Name: Arve Overland
Company and Position: Overland Agency, CEO and Executive Creative Director
Your age: 39
Educational history: 1987 degree in philosophy from the University of Bergen, Norway.
Professional history: I worked for two advertising agencies in Norway (Ad Astra and ACT) before moving to the United States at age 26. Moving to the States was a dream, not a career move. There was not a great demand for Norwegian copywriters in U.S. advertising agencies, so my first “real job” was at AquaSeed Press in Seattle, an academic publishing house catering to the fisheries trades. After that, I did freelance graphic design and production, emerging Web technologies and project management for advertising agencies. In the mid-1990s I was in account services with Portland design firm Hanlon Brown, working with Fortune 500 companies, and filling the creative director role on my accounts. I founded the Overland Agency early 2001, and have been lucky enough to build a great crew of 10- professionals, working on accounts such as Adidas, Dolphin Software, Audio Precision and Standard Insurance.
What led to your present career? I’d reached a glass ceiling at my last agency, and had gone full circle back to creative directing, which I’d done in Norway. My wife, a native Portlander, was pregnant with our first child. Since I felt at a crossroads in my job, I told her I wanted to start my own agency. She’s a photographer and understood my urge to create. We drove down to Salem, to get the business license in February 2001, and the next week I set up an ad agency in the garage of our Southeast Portland home. Four years later, my agency occupies the top floor of a historic building downtown.
What’s the most stressful part of your job? Everybody seems to think advertising is stressful, with the deadlines, and having to please a variety of clients. I couldn’t agree less. For those who don’t enjoy challenges from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day of the week, I advise they avoid an advertising career. Stamp collecting is low-impact. Seriously, I see my daily reality as fuel for creating more than stress.
What’s the most significant issue your business faces right now? Attracting top talent to a small firm in Portland, Ore., so we can grow stronger and not just grow. Our last two hires (senior graphic artist and project manager) just happen to have come from New York City. But most of our people we’ve hired right here out of Portland.
Describe a difficult decision you made and what guided you to that choice: My hardest decision was to start an advertising agency in 2001, after the “dot-bomb” catastrophe. Probably the worst time to start an ad agency, in an industry downturn and with a growing family. But business has been great. And I believe you can only fail if you don’t try.
What word or slogan best describes you? When at the office ask me if I’m ready for a meeting, or good news, or bad news, or whatever, I say, “I was born ready.” Sad but true, as my mother can attest.
What do you do to relax? Spending time with my family. I love taking the boys (Max, age 3, and Fin, 18 months) and my wife, Michal, to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. Or, just everyone in the kitchen, making a meal and sitting down to dinner together.
Briefly describe a charitable or political cause you actively support, and why: My wife and I did two tours of charitable work in Africa through a church organization before we had kids. Now my agency does work with the Oregon Department of Human Services, in their Youth Suicide Prevention Program. I feel strongly that people with depression and other anxiety problems should be supported, especially children and teens. Right now, my agency is doing pro bono work for a program aimed at teens and college students at risk.
Name one personal indulgence: Taking the family on trips (Europe and Costa Rica in the past couple of years).
Favorite Restaurant: Leg of lamb in a good, hot curry sauce at Bombay Cricket Club, on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard.
What are your special talents? I have been told by co-workers and clients that they like my creative strategies best of all. Honestly, we’ve gotten several major clients in the past couple of years based on strategies that get results, which we then back up with strong creative.
Why are you in Oregon? I met my wife here. I had been to 46 states and countless U.S. cities. Portland stood out with its European feel. You can walk everywhere. There are great coffee shops, almost like a café society. And there’s plenty that’s interesting, fun and cultural to do downtown after 6 p.m. For me, as a European, that was an essential element of a city.
Tell us one bit of personal trivia that might surprise people: I won a playwriting competition in Seattle, sponsored by the Northwest Writer’s Guild in 1992. The prize was to have my play staged and performed.