The writer and Hollywood icon William Goldman says, “Nobody knows anything.”
That’s a cruel fact of most creative businesses – no one knows anything, until it works.
Strategically it can be smart and creatively it can be sound, but until the client buys it or it works with the public does it “work”. This is a challenging way to work, and it can certainly be discouraging; many of us are linear thinkers, in need of a formula to get from one point to the other. Though it’s a good, safe feeling to know that something is going to work every time, there’s energy in the struggle for an engaging, creative idea.
Sticking to your passion, principles, and taste will lead to great results often. When TriVision was selected to do a brand overhaul of Westfield’s Play and Learn, we were caught between a doting, local community and the general public that didn’t know the daycare at all. We had to be steadfast in our ability to guide the brand into its new identity; without this consistency and desire for great work, the daycare would have lost trust in us and the relationship between our studio and ImagiNation would have suffered.
When we try to fit into boxes or design for awards or approval, we seem to have more trouble. If you’re not passionate about a project, and you’re just trying to get through it, it shows.
