Often in this, the age of in-house emergencies, and easily accessible stock graphics, we move fast. Creative is awkward, and often doesn’t easily fit within an organizations timetables. This is fine, as we do exist in a market economy and we all produce what the market wants to buy, and price it as the market will bear. In a data driven industry, creative is less likely to sway in favour to SEO & analytics. The benefit of such times is we have gained the ability to choose our battles better – where to focus energy on graphic design & web design projects and where to let go a bit.
Recently, I’ve had a bizarre mix of timelines to work with – some ferociously fast, some oddly slow – either tapping a foot to get on with it or looking for a bucket to put out the fire. Within that, there is an interesting pattern: If given time, your first idea (that seems like a good one at the time) almost never makes it to production. That’s not to say it’s not a good idea, often the initial stab in the dark is quite good – but the final iteration is never the initial iteration, even if the core of the idea remains true.
If given time, your first idea (that seems like a good one at the time) almost never makes it to production.
The point is only this: many times those of us that sell design, can often pull a decent idea together in the measley 30 minutes the graphic designer actually gets before the work goes to production. These ideas are really just whiffs of the creative itself, shadows of how good the work could be, like the smell of a good wine, without getting to drink it. Good design is like wine – it needs a bit of patience, to be left alone to lie down and age a bit.
When we give our ideas a bit of time, they can mature, and be refined. In a way, the really good stuff is a progression – a good idea leads to refinement, and that leads to something finished, something complete, something worthwhile. It’s hard to force every quarter column NP ad into this formula, and really… who reads the newspaper anyway, but it is nice to give your creative a little space once in a while and see where it can go, if given the chance.
a good idea leads to refinement, and that leads to something finished, something complete.