Perspectives on Creativity

Post contributed by
guest blogger Jen Williams; media
consultant and marketing professional.

"I have my best ideas alone.

Yes, I’m all for teamwork and brainstorming sessions. I’m all for taking those great ideas, bouncing them around the conference room, and seeing where they land. But when it comes to coming up with something truly inspired – whether it’s as simple as a name for a promotion or as complex as a new business idea – I do my best work solo.

Everyone has hers or his own opinions about creativity and where it comes from. From Thoreau and Walden Pond to musicians and their muses, art has historically been known as a solitary pursuit. But as art and business have merged into commercial media, many agencies, marketing departments, newsrooms and editorial boards began modifying the creative process to fit popular business models.

So, amid team-building initiatives and group brainstorming sessions, a lot of individual creativity is lost. Research has shown that, despite its popularity, the concept of teamwork is overrated. Team members, one study showed, tend to work about half as hard on a team than they would work on their own. (http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/0606/0097.html; http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06164/697891-28.stm)

Sure, great ideas sometimes hit me out of nowhere, when I’m in the shower or on my morning commute. There’s a lot to be said for the freedom of an open mind, allowed to wander behind a background of white noise. But for me, those random ideas tend to be abstract. Rarely do I have an actual “eureka moment,” when I’m compelled to pull over on the highway’s shoulder to write down that perfect new slogan for the project I’ve been working on.

More often, I’ll be in a meeting during which the team will conclude that this such-and-such needs a new tagline, and six people will look at me expectantly as if I’m going to pull something brilliant out of thin air. Instead, I’ll write down the task assigned and tell them to give me some time.

Then I’ll go in my office, set the phone to go straight to voicemail, turn off my email program, turn up the volume on the radio, close the door, stare at my blank screen a while, and start writing.

Free writing really works for me. When forced to be creative on demand, I find a blank screen especially daunting. I will put whatever words pop into my head on that page, just to have something there. Then I will start making lists. Lists of words I might use in the particular name or jingle or slogan or tagline or print ad. Yes, I’ll even tap into my handy dandy desktop thesaurus (Mac Users: I love Widgets!) and make lists of synonyms for words already on the list. Then I’ll try a
hundred different combinations of all the words on my various lists until something sounds good.

It doesn’t work every time. There are days when I can’t write anything worth a crap to save my life. If I’m at it for more than an hour or so, and the voice mail light is furiously blinking and people are lining up outside my closed office door waiting to talk to me, I’ll probably call it quits for the day and try again tomorrow.

But more often than not, I come up with something not half bad. And maybe, I’ll bring it to the next meeting, and someone on the team will think of some small way to improve it. Or a graphic design to illustrate it. Or a music bed to emphasize it. And then, team creativity kicks into gear and real brainstorming can happen.

But when you create for a living, the real idea has to come from inside you. On your own. It’s not some sort of muse-inspired work of art. It’s your job, and the designer or printer or producer or client doesn’t really care what you were thinking about in the shower this morning. You’re on deadline. Now get to work!"

Whether it is a collaborative effort or a force of one, the bottom line is; great creative is the key to a successful campaign. Without it, your message is just another meaningless diversion in the eyes of a consumer. Thanks for the post Jen.