Creative Lives: Naresh Ramchandani, creative director

Our guest this week is Pentagram partner and co-founder of non-profit public service, Do The Green Thing, Naresh Ramchandani. As Pentagram’s first advertising and communications partner, he talks to us about how creativity can make a cause visible, and why he counts idealism and pragmatism as two essential skills for creatives. Armed with a portfolio of witty, sharp and award-winning campaigns, Naresh arrived at Pentagram following an already successful career in advertising that saw him co-found agency Karmarama and non-profit public service Do The Green Thing – as well as writing his own column for The Guardian. Joining Pentagram in 2010 as the design consultancy’s first advertising and communications partner, the move seemed to usher in a couple of other firsts, with Naresh working on everything from YouTube’s debut ad campaign to creating Pentagram’s first-ever music video. Growing up with initial hopes of becoming a record producer, a love of music turned to a love of words, and he soon enrolled on the English and American Literature course at Manchester University. Later inspired by John Webster’s legendary ‘Martians’ ads for Smash, it wasn’t long before he landed a job as a copywriter for the London-based advertising agency HHCL, winning a Gold Lion for his campaign for Maxell Cassette tapes – and the title of best advertisement in the world – in his second year at the company. ... This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Marianne Hanoun and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.