Managing the Creative Process - Part 1

In a perfect world, my clients would be completely empowered by their company to make all of the creative decisions on their projects. They would be held accountable only to the final results. They would be self-confident and decisive because they've been entrusted with this responsibility. They would take advantage of my expertise and consider my counsel. Together, we would do exciting work. Projects would fly by due to the streamlined approval process and the two of us would bask in the praise that resulted from our collaborations.

Don't laugh, this does happen once in a while.

But it isn't a perfect world, it's business in the 21st century. Nearly every client has a committee to report to. Every concept, every headline, every image needs to be reviewed by the committee. We all know the joke about the camel — a horse designed by committee. Well, we can complain about it all we want, it isn't going away. The question is, how can we possibly do great work when this is the business world we live in?

I have worked on thousands of branding and marketing projects in my life, and have seen the best and the worst of approval processes. This article is the first in a series on how to effectively manage the creative process. I hope to provide some useful information for many of you who are faced with the challenge of being the intermediary between the creative firm and the committee. I will share many do's and don'ts that can make your work easier and more gratifying.

Topics will include:

• Keeping the Project on Track
• Managing the Internal Team
• How to Evaluate Creative
• Getting the Most from Your Creative Firm

So come back next week for Part 2 of this series. Who knows, one day you might find that your workplace has become the one that I described at the beginning of this article.