AAPI Creative Spotlight: Mars Nevada Designs With Real Purpose

Whether they're working to communicate a client's vision or dreaming up their next big project, Brooklyn-based art director Mars Nevada operates on a singular guiding philosophy. "I have to feel like I'm doing good," they told Adweek for the AAPI Creative Spotlight series. "That either means social good and changing the world, or just the good of bringing hope, relief, visibility or even a simple sense of joy to someone's life." It's certainly an ambitious approach to creativity. But as a second-generation immigrant and Filipino-American, who is also queer and genderfluid, Nevada recognizes the influence their position affords them and keeps community top of mind throughout every project they helm. Their proudest work, for instance, wasn't a nationally aired campaign, but rather a 2019 student competition entry that illustrated how corporations could approach DEI talks in ways that were actually substantial. "Very rarely, especially at that time, did we see real conversations that everyone from execs to interns could be in," said Nevada. "And we knew, as BIPOC, that it's usually on us, as the people most invested in DEI but also the most marginalized, to start the awkward conversations and ask the hard questions. And that's unfair." 'We made challenge kits with letters daring people to play,' says Mars Nevada of their student DEI campaign. 'Talk, Not Talking Points" gamified a solution by creating a card game for corporate leaders to use with their teams in order to spark real conversations. It may not have won the competition, but it did garner local accolades and caught the attention of surrounding companies and DEI facilitators. "We made challenge kits with letters daring people to play—and basically dropped them on the doors of every public relations and advertising agency and company with a communications department in our city," said Nevada. "We facilitated workshops and led rooms full of people at tables to play and talk. We ruffled a few feathers for sure but most people loved it." On what sparked their interest in creative advertising: It all started with a text during a play rehearsal and an offer that seemed too good to be true. "I was really lucky to stumble into an advertising agency internship really early in college," they shared. "We had many amazing agencies in town, but not a lot of internship programs. I randomly, in the middle of a musical rehearsal I was in, saw an article about how the then-CCO of Havas New York Harry Bernstein put up his phone number around NYC, looking for summer interns. I ended up texting and got an internship offer. I almost thought it was too good to be real, so I asked a college advisor if I was being scammed." The offer, as it turned out, was real. Before long, Nevada was on a train from their Midwest home to New York, where they spent the summer as a production intern. "When I went home after the internship, I walked into my advisor's office and asked them to switch any and all credits I could afford on my scholarship over to advertising and design classes." On what they hope to accomplish in the coming year: As someone who is still very new to the ad industry, Nevada says they still have quite a bit to learn as agency Arnold's newly minted art director. But mainly, they want to sow the same kindness and resources that have been handed to them from guiding experts back into their community—something that they're already doing as a mentor to AAPI high school students. "I've only come so far because of the amazing people around me, their compassion, their leadership, their mentoring, their community-building, their encouragement and support," said Nevada. "That's the kind of stuff I most want to keep learning from people—how to be human and good in the work and outside of it, always lifting each other up." You can learn more about their work at their website. To view the entire AAPI Creative Spotlight series for 2022, click here. AAPI Creative Spotlight: Liz Kim's Work Balances Analysis and Beauty