Everyone to creatives:
Creatives:
Hey guys! This is Lauren, SRW’s Creative Director, here to talk about a great Photoshop tutorial I found on Lynda.com and now that all the clients and account people stopped reading…you GUYS can we talk about how hard our jobs are as creatives right now?!
Some might say we have a reputation for being…sensitive. You can take that how you’d like to, but I think what it means most is that what’s happening in life really affects the clarity I have in my brain…and thus, the quality of my craft.
Even more than the average Joe.
So while like everyone else, creatives are grieving a whole variety of things about our daily routine that helped us do our very best work, we’re also being tasked to do a LOT of that work, really super quickly.
The rest of America can just sit back and listen to all those brand messages about “these uncertain times.” But we know a team made those, because we are that team.
And we are fatigued.
Alas, there is light. We can pick eachother up, and dust each other off. We can start to take small steps to reclaim our creative energy right now. Here’s how:
How to help your creative team (send this to your account leads):
- Carve out some time to B.S. You’d be surprised how talking nonsense with us a little bit before getting down to business can go a long way. Help take the pressure off for 5-10 minutes, and you’d be surprised what the return can be, both in morale and in productivity.
- Share things with us. Everyone consumes some form of creative on a daily basis. Sharing the things that you’ve seen in the world can spark conversation and creativity in all of us. Good ideas can come from many places.
- Celebrate the wins. Circle back to praise successes as much as you provide critique. It helps our confidence.
- Facilitate a team mentality. Creativity is a team sport. And rarely are good ideas owned by one individual. Encourage a “succeed and fail together” mentality.
- Be critical, but constructive. Nothing kills creativity faster than repetitive naysaying with no insight on how to move the needle forward. Help us help you to find better solutions. Point out the flaws, but be willing to work on solutions together.
How to help yourself as a creative (send this to yo’ brain):
- Give yourself a breather. Small pockets nothing can alleviate the pressure of endless productivity. Sometimes bulldozing through hours of work is not the answer, and can leave you in a bigger creative spin than if you take a beat.
- Take a shower. Listen to music. Exercise. Ya just gotta.
- Forgive faster. Don’t fester. Forgive the person who took their stress out on your work. Forgive the last minute requests that put you in a pinch. Forgive whatever you freakin’ can. Don’t let it fester. We’re all just doing our best. Others included.
- Make time for inspiration. First thing in the morning? Late at night? Lunch break? Pick a time to spend 1 hour seeking out stuff that makes you curious.
- Start a “Me” driven project. We can’t always be our most creative selves with tasks we’re assigned. But the nice thing about passion projects is that you can do anything! No rules. Find something to get excited about. Doesn’t matter what. (Mine is planting flowers and figuring out a way to keep squirrels out of the garden. So like, it’s fine. Absolutely no judgement on what that is.)
Right now, the hardest part about staying motivated as a creative, is that our work isn’t giving us the same escape it used to. Great work we did a few months ago is getting scrapped, and we’re on a crunch to replace it all with new goodness. I get it, so much. But with a little curiosity, and a few mental shifts, we’ll make it through – you’ll see.
And if anyone asks, yep, that Lynda tutorial was ENLIGHTENING.
