Posted on May 11, 2017

We’ve got a lovely case study for a great project in the works but in the meantime here’s something a little more behind the scenes about how we approach creativity.

Design isn’t creativity. Well that’s to say it’s not just creativity. Just as important as every carefully refined visual component or perfectly placed accent colour is purpose, a focus on what the design needs to do. Without this you will have work that is often pretty, probably eye catching, even fascinating but which that lacks in the ability to communicate in any meaningful way.

For a professional designer this purpose is simply the needs of clients. It establishes a basis for the work - who it’s talking to, what it needs to say to them, and what it want’s them to do as a result. From this purpose it’s essential to develop a rational approach; using analytics to discover details about the target so that all communications are tailored for their existing personal cultural vocabulary and aspirational models, and using a logical approach to plan an interconnected strategy so that all aspects of a design work to advance and reinforce a wider brand.

All of this is not to say that creativity isn’t vital. It is. It is the lifeblood of design and an absolute necessity in every design. Great design work can only occur when it has a purpose and that purpose is paired with creativity. It’s the creativity that does all those things that the marketing gurus are so eager to advocate, from ‘thinking outside the box’, which is just a boring management way of saying that you are connecting the unconnected to create the unexpected, or ‘creating impact’, challenging expectations and norms just enough to make something truly memorable, or most importantly of all creating ‘emotional engagement’, where the viewer feels that they are part of whatever you are saying because it is simply part of who they are.

So what about innovation? If we discard the old adage of “don’t worry about being new, worry about being good” for a second, part of what’s amazing about the interplay of reason and creativity based on purpose is that it can become self-reflective. Each analytical insight can lead to a purpose that allows for a focused creativity that in turn can provide a fresh platform for analysis of the problem, generating insights that have already gone beyond the norm, allowing for further creativity, and so on. Before you realise it you’ve got innovation and excellence built into the heart of the brand.

Now you’d probably thinking “Ok, I see what he’s getting at but why am I not struck by this “underlying purpose” in the things I see everyday?” More often than not this is because you are it’s target. Most of the design you see is focused on communication and most of that on selling you something. This selling process, and indeed communication as a whole, is most effective when it is both hidden (so you don’t feel targeted or pressured) and memorable (you probably can’t remember the last nike ad you saw but you know that you should ‘just do it’). This invisible purpose along with the visual mechanisms that make it work are key to design,  design that is at it’s best when it’s using creativity.

To put this all a little more succinctly look no further than the great Paul Rand; “I solve problems”.