Framed and hanging in Santa Monica's House of Usher is a portrait bearing the same name. It is one of several attempts at a family photograph circa 1966.

The picture shows six bellbottomed family members in a kaleidoscope of colors. They are distracted and looking anywhere but at the camera.

Amid the psychedelics and confusion is a six year-old boy. Having made a circular formation with his hand, he is looking through it, as if it were an eyepiece.

And so begins Kinkavision.

Now 39, director/cameraman Kinka Usher continues to define Kinkavision, a directorial point of view and style that have become a familiar catch-phrase in the international world of advertising - an industry where slogans and brand differentiation are everything.

Simply put, Kinkavision means sophistication and subtlety. It's about understanding the nuance that is integral to 30-second storytelling. In short, efficiency in communication. And getting there requires revisiting the imagination of the six year-old boy in the photograph.

Usher describes his approach to creativity by harkening back to childhood. Like a curious child, he relishes the idea of the unknown, of approaching each storyboard with a series of questions, and collaborating with agency creatives to arrive at an answer.

"The idea of not knowing. That's sort of the beauty of it," says Usher. "And finding your way out of that, finding the journey from (the point of) not knowing, to ultimate completion is the artistic experience," he explains.

Kinka Usher entered the film industry at 23, having already explored a career in the restaurant business as a sous-chef. He began as a production assistant at Los Angeles-based Harmony Pictures in 1984 and gradually worked his way up to camera assistant, then to steadicam operator and eventually director/cameraman.

"I really was one of those classic fell-forward type people," admits Usher. "I wasn't a good camera assistant. I think I got hired because people liked me and I was enthusiastic and I could be funny."

Usher got a break as a production assistant on a Joe Pytka shoot for Bartles & Jaymes, and as a camera assistant to director Roger Corman on one of his low-budget films.

He made his directorial debut in 1992 on "Aborigine," a spot for Acura out of Stein Robaire Helm which earned him a Belding Award in 1993. Three years later he opened House of Usher and by 1997 he had furnished his house with four Lions from Cannes. The following year Usher was recognized with the Director's Guild of America Award. Among his award-winning credits are spots for Taco Bell, Nike, Got Milk?, Nissan, Miller Lite, Polaroid and Pepsi. This year Usher crossed over from commercial production to features, directing Mystery Men for Universal Studios.

Born in France, Usher is the son of a ballet teacher and a graphic designer. He suspects that their marriage of art and business may have had something to do with his career choice, and remembers being drawn to the creative world at a very early age. "I always had a tremendous imagination as a child," Usher recalls.