Pam Fujimoto was recently named executive creative director at Wongdoody's Los Angeles office, returning to the agency where she got her first gig in advertising in 1999, after graduating at the top of her class at Art Center College of Design.
Prior to her new job, she was a creative director at Creature, Seattle, and oversaw creative for Truvia and Dickies. She's also served at TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York where she helped steer Absolut's "In An Absolut World" campaign, as well other efforts for Sprint, Snickers, Skittles and more.
But advertising isn't the only thing that's helped shape this west coast leader's creative career, as you'll see in this week's edition of Six Things.
1) She used to pop popcorn for every concession stand in the Kingdome (the now extinct 60,000 capacity Seahawks/Mariners stadium). She worked out of a hot room on the 300 level during the summer while a student at the University of Washington. She would sit by heself in a tiny room, crank up the Aiwa boombox and pop away in the most forgettable location in the entire Kingdome. If there were an evacuation she would probably be popping away right through it.
2) She was a bedazzler. Remember the '80s when malls were filled with iron-on shops, where you would go in and have your nickname and a sparkly rainbow festooned on a raglan t-shirt for your next sweep around the roller rink? That was Pam in there, adorning shirts with unicorns and rock stars, spelling out "World's Best Mom" and "Sally's Crew." That was where she learned how to kern type and was introduced to Cooper Black.
3) She was a coxswain on UW Crew as a freshman, the perfect and only sport for a small, bossy, un-athletic person. The coxswain sits in the back of the boat and looks down the line at every person rowing, managing many moving parts to work as one, always in control of the boat, but doesn't have to do any actual physical activity. She only did it for about a year until the schedule started to conflict with her growing interest in graphic design -- but it was great preparation for a career as a creative director.
4) She went through the Mommy Olympics. She has identical twin sons, a cruel irony for someone like her who has terrible facial recognition to begin with. The first seven months after they were born were harder than anything she'd ever been through. Sleep deprivation got the best of her and her husband, so they took to painting their son Tomo's toenail (or was it his?) so that they could tell him apart from his brother Kazi with absolute certainty.
5) She has horrible instincts when it comes to her own personal safety. One time her car was broken into on a dark unpopulated street in Pasadena. The guys were still in her car acting like it was their car when she walked up to it. She wanted to call them out on it, so her (terrible) instinct was to walk up, open the door and say, "This is my car." Her next (even worse) instinct was to try and grab one of the guys by the jacket and say "Hey!" when he made a run for it with her two cameras. It definitely could have turned out worse.
6) She's a track poser. She hates running, but once every few years she tries to be a runner. It never works out. Years ago, she went running and got so winded she had to lay down on the side of the path, in the grassy area, and every time someone jogged by, she acted like she was blissfully resting and having a zen moment, not about to have a heart attack.
