There is a story about a creative director who was presenting a couple of options for a campaign to a client. He finished his presentation. There was a moment’s silence and then the client asked if it was possible that elements of concept A be integrated with concept B, to make a new concept, C.
Wordlessly, the creative director picked up the presentation boards from the large oak table and threw them out into the street. Then he began to take off his clothes. No, he didn’t. This wasn’t a creative meltdown. He was trying to make a point. He turned back from the window, fully clothed. “If you feel like you have to do that,” he said, “then we haven’t cracked the brief yet. We’ll start again.”
We needn’t be precious about ideas. There are plenty of them out there – more than we’ll ever need.
An idea falls apart when you try to ‘fix’ it later. While a strong concept should be adaptable, by which I mean it can be easily executed across different touch points, it isn’t necessarily easy to stretch out. And that isn’t a reflection on the idea. A good idea can be wrong.
There’s a funny moment in one of Philip Larkin’s letters. He was, at some point in his life, putting on weight and none of his clothes fit him. “When I sit down,” he wrote, “my tongue pops out.” An idea is a bit like that. Why try and make one fit if it isn’t right? Get a new one. Larkin wouldn’t have bought another outfit because he was miserly, but we can find the capacity to brainstorm some new ideas.
Why do people try and squeeze into ideas or worse, clumsily stitch one to another? Do people feel sorry for creatives? Are they afraid to offend us? I don’t think that’s the case. I’ve had ideas shot down with a sharp “It’s shit.” I’ve had a creative director draw a horrifyingly detailed penis over a scamp of mine he didn’t like. No, no one’s afraid of hurting a lowly creative’s feelings. Or maybe I’m just bad at what I do.
So how do you find the right idea? To hazard a guess, I’d say wait a bit. Granted, time isn’t always on our side, but the answers are out there. All the creative solutions you’ll ever need are floating around us, waiting to be plucked from the ether, and presented to a client on an A3 printout spray-glued to heavy board.
And that creative director we started with, in tossing his ideas out the window, managed to retain his integrity, as well as that of the agency and the work. He had the courage of his convictions and I bet that when he went back to the client present, he sold the work. And not because the client feared that they would be the next to go out the window, but because the idea was a better fit.