Creativity Needs Planning
We often think that creative people are spontaneous types that go with the flow and change plans in an instant… This to me is called “VACATION”. Only on a vacation can I really relax enough to not have a plan. Being a creative by profession means something totally different.
Yes, you have to be creative picking colors or coming up with a design, but these things that seem random do come from somewhere. They are not picked out of the blue. They are all taken from a master plan, which mainly starts with a company’s brand.
Once you have that master “brand” everything follows suit. This is why it is so important to have a brand to begin with and a message or tag-line and/or byline that encompasses your company. Huge corporations have been built by the strength of their brands. Our jobs as creatives is to fine-tune that brand. Everything includes ads, brochures, commercials, photo shoots and all the tiny nuisances that make up your company’s “look.” After a while, a successful brand can be stronger than any single marketing effort. It can be felt, remembered and it just plain IS your company.
A brand takes the idea of being creative and free and ties it down to a master plan. Things should be looked at from every angle, planned, then changed and then planned again. Nothing is to be taken for granted. The color—Is it too feminine? The font style—Does it say corporate or fun? Should it be technical or sophisticated? Should we use images or icons? All these things come together under that brand umbrella.
Branding by itself is a meticulous business. Something that looks fun and creative, often takes a very long time to plan. We take time to know our clients. Understand their business philosophy. What they stand for. What are their services and what are they passionate about? Usually the services they offer are what they love to do and that is why they are successful in the first place.
As a creative agency dedicated to creating brands, we want to portray our clients in a way we can capture all that passion and pride for what they do in a visual manner. It is not easy. Then again, we are professionals, we are creative, and we are passionate about what we do, which means we have a lot of planning to do!
Ben Franklin said: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,” and this makes a lot of sense to me. And Gloria Steinem said, “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.”
Funny. I often find myself designing while daydreaming. In the shower, or while exercising, just doing things that free my thinking. That is when I get inspiration. Then it is time to work. I have to put all those creative thoughts down on paper and start planning!
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