No that’s not a brand of beer. When we refer to “Draft Number 10,” we’re talking about Word docs. Oh. Which begs the question: Why embrace that? Just by its moniker, “Number 10,” it’s daunting and annoying. Who in their right mind would ever enjoy, let alone embrace, the tenth draft of anything? Wouldn’t you be automatically burned out? Let’s answer that “in their right mind” question first. This is business, not art If you’re a painter or a poet, up in your garret, you can dream and wile away the hours, finessing your grand opus—“a hundred visions and revisions,” in the words of T.S. Eliot—and you’ve only yourself (and perhaps your muse) to answer to. But we’re not talking about art here, despite our decades of experience (not to mention lots of awards) in creative services. We’re talking about business. Money. Deadlines. ROI. Where, then, does a Draft Number 10 even come from? Quick oh-now-you’ll-get-it answer: A client who’s a perfectionist. Aha. Now everything should make sense for you. We have a client—we’ve actually had lots of clients like this—who’s a perfectionist. Who will revise and revise and revise a draft until it’s almost perfect… and then decide that it’s anything but, and then trash it, and start over, and then revise and revise and revise again, taking us along for the ride. As a creative resource, you could fight this. But you know that that would get you in trouble, and perhaps fired. You could just go with the flow: “Oh, this is the way they like to work. I’ll just… endure it, without complaining.” It’s possible that you could coast along like this indefinitely. But neither of the above approaches benefits anybody. Thus our advice to you in these situations: Embrace it. Heck, enjoy it. See it for the invaluable paid education that it is: Our fastidious client in this story—like most of the clients we’re lucky to work with, whether they’re fastidious or not—is quite brilliant. We would pay to learn their thought processes. To try and osmose just a tiny bit of that genius. Why do they toss Draft 5 and do a wholesale rework for Draft 6? Incidentally, the method behind the madness reveals—if you pay attention—that overall, these drafts get better as they go. It’s not a simple straight slope, were you to graph it. But the trend would be positive. Put it this way: Wouldn’t you love to see Einstein’s notes en route to e = mc2? We get paid for our services. It’s incumbent on us to remain profitable. So we don’t lose money on assignments like this—while, at the same time, we don’t take advantage of our clients’ generosity. And while we get paid in dollars, often the greater reward is the knowledge. The insight. And, frankly, the ability to help other clients like this in similar situations. As we’d said, we’re not along simply for the ride. We dive right in, on every single draft, seeing what’s changed and doing our best to make it better throughout. That’s why our clients entrust us on this journey. Need help with a client, or project, that feels unending? Contact us. We’d be happy—truly happy—to help.
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It’s that time of year again: Time for the annual year-in-review of our top articles from Copel Communications. We do two of these each December: one for our “Creatives” audience, and another for our consultants audience. This one is the former. (We’d published the other one recently.) Here are the top articles we’ve posted for creatives, chock full of tips and tricks that you can put to use ASAP. Enjoy!
That wraps up this year. And so… Happy New Year! Any topics you’d like to see us address in 2024? Contact us and let us know! Collaboration is the hot buzzword these days, when it comes to creating documents. Put your doc in the cloud! Let everyone offer input, in real time! The latest technology makes it possible! Isn’t that great? Not so fast. In this article, we’re going to weigh in on what you might not have considered a contentious topic. It’s not just “Word vs. Google Docs,” as the title of this article has implied. It’s more about “synchronous vs. asynchronous.” More importantly, it’s about creativity vs. chaos. Back in the old days We feel impelled to set up this story properly. Not very long ago, if you wanted to write something, you fired up Microsoft Word, and you wrote. When you were done, you had a document—a .doc, or later, a .docx—that contained your efforts, and was easy to share. It wasn’t just Word. There are a zillion other word processors out there, whose features are largely similar. You open them. You use them to write. You end up with a little document file when you’re done. We’ll lump all of these other apps together with Word—the 800-pound gorilla here—since they all operate in basically the same way. Working in this old-school manner, and knowing, in the business world, that documents are subject to input and revisions, it has always been incumbent on you to handle version control. That is, you wouldn’t take the doc you’d labored over, and then, while on the phone with your client, simply make all the changes that they suggest, into that original doc. Of course not. What would you do instead? Before taking down any of the client feedback, you’d do a “Save as...” and create a copy of your document, likely ending its filename with “v2” or something like that. We’re not losing you on any of this, are we? This certainly isn’t rocket science. But we’re describing this in detail to set up a point we’re going to make. Fast forward Google Docs is also like Word, in that, nowadays, there are lots of online/cloud-based word processors that act just like Google Docs. But like Word, Google Docs is the 800-pound gorilla in this space, so we’ll use it as our example here, representing all apps of its ilk. At first blush, Google Docs is identical to Word. It’s an app (web-based, vs. on-your-computer-based). You open it. You create a new document. And you save it to your Google Drive. So far, virtually no difference. But then things change. Since not only Google Docs but the documents you create with it are hosted in the cloud, it’s technically very simple to make documents share-able. Heck, you don’t even have to email them anymore. (Way too much work!) All you need to do is to grant someone else permission to edit your doc, and they can launch their Google Docs, open up your document, and make changes. So your client can type notes to you right in your doc. Or make their suggested changes, right in your doc. This can even happen while you’re working on it. In other words, you can actually have several people making changes to the same document, at the exact same time. And now, this is nothing like opening Word on your computer and sitting at your screen like a writer. It’s more like sitting in a committee meeting. Or maybe it’s more like a kids’ soccer game, with all the kids, of both teams, crowded chaotically around the ball. What’s better? (Or worse?) “Granting permission” is not some technological breakthrough. It’s been around for as long as there have been computer files. But the notion of making this available for a document that can be revised by multiple people in real time (“synchronous” editing) is relatively new: it coincides with the rise of cloud computing and storage. You can make a lot of arguments for how great this new technology is. You could say that it eliminates the laborious emailing of documents. It ensures a “single source of truth,” since the very latest version of the document is all that anyone sees. It makes sure that no one is working on an outdated version. And plus it creates unprecedented transparency: Everyone can see what everyone else is doing, in real time. Surely you’ve seen this: A little circle with someone else’s initials in it, showing them selecting text, or adding new verbiage, or whatever, like a multi-player online game. Now the big question: Does this make the document better? Follow-on question: Is this process better? We’d argue that the answer to both of these questions is “No.” Writing a document is not a democratic exercise. You’ll hear about a document’s “voice”—not its “crowd.” A good document has structure and logic. If various people are all tinkering with different parts of it at once, the final product will collapse like a house of cards. And what about all those worthless outdated versions that are now history? Well surprise: They’re not worthless. More often than not, you want to look at Version 2 when you’re working on Version 4, to see what was there before it changed: Not all movement is forward, and not all change is progress. Yes, there is a degree of “version tracking” baked into these web-based word processors. But it doesn’t offer the control or granularity of the iconic “Save as...” command. And not to sound too pretentious, but how many hands does it take to hold a paintbrush? We’d prefer to get client feedback on a doc, interpret it to the needs of the doc, and then implement it carefully, rather than seeing an anonymously-named editor (“Wombat,” anyone?) arbitrarily adding and cutting. What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you agree with us? Want to try and convince us otherwise? Contact us. We’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re a creative professional, have creatives under you, or simply need to hire other creatives, you face a common challenge: You want to get the most creative bang for your buck. Or your client’s buck. Same thing, here. This is easier said than done. Creative professionals know what they’re doing; that’s how they’ve managed to carve out a career in professional services. So shouldn’t you simply trust them to do the right thing? Of course you should. But if it were that simple, there would be no need for this article. Direction... give or take Every single creative assignment begins, necessarily, with direction. That creative person needs to know what to do. Where to go. How to proceed. They can’t work in a vacuum. And this—right at the first step—is where it gets tricky. Do it right, you get great stuff, and big bang for your buck. You can guess the other half of this equation. Or maybe not. It’s not just that you won’t get great creative out of your creative person(s), but you’ll waste time, energy, and effort. You’ll get frustrated, as you receive deliverables that don’t meet your expectations. Importantly, your creative person will get frustrated, too. And that’s not good. We hate to generalize, but we’ve been in this biz forever, so here goes: Creative people are higher-strung, and thinner-skinned, than most people. We like to say that “’creative professional’ is an oxymoron.” In other words, their fuses are shorter. They’re like professional athletes: They like to perform. But if you, as their coach, keep calling the wrong plays, they’ll not only fail, but they’ll burn out. And they’ll resent you, since they won’t respect your judgment. So the direction that you give is everything. Just as important, if not more important, than the direction you give... is the direction you don’t give. And this, by the way, was the impetus for this entire article. Setting the stage As we’d noted above, creative people like to perform. Which points up a convenient analogy, beyond, say, athletes. Know who else likes to perform? Yep. Performers. As in, actors. If you’ve never directed actors before, or even if you have, there’s a cardinal rule—or perhaps cardinal sin—when it comes to directing them, and that is: “Never give your actor a line-reading.” Huh? What’s that mean? And how does any of this translate to, say, getting a good layout or web page? A line-reading is when the director actually acts out a given line of dialogue, telling the actor, “Do it like that.” It’s an easy knee-jerk reaction for a director to make when he or she doesn’t hear the right phrasing or intonation, but doing it is the kiss of death. Why? Not only does a line-reading “talk down” to your actor (“You don’t know this as well as I do, so let me explain”), but it also “pollutes” their process by planting an impossible-to-ignore version in their head from the get-go which makes them utterly miserable. It short-circuits their own, internal creative process. They will hate-hate-hate you for it. Same thing goes for creative people who work for you. Never tell them: “Use this font” or “Add a six-point black border.” It’s tantamount to giving them a line reading. So what do you do? Do the opposite. Talk around what you want. Describe it aspirationally. “Here’s what we’re looking to accomplish, in broad strokes.” Stay out of the weeds. And challenge them: “Think you can figure out a creative way to solve this?” Thin-skinned though they may be, creative pros like to show off, in their own way, and tossing down the gauntlet, appropriately, plays to their sense of pride and entices them to rise to the challenge, to outdo themselves. To show off. All of this is hard to do, but boy is it ever worth the effort. You’ll get better results, and improve your working relationship with the talent at the same time. Need help with interpreting, and giving, the appropriate creative direction? Contact us. We surmount these kinds of challenges, for our clients, all the time. Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s all about love. Today, fittingly, that’s what we’re going to talk about. But we’re not talking about another person. We’re talking about the heavy lifting of doing creative work. You—or the creative person you task with this—got into this business because they love it. That’s one thing that all creatives have in common. They have an intense relationship with their work. But like any relationship, this one can grow cold. Do your assignments simply feel like, well, assignments? If so, what do you do, on this day of chocolate and flowers, to re-kindle that old flame? Take hope. There are ways to do this. We’re here to help. Find new inspiration in old sources As a creative professional, you’re required to keep up with the latest trends in design, advertising, music, pop culture, all of it. People depend on you to be dialed in. For the purposes of this article, we’ll assume that that’s the case. So take a break from what’s new, and indulge your senses in what’s eternal. We’re talking about nature. We’re talking about looking out the window. Or better yet, simply walking out the door. Take a breather. Take a nature break. Soak in the beauty, the tranquility, and the relaxation. This is more than mere therapy. It’s also hugely inspiring. Study the veins in a leaf, or the shapes of the clouds. We wrote an entire article on grabbing inspiration from nature; check it out. We can dive down even deeper into this same category, with one sub-category of nature which we find extra inspirational: Birds. Yep, we wrote another good one on this topic, too; here it is for your enjoyment. (And here’s one more: On other overlooked sources of creative inspiration.) Update your retreat You can picture an MBA’s office in your head. Not hard. Now picture, in your mind, the office of the ultimate creative director. Pretty neat, huh? Now ask yourself: How does that vision compare with your reality? It doesn’t matter if you have a corner office, a tiny cubicle, or work from home. Your space is your space. And it needs to be your safe, comfy, inspiring spot. So “spa it up.” You can indulge massively, on the cheap. Treat yourself to a new chair cushion. Get yourself a whole collection of fancy coffees or (as in our case) tea. A little aromatherapy goes a long way; there’s everything from candles to simple hand lotion that smells nice. Don’t forget music. Even as we’re writing this, we’ve got some beautiful, relaxing, spa-style music playing, and it’s sure helping. The point is, anything that puts you in a more relaxed state will help unclog those creative juices. It can also be tech: Something as simple as a new keyboard or pen tablet. Here’s one: We found an inexpensive seat heater on Amazon, and installed it on our desk chair. It’s heavenly in winter. Makes us write better. Dive into the details Our last bit of advice is perhaps the simplest. Lots of times, creative work loses its luster simply because there’s so much of it. It’s overwhelming. It feels more like work, and less like fun. The way around this is via a subtle attitude adjustment. For every assignment on your desk, it has scores of details that you must knock out. Remember the days, earlier in your career, when you would enjoy every one of those details? Now’s the time to re-discover that passion. It’s not “I need to knock out this headline layout”; it’s “Let me enjoy the process of kerning these two letters so that they breathe perfectly together.” It’s not: “Let me slog through this video”; it’s “How can I have the most fun with this particular lapped edit?” It's not a change in the work. It’s a change in the way you approach it. If it helps, think of this, too: For every person—like you—who’s toiling, and earning a living, in creative services, there’s likely a hundred others who dream of doing it. Or talk about doing it. Or plan on doing it. But they don’t. You do. That’s quite an accomplishment in itself. So pat yourself on the back. Show yourself—and your work—a little love. Why not? It’s Valentine’s Day. Have a story or tip to share? Contact us. We’d love to hear it. We see it a lot. Younger people enter the creative-services workforce, and are invariably disappointed when they don’t get to express their full genius on every assignment. Look at their killer portfolio! Look at the awards they won in school! What gives with the real world? In this article, we’re going to focus in on some of the (seemingly) most creative-crushing assignments, with an eye toward helping your client succeed. And our parenthetical comment above is spot-on, because if you believe there’s no room for creativity in that assignment, you’ve already painted yourself into a corner. SEO... as creative? We worked on an assignment recently, featuring a slew of social ads aimed at executives in a particular vertical; let’s say it’s “logistics.” And we were told—it was a mandatory—that we had to feature the word “logistics” in the headline. Mind you, these are social ads. As we’ve written before, they’re a lot like freeway billboards. In that there’s hardly any room for copy. You get a few words, max. And now you’re telling me that I have to use the word “logistics” in the headline? It’s enough to frustrate any creative pro. But there’s a sound method to this madness. And there is most certainly a creative solution to this challenge. First things first. If this ad, on a cluttered web page, is targeting logistics executives, it needs to cut the clutter of all the other ads that don't. Yes, you can show a picture of a long-haul tractor-trailer (and likely should), but nothing says "logistics” like, well, “logistics.” It gets worse. Or, depending on your perspective, better. We were also told—another mandatory—to get the word “exec” in there. We’re targeting logistics executives, right? Execs are a special, elite group. Again, think about it. You’ve got a genuine logistics exec, looking at some cluttered web page. He or she sees the word “Logistics” and takes notice. But there are tons of offerings in the world of logistics; it’s like manufacturing or insurance or any other huge vertical. But then you add the word “exec” to the ad, and it’s undeniably focused. This is what we might call “the SEO approach to creative.” It’s using the kinds of words that the audience would search on, to populate creative elements such as the headline. Which might read something like this: Logistic Execs: Boost LTL Throughput Now! Exciting, huh? Well, maybe not to you. And therein lies the rub. This is what so many of the new-to-the-workforce creatives fail to grasp. You’re not trying to score points for cleverness. You’re trying to help your client make money. Simple as that. Deeper geekery Notice the mention of “LTL” in that made-up headline above? It stands for “less-than-truckload,” which is an acronym that’s very specific to logistics. So while you would never use an obscure, and undefined, acronym in a headline to the general public, here, in this case, it slices through the clutter even more sharply. It tells that logistics exec, “We know what you’re up against.” It tells them that you speak their language, both literally and figuratively. Sounds crazy, but little ads like this work. We’ve jammed in some intense, industry-specific jargon, and whereas it would be death at, say a cocktail party, it works quite well when you need to cut through the clutter toward a very focused and time-constrained audience. So where on earth is the room for creativity here? If you’re in the tightly-constrained realm of a social ad, think of your remaining elements, besides the headline:
Not much, but it’s there. What if you did something like this: Logistic Execs: Boost LTL Throughput Now! ABC Enterprises Helps You Keep On Trucking [Button:] Accelerate Your Performance And what if there’s a totally outrageous, grabber image, such as a tractor-trailer... with a rocket engine and wings? The heat from the engine could even be scorching the call-to-action button. Well whaddya know. All of your college portfolio work paid off after all. The important thing—the discipline—is to know when and where to add the creative “spice” to an assignment, vs. letting the “untouched ingredient” stand on its own merit. The qualifier here, as always, is what the end-client/prospect/customer will respond to. Viewed through that lens, the decisions get much clearer. Need help with these kinds of assignments? Contact us. We’d love to answer the call. Boy did this year ever fly past! We hope you’ve stayed productive and healthy. In what’s become a big tradition here at Copel Communications, we’d like to offer you our annual wrap-up of creative skill-building articles for the entire year. If you missed any of these, here’s your chance to catch up; if you already enjoyed any of these, here’s an opportunity to re-hone your skills. Enjoy!
Have a creative topic you’d like us to weigh in on next year? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you. Each year, around Thanksgiving, we here at Copel Communications like to devote an article to things we’re thankful for. We’ve written about the creative use of “stuffing,” about the camera obscura and other unsung heroes of creative inspiration, and creative “turkeys,” to name a few. This year, we’d like to talk about things that help keep the creative juices flowing. You know what we’re talking about if you, like us, toil in the ideation trenches: You’re constantly under pressure to invent wholly new things, and thus any little tricks or tips or devices you can find that lubricate the process are more than welcome. Well, here’s our little cornucopia. How many of these are you using now? How many are you under-utilizing? How many are, ideally, new to you?
Have any creative-lubrication tricks or gadgets you’re thankful for? Let us know about them! Meantime, here’s wishing you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. Hard to believe that 2020 is almost over. (Good riddance, right?) What we mean is, it’s time for our annual wrap-up of creative skill-building articles for the entire year. If you missed any of these, here’s your chance to catch up; if you already enjoyed any of these, 1) thanks! and 2) here’s an opportunity to revisit and refresh.
Have a creative topic you’d like us to weigh in on? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you. If you’re a creative professional, you’ve constantly got to come up with all-new stuff. That’s why it’s called “creating.” But a little inspiration can go a long way: something which gets you looking, or thinking, about that challenge a little differently. There are lots of sources of inspiration—beyond your computer screen—that you can use and exploit. Indeed, we have two good posts already written about them: one about drawing from nature (and profiting from it) and another simply entitled, “Creative Inspiration is for the Birds.” This topic—inspiration—is one that never gets old. You’ll encounter stories of its importance going back millennia; think of the phrase “creative muse” (origin of the word “museum”), and you’re invoking ancient Greece. Where we’re going with this is, this is a topic you need to perennially revisit. You’re always going to need, going to benefit from, creative inspiration. And thus it soon devolves into a supply-and-demand dilemma: Where do you go next, when that previous wellspring has run dry? Where do you dig next, when that last vein has been tapped out? Sure, there are lots of obvious choices, but in this article, we’re going to explore some of the un-obvious ones. Child’s play You’ll often hear people talk about channeling their “inner child.” But what if you channel your outer child? This is a lot more concrete than it sounds. “Inner child” is like an exercise in self-hypnosis: you want to transport yourself, mentally, back to another phase in your life and try and re-see the world through those younger, more innocent eyes. And there’s nothing wrong with that approach. It’s admirable. It’s also hard. (We, by the way, wrote a great—and popular—blog on this topic. It’s called “On Self-Hypnosis and Finding ‘The Voice’”. Check it out!) So that’s the tricky mental acrobatics involved in tapping into your inner child. Getting inspiration from your outer child is much easier. There are two ways to do this, with the second being far more pragmatic when you’re on deadline: 1. Watch a real kid. If you have kids, you already have the tools. If you don’t, you can watch other kids at play: at a playground... on basic YouTube searches... whatever. As we’d intimated above, this approach can help, but it’s not time-efficient. You may have a friend tell you a funny thing their kid said yesterday, but it took all day to get that one quote. That’s fine if you’re a parent; it’s impractical if you’re a time-pressed creative pro. Sure, you can “probe,” i.e., ask a kid (whether a toddler or a tween) how they feel about a certain topic. That will accelerate the process. But be prepared to be patient, and do your best to embrace the inevitable tangents and/or tantrums. 2. Look at kids’ things. Here’s the big conceit: Most adults completely isolate themselves from kids’ stuff. Meaning, it’s a trove of new inspiration. Better yet, you’ll find some really great stuff here! Toys. Board games. Stuffed animals. Dolls. The collection is endless. Consider board-books: If you’re unfamiliar with the term, they’re those small, thick, first-ever books for babies, printed on “pages” that are actually thick slabs of cardboard, hence the name. Sure, you can expect a page with a big letter “C” and a picture of a “Cat” on it, but the opportunities far exceed that. There are books out there, for example, which teach kids how to use snaps, Velcro, and zippers... by featuring those real items in the pages of the book itself. They’re tactile, fun, and educational—and boy are they ever inspirational, when you’re trying to come up with a new take on, say, a brochure, UX design, eBook, or interactive website. “But I don’t have kids!” you might say. (If so, that’s a mixed blessing! But we digress.) Not a problem. For all the toys, for example, you don’t need a cluttered playroom or even a visit to the store (although a visit to the store would be second-best). If you’re time- and travel-constrained, simply “shop” for toys on Amazon. Art for art’s sake You may be considered a “commercial artist,” but (as we’ve noted in another cool blog, “What’s the Difference Between ‘Creative Services’ and ‘Art’?”), you’re far more “commercial” than “artist.” To wit: You work for clients. They pay you. You’re on deadline. You need to help them make more money. It’s all quite mercenary, when you contrast it to the real starving-in-the-garret/art-for-art’s-sake artist. Visit a museum. Can’t go in person, whether due to distance, time, or lockdown? Visit online. Paintings and sculpture which were created with no commercial constraints whatsoever can help unlock your brain from threadbare consumer tropes. Pay special attention to modern art. Look at both representational and non-representational. Don’t shun abstract expressionism: you’ll find organic approaches that will jolt you out of your comfort zone. Don’t think that other creatives haven’t tried this approach; and don’t think they came away empty-handed, either. If you’re old enough, think of the repainted school bus from The Partridge Family TV show. The inspiration came not from the production studio, but from the museum. Just check out the works of Piet Mondrian. Experiment One other way to find creative inspiration is to—odd as this might sound--create in a different medium than the one you’re tasked with using. If ever a suggestion were counterintuitive, this is it. But it’s a gem. Surely you’ve heard the stories—probably urban legend—that “starchitect” Frank Gehry would simply crumble paper to inspire designs such as The Walt Disney Concert Hall. Even if it’s not true, it’s valuable. Crumbled paper... iconic edifice. So play with paper. Origami. Paper airplanes. Clay. Paper clips. Packing peanuts. Bubble wrap. Anything lying around. Here’s a famous example which might inspire you. When the designers of the iconic Lexus SC400 sport coupe were trying to envision its fluid lines, they used—wait for it--balloons filled with plaster. Yup. Smooth, streamlined, fluid, organic. They then took photos of these things and stretched the photos. That fluid look made it all the way to the assembly line, and is why that car is the most unique and beautiful vehicle Lexus ever created. Get help We understand “time-constrained.” Sometimes, you just don’t have the time. If that’s the case, don’t despair. Offload. To a trusted resource. Like us. Contact us today and let us help you with that next creative assignment. |
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