IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS | Perich Advertising + Design

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS

By Ernie Perich

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How bleaching and ironing my shoelaces as a kid prepared me for a career in advertising.

Who the hell bleaches and irons their shoelaces? The same knucklehead that polished his shoes 3 times a week in the 4th grade. The same oddball that stripes his lawn in 4 different patterns today. Some would call it obsessive. I prefer to see it as attention to detail. The same attention that will pore over a headline, a font choice, a point size, a color, an expression on a face, the amount of white space, the kerning of the body copy, the rag of the column, the angle of the photo, the precision of the strategy, the quality of the varnish, the legibility of the embossing, the precision of the cut, the inflection of the voice, the timing of the move, the impact of the subtlety, the period or the lack of the period and on and on and on.

Right or wrong, I’d like to think the people who have been sending us checks for the last 30 years appreciate how much we really care about those tiny things on their behalf.

Or maybe I was just an odd kid. And being odd prepares you for advertising.

Yes, that photo is me, and yes that is my hair.