Adaptive Path Blog

Paul Arden, an ex-creative director from Saatchi, gave a talk at the Art Directors’ club in Iceland a few years back. I saved the text and pull it out from time to time. Much of his talk is advertising-centric. But here are some universal thoughts that I think we can all benefit from.

Aim beyond what you think you can achieve.
Most of us are content to compete locally, with our neighbors. Change your scale of thinking and compete with the world’s best.

Energy.
It’s 75% of the job. If you haven’t got it, be nice.

Don’t look at the next opportunity, the one you have in hand is the one.

It’s all my fault.
Blame no-one, but your self, if you have touched something accept total responsibility for that piece of work. If you accept responsibility you are in the position to do something about it. If you are involved don’t blame others.

Don’t seek praise, seek criticism.
When you show somebody a piece of work, ask them what is wrong, not what is right. It might help improve it. Note how most people simply want praise, what good is that to the job?

Know your clients aims.
We are trained to think advertising is all about selling products. That is often not the case. The motivation may be quite different. Always find out what a client wants to advertise for.

Do not covert your ideas.
Give away everything and more will come back to you. They are not your ideas anyway they are God’s.

Do it first, don’t ask and be prepared to take the consequences.
A new idea, is either silly, unfamiliar or both. It cannot be judged by description, it cannot even be judged as a storyboard. It needs to be done to exist. No one will sanction the cost, therefore you have no choice but to do it whatever the cost.

Draw with different pen.
Magic markers and Pentels are not the only ways to make marks on paper. Change your tools, it may free your thinking.

Compose your ad from the weakest point.
If you know a logo or a pack have to big don’t hope it will fit in the corner somewhere unobtrusively, it won’t. Start your layouts knowing that is a problem to be solved as an integrated part of the idea. Remember God is in the details.

Suppliers are only as good as you are.
Don’t hand work over to a suppliers hoping they will provide the magic. They won’t. You are the magic.

Storyboard in detail.
Every cut, every action, every angle, every word. Once you have a base you know works, you are free to make clear decisions on further input from directors.

Attend to every single detail of a commercial.
Every edit, every recording session, every dub. Trust no one. You are the only person who knows what you want or should know.

Do not ask people to like you. Earn their respect.

Find out what the client means by creativity

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 11:48 am and is filed under Design Leaders, Idealism (Uncensored), Quotable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.