by Miriam Hara | Apr 7, 2015 | Agency, Business Success, Creative, Latest
Here’s a quiz that will help you to see if you have what it takes to work in the creative field. There are so many ways to make a living in the creative field. How do you determine if you’re cut out for heading up the ranks in the business of creative?
With the introduction of computers to the creative and advertising industries (Thanks Steve Jobs!) the definition of being creative has somewhat changed. Computers have made the business of creative easier by allowing us to push the envelope further.
However, many people today think that being creative simply involves the the ability to navigate a computer and its software, such as Photoshop or InDesign. That is not true. The mystery of being a creative goes much deeper than that. It is my genuine belief that a computer does everything for a bad designer and nothing for a good one – except provide the means for more exploration, make them quicker and of course creatively stronger!
So what are some of the common skills and characteristics of individuals that succeed to become a creative director, art director, conceptual thinker or graphic designer?
Simply answer yes or no to these 8 questions to determine your level of creative.
Don’t think about it, just answer instinctively.
1. Yes or No: You like puzzles. In fact, you excel at seeing how things fit together in a way that goes beyond just the shape of the pieces.
2. Yes or No: You are naturally inquisitive. You’re usually seeking to understand a new subject. You never grew out of the “Why?” stage from childhood.
3. Yes or No: You like doodling. You like taking pen to paper or screen and moving it about. It helps you to think and follow your thought pattern.
4. Yes or No: You can draw without the help of a computer. In fact, you usually have a sketch book with you just in case you see or experience something that inspires you.
5. Yes or No: You are an origami guru. You love understanding how a series of certain folds can lead to a beautiful paper sculpture.
6. Yes or No: Problem solving is in your nature. You like to fix things. You thrive from the challenge of taking complex problems and simplifying them. Deep down you don’t really understand how many people can’t see the solution that’s usually right there in front of them saying, “Here I am!”
7. Yes or No: You like words. From their subtle meanings, their true meanings, their double meanings, right down to the letters that make up the words. Words are a thing of beauty and joy to you.
8. Yes or No: Learning is just as necessary as breathing for you. You strive to keep up with what’s new. You like to learn about new trends, new software or new procedures. Learning means “new”, and new keeps you on your toes, creatively!
If you have answered YES to 5 or more of the above questions, then you definitely have what it takes to be creative, professionally. Now go for it, and welcome to the club!
What other characteristics do you know of that are indicative of a creative mind. Let me know!
by Miriam Hara | Mar 26, 2015 | Business Success, Communications, Creative, Latest
What makes a brainstorming session a strategic brainstorming session? Some might say, “Aren’t all brainstorming sessions essentially strategic?” Well yes and no. It might surprise many that most brainstorming sessions are an exercise in establishing creative concepts in order to facilitate the tactics set out by the strategy. That in itself is not wrong. However in order to reach the level of strategic thinking required for the next big idea it takes a lot more focus and guidance from the session leader.
Strategic brainstorming strives to develop creative concepts that go well beyond the obvious. It doesn’t speak to the how of a brand or business nor does it dwell on tactics. Strategic brainstorming takes more discipline in order to expose the bigger picture. Big-picture thinking is all about strategy and the overarching communications that encompass the call-to-actions and the tactics. How do you arrive at big picture thinking and how do you know when you get there?
All brainstorming sessions have a basic premise of establishing parameters to develop a creative concept that speaks to a desired message. Call-to-actions and creative establishing the USP of a brand or business fall into that range.
Often, many creative outcomes, whether it’s a TV ad, billboard, digital or web ad, speak to features – beautifully so. There isn’t anything more beautiful than an eloquent creative that is single focused and speaks to the brand or business core premise.
However, move the lens a few degrees north of that premise and you fall into the strategic brainstorming sphere.
Strategic brainstorming speaks to the emotive quality that umbrellas the brand or business USP and focuses on the call-to-action in a benefit-driven statement. It needs to go beyond the low-hanging fruit to determine the overarching statement or creative premise.
Creative professionals who have worked within the strategic brainstorming sphere know what I am talking about. It’s not so easy, right? It’s actually quite challenging – that’s what makes it exciting!
Strategic brainstorming takes any mandate away from colloquialisms and speaks to consumers by tugging at their hearts while resonating with their rationale side.
How do you determine if your creative brainstorming sessions have resulted in strategic creative thinking? Here are some pointers:
Do your homework: Don’t just read the documentation from the client. You need to conduct your own investigation in order to live and breathe the brand or business. This allows you to develop your own thinking about the industry, come to your own conclusions and possibly find that golden nugget idea that would otherwise stay buried.
Take the time: Allow for the information digestion. It’s important to not only read the material, but for your mind to digest the information so that it becomes part of you. Only then can you think about the brand or business as your own. This will allow you to place yourself in the intended audience’s shoes and start thinking in terms of the values that are important for the brand or business to communicate.
Originality is a must: Take the obvious and make it sing. There’s nothing better than convincing people to connect with a brand or business they already know. They are just waiting for that little push. That’s what obvious is all about. But obvious still has to be original. Concepts that stem from the proverbial low-hanging fruit and are easy to pick may lack the depth of messaging or the singularity necessary. Also, be careful not to confuse category benefits with brand benefits. These aren’t owned by any brand or business.
Dive deep: There’s a difference between snorkeling and deep sea diving. Snorkeling allows you to see many beautiful colours of fish and vegetation from the top looking down. It still provides impact but you are only looking at it near the surface. Whereas deep sea diving allows you to immerse yourself among all the beauty that lies beneath, allowing you to develop a concept that is truly full of life.
What are some of the techniques you have used for strategic brainstorming?
by Miriam Hara | Mar 24, 2015 | Business Success, Creative, Design, Latest
Packaging design has always been touted as the “art of art”. If a designer can make it as a packaging designer, they can make it anywhere! Developing great packaging design is essential for any brand. Often the package is the only advertising a product does while sitting on shelf. It goes without saying that capturing the consumer’s attention on shelf is paramount for any product.
How do you turn good packaging into great packaging?
Here are some contributing factors that make a world of difference towards the success of package design:
Production Knowledge:
It’s important to understand that a package design won’t live in the environment where it was created. Many beautiful designs falter when they are produced in mass. What’s the point of designing and presenting a package that can’t be reproduced effectively? More importantly, what’s the point of designing a great looking package that adds to the costs of goods – thereby affecting the ROI of the product? Essentially, it’s all about production: Designing with the knowledge of production and the printing processes in mind will make you a packaging design hero.
Market Understanding: Competition
It may seem to be a motherhood statement although I say this with the utmost respect: Designers shouldn’t just design. Packaging design, or any commercial design doesn’t live in a vacuum. Packaging design must compete against other products and their packaging design. Packaging design must respect the tone and character of the brand and more importantly, it must maintain its individuality. If being a me-too brand is the objective, well the design is already dictated, isn’t it?
Market Understanding: Culture and Consumer
Hand in hand with competitive evaluation is the need to assess and understand whom you are designing for. It’s important to design within the framework of the culture to make the design relevant and to have it resonate to the intended target audience. There’s a lot of marketing that goes into a packaging design, so research is key. Listening to the research feedback is monumental.
Design for Performance:
Packaging design must perform on shelf. Although I love the use of “white” space, sometimes it’s just not the right strategy to employ in order to gain optimal on-shelf performance. Depending on the product category, it’s important to see how the design works on shelf with all the visual noise that goes with it. Be honest with the design. Even though it hurts to let a “beautiful” design go, if it doesn’t perform, it will be let go eventually and the cost associated will be significant.
This is only a short list of what I view as important to creating great packaging design. Do you have any other considerations to add? I would love to hear about them.
P.S. If you love design as much as I do, download our design eBook: re:design here.
by Miriam Hara | Mar 12, 2015 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Latest, Marketing
In order to maintain creative integrity when discussing concept ideas with your client, it’s paramount to listen to what they are not saying. The art of listening has long been deemed as the key to success in any sales situation. And that is very true. The same is also true when selling creative and conceptual approaches to marketing professionals.
Developing creative concepts and advertising campaigns makes creative professionals part of the marketing profession. Although, there is a basic difference between marketing professionals and creative professionals. I’d like to be clear before going any further. Being creative or being a marketing professional, are not mutually exclusive. All professions need creative thinkers. However, in the context of this discussion, I am referring to creative professionals who are mandated on a daily basis to develop “creative” approaches to marketing challenges and initiatives. For all you creative types out there, you know that your creative mind works a little differently than most. It operates by thinking in visual and conceptual terms. This does not come naturally everyone. Creative thinkers are able to fit many subtle nuances and pieces of a puzzle together into a cohesive message that resonates to a core audience – all the while, making it easy on the eye!
Far too often when presenting creative concepts and programs to brand and marketing professionals, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the creative integrity of the program. Here are a few tips to help that process:
Don’t take feedback at face value: Often when receiving changes to the creative from a client, feedback is given in the form of direction. For example: Move this up, or move this down. Try to determine what is at the source of that direction. What does the client actually want to achieve?
Be prepared to educate: It’s important for those of us who sell and more importantly, develop creative, to have an educational mandate as well. I have found the best results occur after I illustrate or “show” the client direction requested. This is when I show a different creative solution that resolves the issue.
Speak frankly: Far too often, the selling through of a creative takes over the creative integrity. When the creative goes into a direction that it was never intended to, it’s success is in jeopardy. The program may also be in risk of not resonating with the intended audience. Clients expect your frankness. In fact, that is why you’re at the table.
I invite you to download our design and marketing ebooks found here. Are there any tips that you can add? Please do!
by Lindsay Sleightholm | Nov 21, 2014 | Advertising, Creative, Design, Latest
“Getting” creative
Let’s start at the beginning. Long before you decided to get into a creative industry, at some point you discovered that you were good at it. Something just clicked and it made sense to you. You enjoyed it. Sometimes you’d even get excited about it. And if you were lucky, the people around you would encourage you to keep at it. There was no doubt about it: you were headed into the business of being creative.
Doubt creeps in
Somewhere along the way from point A to point B you encountered something that made you doubt yourself. What that is varies from person to person. But most of us know what it feels like. We change from being happy and excited about what we’re working on, to thinking we’ve made a mistake. As creatives, we sometimes feel a little vulnerable about what we produce. Although we are working for our clients, our work speaks partly about who we are as people. And it can be hard not to take criticism personally.
Self-doubt is any creative’s worst enemy
What happens when you don’t have confidence in your ability? Well, it makes it very hard to be creative. A lack of confidence can actually be creatively crippling. Any idea you may have is inevitably thwarted before it can be realized because you don’t think it’s good enough. That’s only if you actually get any ideas. More often than not, if you don’t feel confident, ideas just don’t happen. Some refer to it as being “blocked”. Unfortunately for any creative, we really can’t afford be blocked.
It’s okay to question yourself
Let’s face it: the creative industry is a competitive one. So you’d be right to question your ability from time to time. I’m pretty sure that if you didn’t question it occasionally, you wouldn’t fully realize what you’re capable of. For instance, sometimes questioning what you can do leads to improving your skills or taking the time to learn about a new subject. It’s actually a good thing.
Don’t compare yourself to others
The problem comes when you question yourself in a detrimental way. One of the biggest ways to do that is by comparing your work to the work of others. This never ends well. It’s okay to be inspired by others and let that inspiration guide your work. But comparing the value of your ideas against the ideas of others is not only detrimental, it’s inaccurate. Everyone is different. Each of us experiences the world and thinks in a different way. That’s what makes being creative so exciting in the first place. By thinking that someone else’s idea is better than what you would have thought of, you’re actually making the assumption that everyone thinks the same way.
Validation builds confidence
Creativity needs to be nurtured. As creatives seeking confidence, we also require validation. Referring back to the beginning, we need acknowledgement from the people around us to encourage us to keep at it – no matter how long we’ve been doing it – whether it comes from those in our personal lives, our peers or our superiors. Ultimately, everyone needs a second nomination. Lastly, and the most important thing, is self-validation. Because no matter how anyone else views you, if you don’t believe it for yourself, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.
by Miriam Hara | Oct 9, 2014 | Business Success, Creative, Latest
I believe that creativity is inherent in an individual and that it can’t be taught. But by the same token I strongly believe that creativity can be nurtured and that everyone, in some way, is creative. Creativity isn’t limited to “design” or “painting” or “crafts”. Anyone from a mathematician, a web programmer to a janitor can be creative.
That being said, I recently started wondering if creativity has a “peak”? Just as a person matures, do the creative juices start ebbing with time? I have to say the answer, in my opinion is a resounding NO.
Creativity doesn’t have an age, but it does have characteristics that must be nurtured in order for it to thrive. Keeping these three “I” words in mind will aid in nurturing your creativity, allowing it to flourish and for you to remain young at heart.
Be Interested.
Practice the art of listening to those who speak to you. Be engaged in conversations – in real time. Get into social media and read about topics that are interesting to you or that have some bearing in your life.
Be Inquisitive.
Take a lesson from a two year old. Ask, “Why?”. It can be that simple. Don’t take things at face value. The key to being creative is to always be curious.
Be Informed.
What’s new? What’s exciting? What’s happening? Be it on the planet, in your industry or at your office.
Ultimately, creativity is a muscle and it needs to be exercised continuously. It needs new input and new challenges all the time. The ability to turn on the mind set of being in the “now” and being engaged is necessary. Age doesn’t have any bearing on creativity, it’s our attitude towards aging that dictates the effect it will have on our performance.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on this subject. Do you agree? Does the creative spark dim with age? Do we become complacent and don’t exercise our creative well? Or is it that with age, we become wiser in the ways to tap into our creativity?
