Victoria Harrison, or Vix as she’s known, has been with Leeds-based marketing agency Principles for over 20 years.
Since joining the team as art director in 2005, Harrison has led projects from shopper-activation in major retailers to integrated brand-building campaigns for brands, including Seabrook, Ronseal and Astonish.
After being promoted to creative director in December last year, Harrison reflects on her journey into the creative industry, as well as the aspects of her job that she enjoys most… and the challenges that come with it.
How did you first get into your industry?
I won’t sugar-coat it, getting into advertising was a hard slog. The creative industry is a tough one to break into. I started out as one half of a creative team, art director and copywriter, and like all creative graduates, we stood proudly by our stand at the university end-of-year show, naively hoping we’d be snapped up by an obviously impressed creative director. Surely, with our talents, they’d be fighting over us?
Instead, it marked the start of more than a year of unpaid placements, knocking on every door and showing our book to anyone who’d take the time to see it. We heard “We’d love to give you a job, but we just don’t have the space right now” more times than I can count. It was tough, but it taught us resilience. We kept showing up, grew thick skin, learned constantly, and gained the experience so when the right job finally came along, we weren’t just ready — we’d earned it.
What do you love about your job?
I love that every day in this job is different — new brands, fresh briefs, and something new to get your teeth into. One day I might be art directing ‘Boiler Man’ on his debut TV shoot, the next I’m conceptualising POS for paint in B&Q. I’m an ideas person at heart, so for me it’s all about the concept and the challenge.
Sure, sometimes I think it would be nice not to have the constant pressure of coming up with new ideas — but then I remember that in most 9-to-5 jobs, I’d be bored out of my mind.
I still get that rush of adrenaline when you know a pitch has landed just right, the thrill when a client chooses the brave concept, and the pure joy of being able to say, “Look Mum, I did that ad”.
Who – or what – has inspired you in your career?
I’ve been fortunate to work alongside some seriously talented creatives over the years, and my current team keeps inspiring me every day. As a creative, it’s so important to work in a space where you can collaborate and bounce ideas off each other.
I have also always looked to brave brands for inspiration. I still remember the thrill of seeing the Cadbury’s Gorilla ad for the first time, literally on the edge of my seat, wondering, ‘What is this ad for?’ I was in awe of the sheer bravery in not even showing the product. Then later, how the same ‘Glass and a half full in everyone’ line was reinforced with such underrated brilliance in the ‘Garage’ ad, exploring the everyday complexities of the father-daughter relationship.
I look to brands like Specsavers for being brave enough to recognise that they should never deviate from ‘Should have gone to Specsavers’. By constantly beating the same drum with one clear core thought, every ad builds on the same concept making the brand story, and so its memorability, stronger and stronger.
What are the biggest challenges about your job?
I think the single biggest challenge in advertising today is time. Budgets are shrinking, which squeezes the time creatives have to truly think. In our agency, we fight to protect as much thinking time as possible — because the stronger the concept from the start, the more effective the campaign will be. It’s like Abraham Lincoln’s “sharpening the axe” analogy: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Investing in the idea upfront always leads to campaigns that are more entertaining, more impactful, and ultimately more successful.
What skills have been the most crucial to you succeeding in your career so far?
Adaptability has been a huge one. When I started in the industry, I was the art director in a creative team and was very much one half of a creative whole. Over the past decade, I’ve evolved into a more complete creative, developing ideas from concept to execution. As agencies have become smaller, individual roles have axpanded, and that shift has pushed me to grow in new and rewarding ways. The introduction of social media has also completely reshaped the advertising landscape – for better or worse – changing not just how we communicate with audiences, but how quickly we must think, create, and respond.
Being a bit weird helps, in fact, it’s essential. Creativity thrives on difference, on thinking in unexpected ways. You need energy, passion and persistence to push boundaries, challenge every brief and never settle for the obvious. Always expect more, fight for innovation, and stay curious – it’s the only way to stay connected to culture and keep your ideas fresh.
What was your first salary and what could someone getting into the industry expect to earn nowadays?
My first salary as a junior art director was £12,000, which was over 20 years ago, so you can expect to earn around double in that role nowadays.
What education or training would be most useful for someone looking to follow your career path?
If you want to get into advertising, you need to get into agencies as soon and as often as you can. When I was at uni, I didn’t just stick to the set coursework — I went straight to agencies, asked for old or live briefs, worked on them, and came back for feedback. It made my portfolio stand out because I was solving real problems, not just ticking boxes.
I was also lucky enough to earn a spot on the D&AD New Blood workshops, where we worked on weekly briefs from some of the top agencies in Leeds and Manchester. Those sessions were priceless — learning to work under pressure to tight deadlines, pitch ideas, and start building a network of contacts.
Nowadays, School of Thought offers a similar creative course, it’s a brilliant way to get your foot in the door.
What advice would you have for someone looking to follow your path?
Don’t give up — just keep putting yourself out there. LinkedIn makes it so much easier to reach senior creatives, so share your work as widely as you can. Take feedback on board, but remember creative opinions are subjective. I once changed my whole book after one creative director’s comments, only to change most of it back after the next one.
Don’t be too precious — most of what we create never actually gets made. And don’t be afraid to voice a ‘bad’ idea, sometimes just getting it out of your head is what uncovers the great idea hiding underneath. Most importantly, enjoy it. Have some fun along the way.
