One Club Member shares a campaign encouraging kids to discover music

In middle school, I took piano lessons in the tiniest room ever. It was literally a closet they stuck a piano in, and I was not musically gifted so I quit shortly after starting. There was the dreaded chorus class too, and for many years I had to pretend to play hot cross buns on a recorder. My experience with a guitar has always involved some guy who was “trying to learn,” and that is the extent of my musicality.

There’s this cool organization called Free Guitars 4 Kids (FG4K) and its mission is to give away one million guitars to underserved children. So far the organization has given out 1,800 guitars while staying true to their tagline, “changing the lives of children through the gift of music.” One Club Member and Art Director Brett Essman had the opportunity to create a campaign to publicly launch this non profit and it’s all about encouraging kids to get out of the digital realm and into the physical though playing guitar. Brett gave us all the details about working on this wholesome campaign.

How did you get involved in this project for Free Guitars 4 Kids?

Our CCO at Preston Spire worked with the founder in the past and he wanted us to help them launch the organization in a bigger way, into the world. The brief was really simple, “how can we get more guitars in the hands of kids.” The most exciting part of this project was using creativity to introduce this great organization and show the healing powers of music.

“The brief was really simple, “how can we get more guitars in the hands of kids.””

As the Art Director, what was your initial vision for this campaign?

We knew from the beginning that we didn’t want this to feel too polished or realistic looking, it should have some grit and imperfections, as in life, and music. We also had a very tiny budget and had to be collaborative and open minded with the final product. Thankfully, we partnered with this great animation company in Richmond, VA called Alice Blue. We showed some initial scrap from some European short films. What they came back with blew our minds. They definitely raised the level of craft and emotion that went into the film.

Social media induced anxiety is a real problem for everyone these days. Do you resonate with anxiety or cyberbullying on a personal level?

I’ve experienced anxiety my whole life and even bullying when I was in grade school. Luckily, I’m old enough to know a time when the bullying stopped at school and home was a safe place. Kids today don’t have that luxury. I also have two young boys we keep off social media, so they can’t be exposed to it.

“Luckily, I’m old enough to know a time when the bullying stopped at school and home was a safe place. Kids today don’t have that luxury.”

Music heals. In what ways do you resonate with this message?

Music is amazing. It can take a crappy day and turn it around. Music has the power to transform you to the place or emotion you had the first time you heard it, which is incredible. I grew up playing piano, which my Grandma taught me. Then I played percussion until eighth grade when I suddenly retired to focus on my NBA dreams, which was very stupid.

What did you enjoy about working on this project?

Any time you can do work that makes a positive impact, it’s super rewarding. I loved that we got the rights to the song, “I Want to Break Free” by Queen. We also got to work with Katrina Cain to sing it. And lastly, we worked with a world-class animation house that made the film come to life.

We had such a small budget, and at times, it seemed like it was going to be impossible to pull off. But all our partners believed in the idea and did anything and everything to make it happen.

BRETTESSMAN.COM

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