Meet Team GMD: Robert Huynh

Here at Glacier Media, our internal agency ecosystem is made up of 150+ folks.

Another week, another Team GMD Q&A. It’s kind of like Vogue’s 73 Questions. Instead, it’s in blog form and there are less than 10 questions – because you’re busy and we respect your time.


Meet Robert Huynh, GMD’s Creative Director. Robert is a Jack-of-all-trades in digital media and visual design. From photography to graphic design, motion graphics to print design, there isn’t much this guy can’t do. Read on to find out more.

Expertise: Sticking my hands in my armpits. ^

Hobbies: Backing cool projects on Kickstarter and watching Youtube videos. If you are a film buff, I recommend the Lessons from the Screenplay channel.

Personal kryptonite: It’s not wise to announce one’s weakness.

Office habit: I have a habit of getting a Dirty Chai (chai latte + espresso) from Starbucks. The chai spices kind of irritate my throat and I end up coughing a lot. I’m sure it’s annoying for the people who sit around my desk. Sorry, office peeps.

Isn’t that a weakness? Drats.

Hidden talent: I am known to do a bit of photography. Check out some of my work (below).
See more on my ello and Instagram.

There’s an urgent project that needs to be delivered EOD. You haven’t even looked at the brief. Describe your creative/ firefighting processes. What are the major steps?

  1. If the brief is long, I like to print it out and carefully read through it. For me, the key is to use a highlighter marker to emphasize important details, which helps with retention of important instructions during that first read-through. Then, I hit the ground running.
  2. There is often one asset in a project that can set the art direction for other deliverables. I work on that thing first.
  3. My industry experience enables me to be quick, practical and decisive. It’s about thinking on your toes, maintaining high-quality output, and working smart.
  4. Skip lunch. Think about having a huge meal for dinner.
  5. Sometimes you need to ask for help – and you should.

Next vacation destination: Somewhere with access to Grand Canyon National Park

It’s 11 AM on a Saturday morning. What are you doing? Trying to clean up my live-work apartment to reset it for my next creative project.

Any advice for the emerging creatives? If you are starting out with natural creative instincts, work to build your awareness of different types of business operations and commercial retail or service models. On the other hand, if you have more of a business mind, aim to get a good grasp of design industry standards, production processes, and the tech that powers it.

At Glacier, we work in media tech and ad tech, which is always changing and can sometimes feel disorienting with big disruptions. We can’t solely rely on our knowledge of tech tools anymore. As much as we’d like that security, the tech you love and worked hard to master might be obsolete in 5 years. It can feel like we have to re-learn tech tools constantly.

However, developing a strong acumen of creative problem-solving and business outcomes will serve you well for your entire career.

Top creatives know how to balance Art + Commerce.