Veteran creative director Gary Prouk wants to concentrate on what he finds most enjoyable and challenging – creating advertising – and plans to do just that when he officially opens a creative consultancy in Toronto next month.

Prouk is adamant that the company will be a consultancy, not an advertising agency. He will bring in other creative people on a project basis and clients will have separate relationships for other services such as media buying and direct marketing.

The size of the office will be limited to about four people because Prouk wants to avoid the management side of the business that has taken up so much of his time in the past.

‘All I’ll have to worry about is the work, advertising, not all the detritus that as creative director or chairman I had to deal with,’ says Prouk, adding that of an 80-hour week, perhaps 50 hours were consumed with administrative tasks, meetings and travel.

‘I’ve paid my dues,’ he says.

Prouk was chairman and creative director of Lowe SMS when it was merged with Roche Macaulay & Partners 18 months ago and he was fired.

Last year he attempted a short-lived partnership with Holmes Donin Alloul, now The Holmes Partnership, and worked for five months as creative consultant on the AT&T Canada business at Young & Rubicam.

During that time, Prouk has also been working directly with clients on a number of projects, including a pool of commercials for Toronto-based vitamin and herbal company C.E. Jamieson.

Clients are increasingly using consultants for their communication needs, a trend Prouk saus has more to do with the way clients want to do business rather than how much money they want to spend.

‘They’re looking for less process-driven places. They have no time for endless meetings,’ says Prouk.