Love it or hate it, Slack has become an intrinsic part of office life. Not all agencies may have embraced it, but the ones that have don’t hesitate to put their own spin on it.
Whether you opt for the professional headshot or the too-cool-to-care default square, your Slack avatar says a lot about you and your personality.
“Unlike email, Slack is another platform for self-expression,” said Tim Leake, svp of creative, marketing and innovation at RPA. “So we encourage people to make it personal and natural and be themselves.”
Here are the Slack avatars of five agency staffers, and what they say about them:
Sam Kronk, accounting manager, The Shipyard
Kronk’s Slack avatar is Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy, because she is obsessed with the film, can quote all his lines and thinks she is most like him — “funny, sassy and sarcastic, but in a light-hearted way.” She also has his likeness tattooed on her leg.
Pramit Nairi, user experience director, RPA
Nairi opts for the buttoned-up headshot, for purely practical reasons. “I finally had a decent headshot taken recently,” he said. “I use it across all my social media channels.”
Jessica Cheung, director of digital production, Havas
For her Slack avatar, Cheung went with her dog Paolo, because she thought it would not only be cute and funny, but also a great conversation starter. “My dog is the cutest of all dogs in the world (says no dog owner ever),” she said.
Mark Logan, svp of innovation, Barkley
Logan heads up innovation at agency Barkley, and his Slack picture is a reflection of his job: In it he wears a bluetooth EEG headset to control a slot race car. “It keeps up with my persona as doer of strange, creative tech things here,” he said.
Tim Leake, svp of creative, marketing and innovation, RPA
RPA has built an internal web app that lets employees create animated avatars of themselves, which they fondly call “Crowtoons,” after Nathan Crowe, vp and creative director, whose designs have inspired the the cartoons. Leake uses his “crowtoon” as his Slack avatar, to both “to have a bit of fun and be a team player.”
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