There was a time when a youthful Lumir Hladik would be jailed in his native Czechoslovakia for merely expressing his opinions.

So it was no surprise that Hladik, the eloquent and outspoken president of Sutton Javelin Corporate Communications, welcomed an opportunity to express his thoughts about living his lifelong dream of working in the communications field and toppling walls of creativity beyond the wildest dreams of a boy in communist Prague.

1. Can you talk about your roots in Prague in the former Czechoslovakia under the communist regime?

“I spent my first 28 years in Prague. My schooling happened under the communist regime. Eventually, I made the decision to escape in 1980. Of course, not having a crystal ball, I couldn’t see that the whole (communist) empire would collapse.”

Chris Wood, Business Edge
Lumir Hladik was stifled under communism before escaping to the West to realize his boyhood dream.

2. How did you escape?

“My wife and I had two kids so we had to make it invisible. Sometimes, they would keep one of your kids as a token of security for themselves. So I went to Cyprus for holidays and my wife and kids went to Germany at separate times. We met in Germany where we lived for a year while applying for immigration status in Canada.”

3. How did you cope with the oppression of the communist regime?

“It drives you crazy. I always loved information and I wanted to travel and see how things are done elsewhere. Funny enough, you have plenty of information but it’s not enough and you don’t have the choice and you cannot explore for yourself. Of course, everything was censored. What you say is scrutinized. And then you think about bringing up the children in that regime where they’re basically in a cage, where you run for a few hundred miles and you run into a fence.”

4. What’s the worst experience you had in that regime?

“Because I was involved in arts, I was arrested a few times. You’re basically pursued by the police because they think what you do is subversive. You get arrested by being someone else or being unique or different or original. I also played in a rock band, which was frowned on.”

5. How did that oppressive lifestyle shape your character?

“I’m going to make a controversial statement. The oppression actually helps, in a way. I know it’s weird and it’s strange, but there are a lot of artists coming out of that place and it’s because of the oppression. The more oppressed you are and the more difficult it gets, the more it provokes you to become very frugal and very determined to make it happen.”

6. So having your creativity stifled inspired you?

“Yes, it inspires you. There were some people who were actually devastated after the revolution in ’89 because they had nothing to fight against.”

7. What was your boyhood dream?

“I thought I should eventually go to another country and own an agency. It was a dream and it came true, actually.”

8. Why did you set your sights on Canada?

“First of all, I wanted to have an English-speaking country. I already spoke German. I think 85 per cent of all information is available in English. That’s an incentive. And basically I wanted to move to North America because it was a big place and Canada because of the outdoors — the unspoiled, pristine outdoors. They killed the last bear in the Czech Republic in 1886. I lived in Toronto for 18 years and I did a lot of canoeing around there.

9. One person who has had a major influence on your life?

“It’s too tough to name one . . . OK, Joseph Beuys. He was, I would say, the biggest fine artist — he’s dead — of the 20th century. He was German. He was the guy who exhibited a chair that was covered with lard.”

10. Does your work with Sutton Javelin consume most of your time now?

“Yeah it does. It’s an obsession but it’s fun. I think going back to the roots where I always wanted to understand the essence of this. I think that’s the buzzword — the essence. When I train or teach my designers or anybody, I want them to see the essence, what the concepts or the company or the communication or the brands, what is it all about, in a very deep sense.”

11. What makes Sutton Javelin unique in corporate communications?

“A lot of people are getting too superficial these days. They see something for a few seconds and they think they know it. When we were hired by other companies, from Agrium to Jayman Master Builder, they say: ‘You guys think out of the box and know more about us than everyone else.’ That’s why people are attracted to this company.”

12. If I’m applying for a job as a designer, what do you want to see on my resume?

“Original thinking. You don’t go with the mainstream. You don’t take things for granted or at their face value. You’re supposed to analyse and understand deeply, again, the essence of whatever you’re working with. Our emphasis is on research and in-depth knowledge of the very intrinsic mechanics of a company or corporation.”

13. What’s your view of the way technology will impact the future of communications?

“It’s funny. Some people are afraid of it. We are welcoming it. The interesting thing is that basic human behaviour will never change. The principles are the same. I think technology being used the right way can enhance the way we communicate.”

14. How do you enhance communications?

“Languages are very poor right now. If you have a few people around a table and say a word — tree — and ask them what they see. You get Christmas, birch, oak, old, artificial, big, small. Everyone sees something different. And, yet we are saying that we all understand each other. Oh, bull----! The other thing we can do is use design and layout and pictures and words to narrow it down and get the message across.”

15. What are your pastimes beyond your career?

“Study. Travel. Learn more about ancient civilizations, archeology, paleontology. And deepen my understanding of design.”

16. Your home is on fire. Three possessions you take with you?

“Art. Books. Collections of artifacts.”

17. Who is favourite author?

“Anything by Franz Kafka. I have read his books every day for the past 30 years in three languages.”

18. Why Kafka?

“He thinks out of the box. His novels are like a bad dream, but it’s a phenomenal example or exhibit of human thinking and self-induced human limitations.”

19. If you could change one thing to make the world a better place, what would that be?

“Improve the way people communicate.”

20. Your vision for Sutton Javelin?

“Wherever you look, be it marketing or Web sites or new media, there are, from our perspective, unexploited lands. There is stuff basically that half of the mankind has not even seen, which should be done. So we’ll try to help and explore those areas.”

THE COMPANY: Sutton Javelin Corporate Communications

* Profile: Sutton Javelin Corporate Communications is an integrated marketing communications firm with a broad base of products, services and programs designed and developed to increase the sales and market share of clients. Besides Calgary, the company has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Charlotte, N.C., and Caracas, Venezuela.

* Goal: To increase bottom-line performance, prestige and reputations of clients.

* Clients: List includes Calgary-based companies and organizations such as Agrium, Boardwalk Equities, Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts, Prudential Steel, Shaw Communications, Calgary Stampede and Calgary Zoo.

* Address: #200, 441 5th Ave. S.W. T2P 2V1.

* Web site: www.sutjav.com.

* Phone/Fax: 265-9980, 265-7662.

IN PROFILE: Lumir Hladik

* Born/Raised/Age: Prague, Czechoslo-vakia; 48.

* Title: President/creative director/sales manager, Sutton Javelin.

* Education: Studied in Prague at the University of Prague (psychology major), the University of Economic and Foreign Trade and the College of Applied Art in Advertising and Design.

* Resume: Prior to founding Sutton Javelin with Gord Sutton in 1989, Hladik was a consultant and art director with McKim Advertising in Toronto.

* Role model: Artist Joseph Beuys.

* Claim to fame: Hladik is an accomplished painter whose works are displayed at galleries throughout North America.

* Passions: Reading Franz Kafka novels, studying, travelling, archeology, paleontology, collecting artifacts, canoeing.