Production affiliations: UK - Gorgeous Enterprises / US - Anonymous Content
Years directing: 1
Shoot days in 2001: 14
Geography: British, based in London
Started career: In the mailroom
Favorite project: Travis' "Flowers in the Window"

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Tom Carty picked up two telling pieces of hardware at the UK's classy Creative Circle Awards this year: a Gold for most promising beginner for Nike "Tailgating" and Silver for best film art directrion for MTV's "Eggcentric." Not bad for a sophomore director, but then again, Carty is no newcomer to making commericals.

Just over a year ago Carty left his perch atop the UK creative heap at AMV.BBDO to direct. He left school when he was 16 and started in the mailroom of a London agency. By 19 he was a copywriter and on his way to the top.

"I worked with Walter Campbell for 12 years," recounts Carty. "We were lucky enough to work with some really great directors like Jonathan Glazer, Tony Kaye, Frank Budgen. I was getting more and more keen to try it myself."

Carty's latest piece through Gorgeous for the new Travis single "Flowers in the Window" started in the usual way - he listened to the song and talked to the lead singer. Then the usual ended and the surreal took over.

Carty tries to explain the slippery process of creation: "Fran [Healy, Travis lead singer] touched on a few things as to what the song may be about and then I had this thought about growth. Being from the inside. Just the seeds," says Carty. "I just developed that and from there I thought pregnant women are amazing to look at. And that ended up being a town full of pregnant women."

Although he says there was no one event that turned him onto directing, Carty points to a Dunlop spot and a Volvo campaign he and Campbell did with Kaye in the early '90s as the first gleam of his new career. "Just working with [Tony] was very inspirational. We were always very involved as a creative team in the production. I guess all those experiences and moments were a great learning ground."

Carty continues to work with AMV; in March, he directed "Rush," a 90-second BBC1 spot featuring a martial artist ranging across London rooftops in remarkably in-camera and effects-free display of acrobatics, scored by a smooth Dean Martin remix.