Meet Chris Ammons

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Ammons.

Hi Chris, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Asheville, NC. At the time, it was a sleepy little mountain town. Growing up, I was always interested in art, music, literature and movies. As a teenager, I started playing in bands. I loved both the creative expression it offered and the collaborative nature of it. This became more of a focus for me through college and my early twenties. When you’re in a band, you need posters to promote your shows, album covers, merchandise, etc. Being the member of the band who was artistically oriented, I started making those things. At some point, I realized these were the same skills used for “Graphic Design”, so I took a few design classes and got a job at a local web development company.

After a while, I realized I wasn’t as good at this as I’d like to be, so I enrolled at The Creative Circus in Atlanta, GA. to study Graphic Design & Advertising. While I was there, I interned for a boutique agency doing hip hop album covers, apparel graphics, and other fun stuff like that.

After graduating from The Creative Circus, I moved to New York City and spent a while freelancing for various ad agencies and taking on my own clients. I eventually found my way into a job as an Art Director at an Ad Agency. I quickly realized I loved the more big picture nature of it. I loved coming up with an idea and bringing it to life with the support of a team, rather than staying down in the weeds by myself, like I’d been doing as a designer.

From there, I began putting more energy into photo and video driven work and focusing on visual storytelling.

After moving from NYC to Nashville, I was unhappy with the pizza options available, so I started learning how to make really good pizza. This coincided with an effort to diversify my income streams and activities.

I now spend time on regular advertising type work (concept development, ad campaigns, print and digital ads, social media), more production-oriented work (Directing, art directing and concepting Photo and video shoots; Set dressing and prop styling; screenwriting, etc. and I ran a secret, sporadic pop-up pizza biz called “Pizza Friend”.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nope. The great recession. Bad bosses. Bad clients. Being at agencies when big accounts got lost. Moving a lot. The Coronavirus Pandemic (which is what led to a bigger focus on Pizza Friend).

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I do all kinds of visual creative. I do concept development for ad campaigns, photoshoots, videos, etc. I art direct shoots. Sometimes I direct. Sometimes I do set dressing and prop styling for shoots. Sometimes I do branding.

I’m currently in post-production on a short film that I wrote and directed.

I do sporadic pizza pop-ups with my pizza biz: Pizza Friend

Who else deserves credit in your story?
I tend to work very collaboratively and in very collaborative fields. I’ve worked with so many great copywriters, photographers, stylists, models, artists, designers, producers, DPs, etc. Work is best when it’s done with a great team.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: chrimmons.com
• Instagram: @chrimmons