Respecting The Creative Process

Even after almost six years of working with creative businesses, it is still incredibly difficult for me to relate to an artist’s individual creative process.  Ever in my head, I try to put a rational timetable to something that is anything but rational.  Something like saying you will be done with this portion of your design by this date, this portion by that date, etc. so you will be done with the whole thing by so and so date.  Never works.  More than not, the design happens in fits and spurts and really according to the process of the individual artist.

What I see so often is that, as the business grows, the creative process gets compressed, pressured and standardized.  Almost as if the artist gives way to the business, which, of course, he/she has to in some respect.  However, when it goes too far (as it almost always does), the essence of the art is lost — the work becomes safer, repetitive and even boring.  

Corporate types like me will always push for a defined process that we can sell and deliver to the market.  To be able to tell a client exactly what they can expect and when.  Almost as if the business was creating a widget.  A deadline for delivery is valuable and necessary, but an intermediate set of deadlines not so much.  The key is to understand your creative process and build around it.  The time it takes for you to design is the time it takes for you to design and should be sacrosanct.  Of course, it needs to be respectful of the larger business and the operations that follow the creative process — i.e., actually producing the invitation, lighting, cake, centerpiece, dance floor, furniture plot, etc. — but never subject to it.

It might mean that you do less or have to do it earlier, but that is okay if it is what you need.  At the end of the day, the market values the creative genius behind the art — even above the actual production of the art.  If your team understands and values the process behind the art and makes it part of the entire operation of the business, your business and your clients will be the constant source of support they ought to be.  Mostly though, they will never ask you to compromise the artist that you are.