first – no, i am not related to the former mayor of nyc. good, bad, or otherwise, there's approximately a 91.8% chance that's the first question i get asked from people in the nyc-centric ad world. and in case you are wondering, i'm from boston (yo).
second - let me tell you a better story about my name. according to some random website, over 600,000 people have been named joe since 1980. my big issue has been that i don’t want to be like everyone else. i’ve gone by joey, joey d, jojo, joe flow, joey bag uh donuts... you name it, i’ve been called it. then i turned 22 a few years back and everything changed.
after eating dinner one night with my parents i was thinking of my family which made me think of history which made me think of names which made me think of my own name (the normal stream of consciousness of a 22 year old), and i asked my parents why i was named joe. their answer was: “because of joe dimaggio.”
it was in that moment that I realized a few things. the first is that (woah) joe deblasio sounds just like joe dimaggio. the second is that between being named after joe dimaggio and everyone thinking that my uncle is the mayor of nyc, new york must have a crush on old joey over here. the third is that i'm not the average joe.
and that's exactly how i intend on working as an art director, acting as a teammate, and living as a human – better than your average joe (and hopefully even better than that).
went through the camera roll and found the most ridiculous selfies that best describe my life outside the hours of 9:00-5:00.
