IT’s Creative Thinking.

Now the question will be, how should we do it then? Well, first you must decide what kind of Creative are you! We can’t all be Typographers, Visualizers, Designers, Art Directors, Copy Writers, and Creative Directors…etc. all at the same time:

A) Please be honest with yourself, try to understand your skills. What are they? Your skills are your exchange currency and B) Decide where are you heading? Pen down your personal objectives, and accordingly weigh your skills “the product you are offering” Vs the pay you are getting in return.

Is it fair, less… etc.? If you understood your skills, and what kind of a Creative you are, then here’s what you need to do to master this profession:

1. You need to do a lot of research to become exceptional. Gehad (A creative colleague of mine) always said measure twice and cut once. What he meant really is: “Do your homework very well, and once you are done check what you’ve got again and make sure you understand perfectly”.
2. Start where everyone else stops. Meaning, rest assured that the first idea that comes to your mind will come to someone else too. The client, being with the product for much more time than you will for sure have some creative ideas of his/her own, and accordingly expect certain things to come from you. If you come back with what he/she expected, then you did not really spend much time doing it. I could’ve done that, will cross his/her mind for sure. Hence, don’t fall for the obvious, do not go for the first idea that comes to your mind. Start where you expect everyone else will stop. They expect you to be creative, so be one.
3. Finish big. Don’t just share concepts, give them a taste of the final product. Impress them, that’s what they expect from creatives. To be impressive.
4. Come back for more. After the job is done, and the work is sold, don’t disappear. After the work is released, ask how did it go, what was the feedback (don’t worry about what they will think of you, you are a professional trying to perfect your job)? Rest assured that there’s a lesson to learn in every project you do. Learn as you go, because experienced creatives make minimum errors, and are a very rare breed. Simply, hard to replace.
5. Finally, make sure that you team up and bond with those who have the skills you don’t have, and can’t acquire for whatever reason (no one is perfect), win their trust but share the success and credit, without them you are just not good enough.

• The brief arrives, and it might not be complete, we don’t bother checking or seeking further information, and sometimes even worst, we don’t even bother to read the brief. Here, we have not invested time in exchange for Knowledge in the subject at hand. Hence, the base is not solid enough to move on to the next level. We are not aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it.
• Minimum understanding “of the brief” forces the Creative to seek inspiration on the net by googling the main keywords in the brief, and for sure some images will appear as a result, through which creatives seek inspiration. Unfortunately, the same scenario will occur with ANOTHER LAZY CREATIVE and end up doing concepts that are like what they’ve done, hence, you’ll be accused of either copying someone else work, or even worst will end up being fired because the efforts given by you does not match the pay you are getting.