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Redefining "creativity" for the digital age

· 5 min read
Andy Hawkes
Andy Hawkes

The "creative team"​

One of the things that has always sat awkwardly with me is the traditional ad agency idea of the "creative team" as epitomised by the symbiotic art director / copywriter partnership - there's no doubt that it has its place in traditional ad agency production work where the output is some variant of words and pictures (whether that be for print or TV), but in the context of a modern, digital agency it feels narrow, blinkered, and hopelessly anachronistic... yet it still persists.

So what, then, does a modern "creative team" look like?​

Unless you're producing the most basic digital "matching luggage" for an ATL campaign, the notion that "creativity" is housed exclusively in an old-school two-person partnership is laughable.

Producing compelling experiences and content in the modern digital landscape calls for a diverse set of skills - copywriting and art direction are still there, but they are only part of the mix.

I would argue that the creative team should be formed by a core group of practitioners from the following disciplines:

  • Strategy / planning
  • Experience design
  • Visual design
  • Information architecture
  • Copywriting
  • Technology
  • Quality assurance

Now the more astute reader will note that this appears to be suggesting something along the lines of a seven-person team to replace what was once a partnership, and those with an eye for rate cards and cost spreadsheets will be shaking their heads and wondering how I can possibly justify that kind of up-front cost in a project.

Hunker down and bear with me, because here come the bombshells...

The old creative team partnership was never a recipe for well-founded, achievable projects in a digital context - it's a pipe-dream factory wedded to a waterfall production process that just doesn't work for digital products.

We've probably all seen a variant of this before - the "creatives" go off and sit in a "war room" for a week or two, and come up with a daring, revolutionary, and dare I say it, genius idea that's never been done before™, which promptly gets sold in to the client in a flurry of powerpoint and Photoshop comps, then it gets designed up, and finally gets handed off to the technologists to build... who then point out that engraving a brand logo into the surface of the moon with a laser will, in fact, scour clean the face of the Earth and destroy all life as we know it.

Sad faces all around. The tech team are berated for being nay-saying creativity-killers, and everyone goes back to the drawing board... but this time they have less budget left, a disappointed client, and late nights of "project crunch" to look forward to.

The siloed "waterfall" process is a gigantic problem generation machine

Working in silos simply creates parcels of problems that get handed over to the next discipline down the line. It does not (usually) result in efficiently managed projects or well-rounded products.

Working in a collaborative, holistic team creates a solution generation machine

By working in an integrated, collaborative, and iterative way, you figure out the sticking points quickly and work out solutions that work for the product as a whole rather than just the problem at hand.

You may actually have seven people working on it instead of two, but if they can nail the concept, prototype a solution and present that to the client in half the time instead of generating yet another deck and some overblown, unrealistic visuals then it pretty much sells itself. Yes, really.

A rounded team builds confidence, trust, and ownership

The creative team should form the beating heart of any product or project team, and should be in it for the long haul - they should become expert, trusted partners in the eyes of the client, and unabashed ambassadors for the users / consumers of the final product.

The most important thing to note, however, is that every element of that diverse mix of skills and disciplines is inherently "creative" - even production / project management and account management (although who knows what those guys are actually supposed to do) - and every element contributes to the overall "user experience" of the final product, whether it's a physical installation, a website, an app, or whatever comes along next!

"Creative Director" isn't a job title any more​

Being as I have a problem with the traditional idea of the creative team in a digital context, it's not terribly surprising that I may also have an opinion on the role of the traditional Creative Director.

Given my comments on the nature of the modern creative team above, it's hard to justify the continuation of the Creative Director role as the person who essentially manages the creative symbiotes and has creative ownership of the product as a whole.

I am not, however, going to suggest that there is no place for a Creative Director.

In this brave new world, the Creative Director is a project role not a job title.

For any given project, you need to have one person to act as the owner and ultimate arbiter of the product, and that person is the Creative Director.

Depending on the needs and focus of the project, the Creative Director could be from any of the traditional disciplines / departments that agencies like to divide people up into, but just like everyone else, they are there to collaborate, iterate, and enhance the product rather than to act as failed auteur and try to mediate the conflicts and compromises that inherently occur in a waterfall process.