IAIN TAIT
Creatives are precious... and that’s the problem
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People just don’t know how to deal with creativity from people who aren’t creatives
Steve is a creative. He’s creative. His job is to create work which is creative. That work is often also called creative (as in “The creative is on the memory stick”). It’s complicated. And it’s particular to the world of advertising and the industries inspired and shaped by it.
In entrepreneurial, hacky, techy circles (where most of the real innovation happens), the notion of a separate super-race of people called ‘creatives’ is totally alien. If you ever get into a discussion about it you can see it’s almost an offensive concept. The offended are usually people who are hugely creative but would only have the word tacked onto their title as an afterthought in agencyland. They might begrudgingly get called creative technologist or creative strategist, but somehow it lacks the zen-like purity of being a creative.
It’s obvious why it’s such a revered term. If you don’t have it attached to you it hints that you’re just a doer, a cog in the machine invented and driven by someone else (probably a creative). While the cliché in every agency is that good ideas can come from anywhere, the truth is often very different. It’s the creatives who have licence to have ideas. It’s not malicious. People have the right intentions, they just don’t know how to deal with creativity from people who aren’t creatives.
Here’s the dirty truth: creatives are well-paid idea battery hens. They’ve been specially bred, trained and conditioned to lay idea-eggs to order. Stick them in a cage and you’ll get a box of reliable, tasty, creative eggs out the back. But not everyone is used to the pressure of having to lay idea-eggs in such a mechanical and brutal fashion. So what happens when you stick non-creatives into the brainstorming hen-house?
From experience, it’s like putting wild chickens in battery cages and expecting them to understand the drill. They try to flap their wings and scratch around a lot, making everyone else who’s used to the reliable old hen-house feel a bit uncomfortable and embarrassed. And every once in a while an egg might drop out. But mostly it’s more like a stressful rear-end accident than something you can predict and rely on.
So how do you integrate different kinds of thinkers into the creative process? How do you get hyper-analytical technologists to play nicely with art directors, when one solves problems in a slow and methodical way and the other bounces round the room like an overexcited meth-ferret? Old-school creatives are used to competition; technologists weaned on open-source projects are collaborative.
If we want to create provocative, challenging and culturally relevant digital work, we need to smash the hen-house and go free-range. We need to embrace the un-team and the un-process. We need to borrow from the places where real innovation is occurring: the world of hack-days, collaboration, open-sourcing, ring-fenced R&D time and incubators. Clinging to outdated idea-farming methods just because they’re reliable and predictable is a surefire route to extinction. Even for Steve.
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Readers' comments (12)
TheBestYear | Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:32 pm
I hate the term 'Creative' , even though at times it seems the only appropriate term we can use to communicate to people on what our day to day role is. Even though people may not be 'creatives' sometimes getting other to come in the room and create a bit of heresy can be a good thing. Creating an un-silo'd environment in an established workplace takes some doing , and i will be surprised if big agencies have the balls to do this. Start-ups and new business have the easier opportunity in my opinion.
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Anonymous | Fri, 19 Mar 2010 1:02 am
Steve is a designer. He’s creative. His job is to create work which is creative. That work is called artwork (as in “The artwork is on the memory stick”). It’s simple.
Just stop using the word as a noun and everything will be fine...
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Alan Wolk | Fri, 19 Mar 2010 1:04 am
Found this via a tweet from Faris Yakob
Nicely laid-out argument - agree 100%- and like the chicken analogy.
Two anecdotes in support:
I knew I liked Michael Lebowitz (of Big Spaceship) when he was explaining to me that he'd never call any department the "creative department" because that would imply the other departments were somehow not creative.
Part of the impetus for starting the Hive Awards was that all the usual award shows for web work seemed based on the theory that sites and apps were created by two or three "creative directors" and everyone else was secondary - they didn't seem to get the whole "hive mind mentality" you refer to.
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Cindy Gallop | Fri, 19 Mar 2010 1:30 am
Couldn't agree more. Will be speaking to exactly this point (with some ideas for addressing it) at the Boards Summit in Amsterdam next Wednesday :)
http://summit.boardsmag.com/europe/index.php
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Charlie Quirk | Fri, 19 Mar 2010 6:58 am
Timely post Iain,
Creatives often tie their sense of self-worth to their creative shtick -- wearing it as a badge, whereas entrepeneurs need creative juices flowing probably more so, no matter how unsexy their title.
Good luck in Portland!
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Jed Hallam | Fri, 19 Mar 2010 9:27 am
It's interesting that there's now a new breed of comms. people (for want of a better word) emerging that embody creativity but with serious technology overtones - people like Mat Morrison and Utku Can.
It's these types of people that will move to ad/digital/innovation/PR agencies and shake things up - but only at agencies that have got a bit of vision :-)
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Tim Malbon | Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:02 am
Love this piece. We're fans of Agile as an un-process. It's a whole box of methodologies that used to be limited to software development but can easily be stretched to provide an integrated framework for making stuff that draws on a diverse skillset that would include strategy minds, the people formerly known as 'Creative', interaction designers and developers. The important thing - as you say - is to smash open the hen-house. The siloed, linear way of doing things just doesn't cut it today. Hooray!
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Nic Howell | Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:48 am
Thanks again for your first column Iain and glad to see it sparked discussion - thanks everyone for your comments.
Hopefully yes it is timely. Last night I was at an event hosted by Disqo in which people like onedotzero's Shane Walter were talking about this very issue in the panel discussion. Everyone stressed that, when digital technologies are involved, there's a huge need to create a collaborative environment that frees up creativity across the organisation. Skills are way more important than job titles.
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Ian Sohn | Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:26 am
Nice piece I stumbled on via @awolk.
What I find fascinating is that this conversation is even still happening. It should have been done and dusted years ago (maybe what ... 2007 or so?).
I distinctly remember having this same talk with David Rolfe, who at the time was serving a short stint with DDB Chicago and has since returned to Crispin as their head of integrated production.
I guess there's a reason DDB Chicago has become what it is, and Crispin ... well, we all know the story.
Great piece. Thanks for writing it.
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Dickie | Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:46 am
We are ALL just battery hens. Not just creatives. That's just a planner kicking the department he would actually like to be a part of.
All this pejorative 'self-worth' 'precious' stuff is just an industry bitterness. Most creatives have welcomed the addition of new people into the creative process. But know-it-all planner types who are the industry equivalent of food critics need to stop rattling the cages. Or, as you might expect, the creatives will get defensive.
Is it that difficult to humour people who spend their days burning out their brains in a way that few other jobs demand? They can be a bit nobby - but just let it go.
As for the word 'creative' - it is a bit lame. But digital agencies don't even understand the difference between and 'art director' and a 'designer' - so nomenclature is surely unimportant. We are ALL client services, surely? Why does no-one get precious about that not being in their own job title.
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