefit of the brand and uplifting and entertaining of the consumer and the communities around their purchase decisions and fandoms. I’m always ecstatic when I can bring those insights and brand energy to my hometown of Detroit, and I am proud to say I’ve done so several times. You may have seen campaigns from Pepsi, Rock Star Energy, Spotify, and Kingsford that feature little love from your boy. 

What matters most to you?
Illuminating and opening the paths of creativity and success to people who would not usually have the opportunity to do so. As I’ve grown in my career, I’ve got to meet and work with many incredible leaders in this business who happen to be Black, Latine, Asian, Non-Binary, and so many more. The reality is while brands are getting on the bandwagon of support, the industries I work in are incredibly homogenous in gender, race, sex, ethnicity, and background. And this shows up in the work itself. Ideas tend to be single-note and uninteresting to folks who grew up in ways most people in the business have not. 

So, I want to support work that touches on those cultures. I want to build paths for people to craft careers in this field. And I want myself and my network to be a beacon and a standard setter for the culture. My story shows that a Black kid from 7 Mile in Detroit can make it in the corporate side of this world. 

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaynorm/