DON'T YOU WANT TO KNOW?
Hey, What’s the HOLLAR?!
Creative Leader, Artful Storyteller. My name is Herbie Hollar, and I am a seasoned and versatile marketing communications professional in famously hot Columbia, SC. I bring a wide range of marketing communications intelligence and capabilities to all of my projects, backed with years of experience as an award-winning* art director and creative leader for both agency and in-house shops. I’ve been described as an entrepreneurial creative thinker: I can take a small budget and stretch it with innovative concepts that have legs. I look for the unexpected and see how it can be leveraged to generate stories that truly stand out.
I believe in storytelling that gets attention. Not actually shouting, but by engaging the viewer, creating an emotional connection, and generating a response: either a direct action, or—sometimes even better—a lasting impression (often called top-of-mind awareness, but that sounds too buzzwordy).
I specialize in edtech, identity, branding and direct marketing. My latest gig was Creative Director at Softdocs, a maker of software for K-12 and Higher Education, where I transformed the look of a small software company into a much larger looking one, through stages that first, basically, wiped the slate clean and then advanced the brand more and more.
I cut my agency teeth at Chernoff Newman, where I was a Senior Art Director for about 10 years. Among the many hats I wore here, one was being the art director that helped define and launch the SC Department of Agriculture’s first campaign to promote SC produce and products, Certified SC Grown. I worked closely with the writer and creative director to develop the big idea and look for this new brand and its multi-million dollar campaign that spanned media from print campaigns to broadcast TV to interactive to actors dressed up as fruits and vegetables rallying in the streets. I also got to work on smaller but still meaningful projects for the community.
And before that, I learned the in-house corporate communications world as a Senior Art Director at BlueCross BlueShield South Carolina. My work encompassed annual reports, hand-painted posters, long format brochures, and even tags for jeans and fedoras.
And even before that, I freelanced for the agency I would eventual join, as well as numerous small businesses doing everything from logos and identity to motion graphics, videography, copy writing and outdoor adverting.
*ADDYs and other awards from AIGA, PRSA, IABC—all the letters
