The Changing Face of Creativity

Advertising has changed. Media agencies and media owners are tearing themselves apart with the rise of ad-blocking technology. Despite the rise of digital agencies, creative agencies have remained much the same. Some have hired creative technologists or chief technology officers as a means of adaption, but overall the structure remains the same – creative partners come up with the idea and strategists fit them to the brand story.

Creative agencies need to adapt and work to a rhythm similar to a newsroom, with employees acting as multi-platform journalists. Largely, neither creative agencies nor the design and advertising schools that we come up through are structured in a way to nurture this multi-faceted talent.

“Are you an art director or a copywriter?” is the first question I’m asked when I say I work in an ad agency’s creative department. In fact, I’m both. More than both… I’m an art-director-copywriter-thinker-designer-idea-generator-illustrator-tea-maker-time-keeper. I am a creative single. A polymath. Some might even add Jack-of-all-trades to the list.

Whilst the platforms, budgets and speed at which we all work has changed dramatically, the fundamentals of advertising have not… and hopefully never will. At the heart of what we do, creativity remains paramount. It’s the kind of creative the ad world needs that’s changed.

As creative singles, we learn and develop skills across a range of disciplines. We work together in different combinations, alongside people who each have a different specialism or skill set – to best serve the requirements of the brief. At 18 Feet & Rising, we can work individually, in pairs, or as a whole department. Everyone supports everyone. It eradicates jealousy, stops us from falling into lazy rhythms, and most importantly encourages cross-pollination of our ideas and skills. More practically, it means that any one person in the department can jump onto any kind of project or task with the confidence and knowledge that they have a whole network of support behind them.

And it’s not just the creative’s role within their department that is changing, but also their role within the whole agency. A creative can no longer form an idea and pass it over to the next person in the chain. Now, a creative must learn the nuances and skill sets to support an idea all the way through to delivery, which involves working much more closely with other departments. The role of a creative has become increasingly entwined in other stages of the process – we must help to form a strong creative strategy, build meaningful relationships with clients, work closely with production and become much more hands on in the making stages.

You won’t hear me complain – variety eliminates monotony. It keep our brains fresh, allowing us to think differently every day and helps us to come up with new angles and search for unexpected outcomes. It’s not just for selfish reasons that I support this way of working, as clients also want increasingly more access to the creative product and to come on the journey with us. This also helps the creative to champion the project from start to finish. Combined with the speed at which agencies must work nowadays, it’s essential for a creative to be involved in the decision making and to protect the idea from conception, so that both agency and client can continue to create a great piece of work.

I’m not saying that creatives can be, or should be experts in all areas of creativity, nor that craft and expertise isn’t hugely important – that would be arrogant and naïve, and would probably lead to some pretty awful work. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses so the beauty of the creative singles approach is that we can surround ourselves and collaborate with people who are experts in specific fields – a planner, producer, designer, or another individual within the department. This will reduce the gaps in our own knowledge and strengthen what we already know. And of course, it creates a collective of individuals who are eager to share skills and collaborate to form a strong foundation with endless outcomes for their client.

For the creative singles approach to succeed and flourish, agencies should promote an environment that is open and inclusive. There has to be room for unconventional combinations of people to work together and experiment – to allow people to try their hand at something beyond their job description. Departments that feel less rigid, more flexible and where agencies are more interested in finding the best creative talent are more likely to do well creatively, regardless of whether they operate in a team or not.

But working as creative singles could be nurtured even before a creative walks through an agency’s doors. Design and advertising schools have a big responsibility to develop the next generation of talent and prepare them for a creative career. With a few exceptions, most courses today specialise in highly conceptual thinking, niche subjects or offer pure technical skills. What if aspects of these courses were combined? Schools should develop skills across a wider range of disciplines to include smaller, more critical, practical and technical components. The basics such as presentation skills, beginner’s computer programming and background of the industry they are about to enter into would be hugely beneficial to students. It’s down to the creative schools to nurture strong individuals that can work independently or as a group – as either an art director, copywriter or designer, but above all, as a creative that can hold their own in an ever-evolving landscape.