Barry Schmader

Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer

Standing out. Hard to believe now because of his stunning handsomeness, but as a kid, Barry had bright curly red hair. Damn near orange. And freckles dotting practically translucent skin tone. He learned to take the abuse from all generations having been compared to Howdy Doody, Ronald McDonald, and Ralph Malph. Perhaps even more tragically, all his siblings had brown hair and eyes. As the old Sesame Street song went, “One of these things is not like the others.” It didn’t help that when he was 5, his older brothers and sisters told him he was adopted and that his real name wasn’t Barry. It was Finbar.

From that childhood trauma, he learned he would have to embrace being different, or perish. And so Barry “adopted” being different as his badge of honor. Standing out was to be the foundation of his brand. Since then, Barry has been fascinated with harnessing the inherent power in the different, the in-between, the interruptive, the flawed yet brilliant.
He has recognized that telling the simple truth of a brand begins with finding its key differentiation.

Since 1986, Barry has been differentiating hundreds of pharma, device, and biotech brands by creating one-of-a-kind visual- and data-driven archetypical stories. He throws himself and his team into each project with the mission to bring out the single unique attribute of a brand—and proclaims it boldly and proudly without arrogance. He has vowed to never let one of his clients’ brands be treated like the redheaded stepchild.

Barry’s brand experience includes consumer, package, and healthcare brands:

• global B2B/ consumer brands such as Wood Mode, Nicotrol, Tylenol, Children’s Motrin,
  Today’s Sponge, and Chrysler
• global pharmaceutical blockbusters like Nexium, Percocet, Altace, and Lexapro
• biotech and  biopharma brands commercializing proprietary molecules
• medical device brands for Cordis, Medtronic, Genzyme, and Boston Scientific

Barry’s education includes a BA in Communication Arts from Villanova University.