Benjamin Neal Conaghan is a KCMO-based Award Winning Creative Director.
What’s up, as that big header says, I am a Creative Director (art by trade if we want to get technical) living it up in my hometown Kansas City. So how’d I get here? It all started at a small portfolio school in Chicago, the American Academy of Art, where I achieved a BFA in Illustration focusing on Art Direction. After those college years, I hopped over that big lake to Kalamazoo MI. working as an art director leading the social content charge on Kellogg’s snack brands such as Pringles and Nutri-grain at VML. After many cans of Pringles I rode the VML wave back to Chicago to continue to help build the Kellogg’s business, being one of the first creatives on the floor in Chicago I got to watch the office grow from a creative department I could count on my fingers to an office now booming. Those next couple years in Chicago, I worked on CPG giants including Tyson, Wells, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Rice Krispies (Kelloggs), as well as winning the Panama Tourism business which led to an exotic production hiatus to create some of my favorite content I have worked on to date. After 4 great years hanging around Lake Michigan, I moved down to VML’s HQ to work on the Wendy’s AOR buinsess, which was conveniently located in my hometown of Kansas City MO. Which brings us to now where I have grown to be one of the wendys teams creative directors leading the charge on Big thinking and campaign work. But when I am not advertising cheeseburgers I am screen printing posters or smoking a brisket.