Creative Minds: Heidi Kasselman on how pretending to be an intern kickstarted her career

Name: Heidi Kasselman

 

Place of origin: Johannesburg, South Africa

 

Places lived and worked: Johannesburg & Cape Town, South Africa, Dusseldorf, Germany, Singapore, and Melbourne, Australia

 

Pronouns: She/her

 

CV:

 

Creative director, Clemenger, Melbourne (2024-present) 

Freelance creative director, Singapore (2022-2024) 

Global creative director, BBDO Germany, Dusseldorf (2019 - 2021) 

Creative director, Network BBDO, Johannesburg (2014-2019) 

Art director, FoxP2, Cape Town (2012-2014)

 

1. How did you end up becoming a creative?

 

I fully embraced the typical chaos that often defines creative departments. One day, in my quest for an internship, I phoned up a well-known South African agency and somehow ended up talking to the newly appointed executive creative director—who was clearly just as confused as I was about internship protocols. When he casually asked if I was officially one of their interns, I seized the moment and confidently replied, “Yes?” Spoiler alert: I wasn’t. Miraculously, I managed to bumble my way through the internship, impressing them enough to snag a job afterward.

 

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

 

I still love these hilariously morbid radio ads that I did for a life insurance brand in South Africa.

 

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

 

I've always loved the smart simplicity of these 10 second spots for the 99p Quarter Pounder campaign done by Leo Burnett. 

 

 

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

 

Pursued a career in advertising!

 

5. Who do you most admire?

 

Copywriters. Coming from the art side of things, I have always been amazed at how they can make something out of nothing. Honestly, I am quite jealous.

 

6. Who's on your dream dinner guest list (alive or dead)?

 

I have a creative crush on Phoebe Waller-Bridge. I love how unashamedly bold her work is. I would love to have a drink with her.

 

 

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

 

I was dead set on becoming a detective.

 

8. What advice would you give to 10-year-old you, if you could?

 

To buy Apple stocks.

 

9. What's your guilty pleasure?

 

Shopping for houses that I could never afford in places I could never live.

 

10. What app could you absolutely not live without?

 

My Birdle app—think Wordle, but with birds instead of words. I wish I could delete my Gmail app along with its 2,838 unread emails.

 

11. What makes you really angry?

 

Timesheets.