Creative Minds: Casey Schweikert started a 'cult' for bread lovers

Name: Casey Schweikert

Origin: Sydney, Australia

Places lived/worked: New York, Sydney, Shanghai

Pronouns: She/her

CV:

• BMF Sydney, associate creative director, 2019-present
• BBH New York, associate creative director, 2016-2019
• RGA New York, art director, 2014-2016
• Banjo Sydney, 2012-2014
• DDB Sydney, 2010-2012

1. How did you end up being a creative?

I started as a runner on TV shoots. I had no idea what a creative even was. I thought people just showed up on set, thought of a silly scene and filmed it. This is how I thought the Carlton ‘Big Ad’ was made… thousands of people just spontaneously went to a field dressed in colourful robes and sang about beer while making the shape of a giant beer drinking man. Seemed straightforward enough. At some point I learned that’s not how it happened but coming up with the idea sounded cool, so I set about doing that.

2. What's your favourite piece of work in your portfolio?

Probably a film we did for Planned Parenthood of New York. They provide vital health and reproductive services to women (and men) but are constantly under threat of being defunded. We found out that New Yorker’s have more sex than anyone else in America and decided to celebrate that. And we got to say f*ck a lot.

3. What's your favourite piece of work created by someone else?

I could watch this ad for SetApp over and over. It’s so dumb and funny, every single scene is random and awesome, especially the gameshow bit. Shooting this would have been hilarious. Hats off to the lead guy for rubbing himself on various surfaces for hours.

4. What/who are your key creative influences?

A friend put me onto this DJ who makes absolutely insane music videos. They’re super weird yet beautifully filmed.

5. What kind of student were you?

Absolutely dedicated to subjects like art and design but absolutely useless when it came to history or science. I didn’t mind maths though, maybe because drawing triangles was somewhat interesting. I guess I knew from a young age I would do something visual.

6. What's the craziest thing you've ever done?

I started The Bread Cult, a secret society for people who worship bread and basically sacrifice every weekend to baking. I took it very seriously, even looked up getting real cult rings made but they’re like $2,000 each so just photoshopped one instead.

7. What career did you think you'd have when you were a kid?

I found my Year 1 workbook in my parents’ garage and it said, ‘when I grow up I want to be a cat’ and maybe one day I will be.

8. Do you work best under pressure, or when things are calm?

I like a little of both. Calm is nice but it’s easy to get distracted, so a bit of pressure keeps everything moving. Except in the kitchen, then I don’t like it. I don’t even like people talking to me when I cook. My mom would agree.

9. What’s your favourite music / film / TV show / book / other of the past year, and why?

I read the book Why We Sleep and found it absolutely fascinating. It’s full of reasons why sleep is so important. For example, every year when we lose an hour of sleep from daylight saving, road accidents go up. And vice versa when we gain an hour of sleep. It’s just full of crazy stuff like that.

10. Tell us about an artist that we've never probably heard of.

Every photo from Sam Youkilis is like a mini Italian short film. Portraits, food, passionate Italians. His work tells a big story in a tiny square.

11. What's your guilty pleasure?

Putting my hands in the big bucket of dried beans at the supermarket. I don’t think you’re allowed to do it and I can’t say I’ve done it since I was a kid. Or have I?