From a cutting edge global digital creative director to an artist exploring the unexpected, Tom Eslinger has spent his career challenging how creativity works. Ahead of his appearance at Festival of Design Aotearoa, he spoke with RNZ's Culture 101 about his journey, the changing creative landscape and why a little anarchy can be a good thing.
In 2000, Tom Eslinger became the first global creative director of digital at Saatchi & Saatchi: not just within the agency, but across any international advertising network. It was a role without a job description, at a time when the creative possibilities of digital technology were only beginning to emerge.
His journey to that position began more than a decade earlier, when a mentor in Minneapolis sent him an advertisement for a teaching position in New Zealand in 1989.
What followed was an unconventional route into advertising. Eslinger and his colleagues began creating advertisements on weekends and sending them to Saatchi & Saatchi. That initiative eventually led to commissioned work and a position within the agency.
Today, his creative practice has taken another direction. As an artist, Eslinger makes collages using album covers, stickers and song lyrics, drawing on a fascination with visual culture that began when he was just five years old, captivated by clearance stickers in his North Dakota hometown.
Across these different chapters of his career, there's a common thread: curiosity, experimentation and a willingness to work without a predetermined outcome.
Creativity thrives in uncertain times
For Eslinger, the upheaval brought about by new technology isn't necessarily something to fear.
His Festival of Design Aotearoa talk explores the idea that periods of technological change, uncertainty and even chaos can create extraordinary opportunities for creative practitioners.
When established rules are being rewritten, and nobody is quite sure what comes next, there's room to experiment, take risks and develop new ways of thinking.
It's a perspective shaped by his own experience of entering the digital creative world before the industry had established what that work should look like.
And his message? A healthy dose of anarchy might be exactly what creativity needs.
Hear the full conversation on RNZ
Tom Eslinger joined Perlina Lau on RNZ's Culture 101 on Sunday 11 October to discuss his remarkable creative journey, from North Dakota to New Zealand, Saatchi & Saatchi and beyond.
Listen to Tom Eslinger's full interview on RNZ Culture 101 HERE
Tom Eslinger is a presenter at Festival of Design Aotearoa, taking place in Whanganui and Palmerston North from 16–25 October 2026.