Re: UKNM: Creativity

[Ray Taylor]

Felix Velarde <

felixhead-newmedia [dot] com

> said:

>I agree. The problem, however, as I see it is that those who are

>creative will charge too much - I know that's been the case when

>we've offered to do ads for people like yourself. Our creative team

>gets charged out by the day, and there's no definable limit to how

>much time it will take for a good ad to be written, art directed and

>produced.


I agree with Felix that it is difficult to price creativity but equally it

is possible to be creative without spending a huge amount of time on

processes that are essentially about management communication, rather than

creating the creative.


Tying up a group of account managers, marketers, and other assorted

management types (however creative they may be) in an exercise of sending

and amending briefs before amending successive executions because the brief

was not clear enough having been written by a committee, is bound to have an

upward effect on cost, but not necessarily on quality.


If the design rules for banner creative were clearer to banner designers,

and those who briefed them, then less time would be spent correcting poorly

functioning designs (or less wasted media spend getting bad response if they

go live). There would then be more time, effort and energy left over for

real creative and original thinking. There's no point thinking about how to

make an arch look beautiful until you have solved the problem of keeping the

roof in the realm of the gods rather than on the heads of the worshippers.


As I said in my original post, some of the best design ideas come from

people who are able to act outside the contstraints of the briefing (ie

"management") processes. Hence the aim to encourage unknown designers to

have a go and see what they come up with.


As to pricing by the job, as opposed to the lengths of the designers' tea

breaks, again I can see no reason why not. Plenty of US design shops do it

and produce superb results. Having to work to deadlines and budgets often

concentrates the mind. As a reporter many years ago I remember producing

some of my best stories when I had only 15 mins to get the job done.


The best ideas are timeless, dreamt up in seconds, and executed in the

excitement of the moment.


Ray Taylor +44 181 639 0015

taylornmcadplan [dot] com

NMC/Adplan - the online media agency www.nmcadplan.com

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