Our top tips for creatives from 2017

​Holy mackerel. Is the year over already? We’re still writing the wrong date atop our checks from last year.
 
In what now is a tradition, we’d like to share with you our top tips for creatives that we’ve posted this year. They’re guaranteed to inspire, instruct, and bring out the best from you and those you work with. If you missed any, here’s your chance to catch up. And if you’d like to “watch it again,” Netflix-style, we can’t blame you! Each article summary below includes a direct link to the text in its headline:

• Making less into more. Cutting your own work can be painful—or liberating. Check out these best-practice tips for finding, and eradicating, dead wood.

 

• How to bring love to the creative process. Some projects, when handed to you, aren’t fun. Learn how to change that, make them fun, and surprise yourself with some of your best work.

 

• When to say—or show—nothing. What is white space? Does it exist beyond the printed page? When should you employ it, and when should you discard it? Learn lots of cool tricks and tips.

 

• We bought fonts at a foundry. No, we didn’t hang out with Ben Franklin. But we have witnessed a technological revolution in all things creative—and the more things change, the more they stay the same. Learn how to separate fad from enduring truth with the tips in this intriguing post.

 

• How to look smarter in a meeting. This post applies to both our creative and consulting audiences. For the former, it’ll give you cool tips to help your ideas stand out and win the day. For the latter, it can make you the hero in the room.

 

• How to win an RFP shoot-out. What’s this have to do with “creative”? A lot more than you think! Read the article and find out. It’s great for helping you land that next big client.

 

• The creative power of the parallel universe. Despite its spacey-sounding title, this article received lots of praise from down-to-earth businesspeople. Use it to discover the “James Bond trick” for wowing that client or prospect.

 

• Digital dictionaries as creative tools. If you think they’re just for looking up definitions, you’re missing 90 percent of their power. This article includes a fun tutorial-style example.

 

• How to be artsy without being fartsy. This is all about selling your creative, while not alienating your audience. It’s a must-read for anyone who has to deliver the goods to the client, whether internal or external.

 

• Setting up your payoffs—creatively. Never miss an opportunity to leverage the viewer’s curiosity. Learn how to map out the often-subtly-hidden sequence of events that will happen, in the viewer’s mind, when they engage with your work.

 

• Don’t get spooked by creative pitfalls. Even the world’s most creative minds can fall into output-damaging perception traps. Learn how to recognize and avoid them in this interesting how-to.

 

• Things to give thanks for in your business. Your tech, your clients, your team… where do we start? Join us on this Thanksgiving-inspired journey.

  
Want to see our year's top tips for consultants? It's right here. Have feedback from any of these articles you’d like to share? Or do you have a topic you’d like us to cover next year? Contact us and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

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