What’s Your Creative Brand?

I created this illustration eight years ago.  I was at a very different stage of creativity that I’m in now.  If you asked me then to define my creative brand, I might have talked about my desire to get my work noticed.  Take a look at this illustration.  It’s all about being noticed.  The hand-drawn lines and distinct treatments, the mixed media montage... Look at all the effort I put into making something that had my fingerprints all over it.  There was a reason behind this—I was a little disappointed with my move to work on the Web at that time.  Sure—at first I was excited, but the Web was a different place back then and the lack of broadband and technology advances limited what you could do online.  So in an effort to keep my creative juices flowing, I dabbled in illustration with the intent of creating a style that would get me recognized.  I wanted to be “creatively unique”.

Today if you ask me what my creative brand is, you’ll get a very different answer.  I sometimes describe my approach as being “creatively agnostic”.  What I mean by this is that unlike the illustration, my goal is to not have a style.  Why? Well part of it is because when you work at an agency where you shift gears on different brands, you can’t do brands justice if you are always trying to push your own personal creative bias.  But it goes even deeper.  I embrace creative agnosticism because I am not creating experiences for myself.  I am creating experiences for individuals who have tasks to complete, goals to achieve and desires to be fulfilled.  So I lose myself in their world.  I forget about me and what I want.  Everything I do reinforces the delicate dance that occurs between customer and brand.  They need to forget that I’m even there.  To put it in movie terms, the brand and customer become actors and my effort becomes almost like a set producer/designer.  If I do my job right—they engage in the environment that's been created for them in a way that's comfortable, natural and authentic.

What got me thinking about my own creativity was Mike Wagner’s Draw A Picture post.  I thought about what happens once the average person realizes that they are in fact creative beings.  But what happens next?  Once you figure out that you are indeed creative—what form does your creativity take?  Are you a big ideas person?  Do you develop a sense of cultural aesthetics?  Do you become visual?  Do you express yourself using words?  Like the great art movements (expressionism, minimalism, post modernism) creativity takes on different forms based off of what currently influences us.

So once you embrace your creativity what comes next?  As I eluded to earlier, I practice a different brand of creativity than I did years ago.  It works for the initiatives that I currently undertake.  But just like ourselves, our creativity changes over time.  It changes based off what influences us and what’s needed from our being creative.

And like brands, your own personal style of creativity can be unique and should say something about who you are and what you stand for.  That said, what is your creative brand right now?

Comments

[ming]

As clever as it may sound, i doubt anyone can approch a project without a creative bias.

because even doing that

IS a creative bias.

....

I do have Biases and preferances, but I believe I express them creatively enough that no 2 clients ever pay for the same thing.

at the same time i'm not afraid to use what i learnt on one project for another.

I think to succeed, we need a creative style.

think of a movie director. you can make any type of movie, still a little of the director gets stuck in.

what do YOU think;)

[DA]

Ming,

I think you're correct about the bias part. All human beings have a bias—a filter for how we view the world. So maybe what I'm saying is that my current style, or bias—is to supress my natural creative bias. Something I've learned to to and enjoy doing.

And I definitely use what I've learned from one project to another. I once heard someone describe this as "Magpie Creative". A Magpie will build their nests from whatever is available. Their nests have been known to include coins, candy wrappers, newspaper, whatever they can get their little beaks on.

Good thoughts.

[Ann Handley]

My creative brand is usually influenced by whatever sort of alcohol I'm drinking at the moment...

: )

Ha. Just kidding.

Great post, "D." This is a wonderful line:

"I thought about what happens once the average person realizes that they are in fact creative beings...."

...because the truth is most people are FAR more creative than they give themselves credit for. So often I come across individuals who beg off an assignment, conversation, brainstorm session...whatever...with the excuse, "I'm just not creative!" But as you suggest, the biggest step is embracing your inner creativity -- whatever form it takes -- and nurturing it into bloom. It might be visual, oral, written, whatever....but it's definitely there. Great reminder.

p.s. And that's a seriously cool graphic, fyi.

[DA]

Ann,

Yup, most people don't tap into their creativity. And to go a little deeper, many don't cultivate it once they discover that they are indeed creative.

Thanks for the compliment on the illustration. It's titled "Teen Depression"

[Gavin Heaton]

I used to try to have a style of creativity (mostly writen) ... but then I realised that there was an underlying sense that permeated all my work. And the more I tried to make a conscious style, the more disruptive this "sense" became. Eventually I realised that the "sense" was my style ... and the "style" that I was pushing/seeking was just superficial.
But then, turning this into a "voice" ... well ... that is something that is forever evolving.

[mindblob]

David,

I've been working in a agency for quite a while and I agree that your creative brand is in perpetual evolution. Nevertheless, like ming said, we all have our styles somehow as well.

Obvious for a film director in advertising. For example, creatives (in advertising) are specifically looking for the director's style.

It is an interesting parallel, as some directors try to finetune their own style and others always try to make new things. When the first are "specialists" (like food, cars, animation), the second are polyvalent. In my perspective it is a lot more difficult to show your talent through multiple style than it is in one particular style.

Multiple-stylers show their talent through their creative approach... which becomes then their "own style".

[Brian Phipps]

David,
Great post. I think creativity in brands is vastly under-appreciated. It's really how the brand connects with customers. Your post brings to mind a Jim Coudal presentation on creativity I recently saw (video on the Coudal site: http://bc.gdc.net/salazar2006/coudal_video_240x180.mov' . In it, Jim recounts how the people at Coudal were having major difficulties at one time trying to define the Coudal brand. All the concepts they tried didn't seem to work. For a while it was very frustrating, because these were highly creative people. Then they realized that their creative was their brand. They didn't have to over-elaborate it with all kinds of extraneous brand trappings. If they kept being creative, doing what they were doing, their brand would define itself. (This is like a brand with a lot of white space. Makes sense to me.)