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That Dirty Word — “Creative”
Posted: by Speider Schneider in Labels: creativity, graphic design, speider schneider
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I needed my appendix
removed so while being wheeled into surgery, I told the doctor I only budgeted
$200 for the operation but if I liked his work, I had other organs he could
remove down the line at a higher fee. I asked if he wouldn’t mind if I had a
few people look over his work and make some suggestions on how he performed the
operation. One of them was my 10 year-old son because he was a whiz at the game
“Operation
.” When I came to, I was in the gutter wearing nothing but a hospital
gown and my appendix still rupturing.
.” When I came to, I was in the gutter wearing nothing but a hospital
gown and my appendix still rupturing.
People never really
question the work or bills of Doctors, lawyers and plumbers. They do their job
and people accept the work because they are trusted professionals -- and they
themselves can't perform the work. So why do people think creatives are easily
replaced, functional morons? Although I have a diploma from one of the most
respected art schools in the world and a client list of the Fortune 100, some
people still seem to think I need help doing my job.
Having put the
question of design by committee on LinkedIn, most creatives joined in to
complain about the lack of trust they receive in a professional setting. The
“design by committee” is not a helping hand but a slap in the face that daily
sends a message to the entire staff that a creative is incompetent in their
ability to do the job for which they were hired. If a creative, however, joins
in with suggestions for marketing, writing or sales for the “team vision,” they
are “out of their league” or “stepping on toes.”
On the other side, the
non-creatives had a different view. As one “suit,” as he referred to himself
put it, “I have to have the confidence that the design solution is meeting the
needs of the client and is achieving strategic/tactical goals. Because of that,
if there are elements of your design that I'm uncomfortable with, I will call
them out, and in some cases, will nix them. Similarly for the client; they have
to be comfortable about how their own brand is being presented, how their
market will react, even how their own staff will react.”
“How their market will
react.” That should be the only concern. Can all of these people be appeased
and still have the graphic message work? Should they be appeased or should the
suit sell the design, writing and images as the proper method for the best
communications to the consumer? Can a proper message work with the “suit” being
the one taste censor not schooled in how colors make people react emotionally
or how size relationships push the eye around the page but instead playing to
individual egos? With this in play, is it any wonder consumers label most
commercials and ads as “lame?” Third rate is the new first rate. Expectations
have been lowered but increased ROI is still the number one concern.
I blame the home
computer and the average person convincing themselves that design is easy
because they can create a child’s party invitation using clip art and Brush
Script (all upper case) in MS Word. The current economic downturn just might
signal that it is not the case and calls for innovation in a company’s products
and client/consumer retention and outreach should spell out that creatives hold
the key to the thinking that will open a world of possibilities.
Those who managed to
put forth creative innovation always did the breakthrough work in the creative
field. The risk-takers. The mavericks. The people who sought to be different
and distinguish their work from the crowd of copycats, and those who dumbed
down innovation. Too many cooks creating a thin broth – pleasing all, and none.
People often ask me,
in light of my work for well-known brands, how I get my ideas. “I’m creative,”
I reply.
They stand there with
a blank look because the word means nothing to them. It’s not tangible. It’s
like breathing – we all do it naturally. Perhaps I should just announce that my
two small children will be joining my studio because they are creative, as seen
in their art class drawings and they will be art directing my client’s big
budget branding projects. I wonder if it will be met with a satisfied smile of
relief or that same blank look when I tell them to trust me because I’m creative?
Published 4.12.10 - Processed Identity
©Speider Schneider
