Russell Risko has lived a life dedicated to art and creative pursuits. During his 40-year career as a visual communicator, Russ achieved leadership roles as Art Director, Creative Director, Principal Partner and Ad Agency President. His work has appeared in countless regional, national and e-zine publications and website properties.
Art School Education
With the encouragement of his (artist) mother, Russ was accepted into the Commercial Art Studies Program at the Lower Bucks County Technical High School. With instruction by the acclaimed designer/illustrator Edward (Ed) Smith, this 3-year program led Russ along the path that would ultimately define his professional career — Graphic Design and Illustration.
College Years
Upon graduation, Russ majored in the Fine Art curriculum at the Bucks County Community College, where he earned his AFA. Russ experienced the guidance and influence of the distinguished faculty that included Paul Keene, Marlene Miller, Bruce Katsiff, Alan Goldstein, Emmet Gowin, Jack Gevins and others.
Russ later entered Tyler School of Art and Architecture (Temple University), where he earned a BFA. Russ majored in Graphic Design, Illustration and Photography under the instruction of noted faculty Joseph Scorsone, Stanislav Sikorsky, William Larson, Michael Beacotte and others.
Professional Career
After graduation, Russ joined the art department of Chein Industries (a toy, hobby and housewares manufacturer). He was responsible for the creation of concepts for retail campaigns, product packaging and point-of-purchase displays. Among several honors Russ received while employed there, was the ‘Best of Show’ award for package design by Chain Store Age magazine.
Russ then moved on to Kap Studio (a Philadelphia, PA design agency), responsible for the creation of consumer marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 clientele and area advertising agencies.
Russ later joined the creative department of Lindhult & Jones (an advertising, marketing and public relations agency), producing creative and strategic concepts for B2B and institutional advertising and marketing campaigns.
Russ was later promoted to the position of Art Director, with responsibility for the management of in-house employees; outside freelance personnel; and graphic arts vendor outsourcing. ‘DESI Awards’ for Corporate Literature Design; Board Report-Graphic Design magazine’s ‘Award of Excellence’; and Publisher’s ‘Advertising Readership Awards’ were among the professional honors that he received while employed there.
Teaching Experience
As an adjunct to his day job, Russ taught Graphic Design and Prepress Print Production at the Art Institute of Philadelphia (evening school). While there, he instituted a monthly guest lecturer series inviting graphic arts professionals and other marketing creatives to address his students.
Ad Agency Principal
Upon the founder’s retirement, Russ purchased a co-ownership share in Lindhult & Jones. His career path had now led him to new responsibilities for the management of staff; cultivating clientele/vendor relations; and for all matters financial.
In February 2000, after nearly two decades of successful operation, Russ relinquished his interest in Lindhult & Jones to form a new agency – Artifax.
Early on, Artifax was on the threshold for providing website/multimedia design and development during a time when few agencies offered such services. WordPress, Joomla and Drupal CMS software platforms were unavailable in the 1990s. Russ immersed himself in hand-written programming code. The offset-to-digital transition was nearly seamless.
Artifax eventually rebranded to become AdSpeak Marketing Communications (AdSpeak, Inc.), a full-service advertising and marketing agency. AdSpeak continued in its mission of serving business-to-business, consumer, institutional and international clientele with creative and strategic marketing communications.
AdSpeak rebranded to become the Russell Risko Agency (Russell Risko, Inc.) in January 2011. Now, the agency would take on more challenging roles — analyzing markets, evaluating advertising media, public relations, direct mail, print collateral, online campaigns, trade show marketing and other full-service promotional strategies. Over the next eight years, Russ, along with his dedicated staff of in-house freelance professionals, shaped the marketplace visibility of companies large and small, local and international.
The success of the Russell Risko Agency grew, being named to the Philadelphia Business Journal’s ‘Top 25 List’ of Branding, Marketing & Media Services; the ‘Top 25 List’ of Full-Service Advertising Agencies; the ‘Top 25 List’ of Public Relations Firms; and the ‘Top 25 List’ of Website Design and Development Agencies.
Career Path Change
The Russell-Risko Agency formally ceased operations in January 2019. The time had come for Russ to announce his retirement. Along the way, after a 40-year career, Russ has witnessed the birth and advancement of desktop computers in the workplace; harnessed the Internet as it grew from technological curiosity to everyday necessity; learned to cultivate and advance his professional career and contributed to the success of dozens of brands and team members during that time.
Today, Russ has entered the final chapter of his career, unfettered by the “need-it-yesterday” time constraints of the advertising and marketing world. Now in retirement, he has the opportunity to move beyond his commercial art past and exercise his fine art instincts, to give birth to new visual perspectives and to invest in the time necessary for such exploration. These are the things I create now: