Back in the swing of things
It's been a rough go for the past couple of weeks, and I haven't had much time to blog, a point evidenced by the fact that my vacant blog. Anyhow, one of the reasons I haven't been blogging is that I've been busy at work and for once haven't been inundated with crap jobs. That's not to say my job isn't crap--it is--it's just been tolerable as of late.
Speaking of crappy projects, I was in one such project where the phrase, "No need to reinvent the wheel on this one" was uttered more than a few times. I shouldn't have to tell you that a creative agency worth its salt would never say this in reference to a creative solution; its very phrasing is the antihesis of creativity. I understand cost savings and all that, but there's no faster way to enrage (or depress or dishearten) a creative person than that phrase.
And then something happened right after the meeting. One of my art directors had left a speech by Dan Wieden on my chair. He gave this speech right before W+K moved to its new building up the street from us. It's quite a few pages in length and incredibly motivating.
Here's the beginning:
"When we started, no one in their right mind wanted to come to this weird little city on the banks of the Willamette, cut off from the cultural mainstream. Hell, cut off from culture, period. A city with virtually no nightlife. No history. I mean, the first house here was a log cabin built in 1844. That wasn’t that long ago, guys. The only ad people you could get to even consider moving here were people who had been fired from every legitimate and illegitimate agency in the country. Or kids fresh out of school who didn’t know any better.
We started as a ship of fools. And that, I firmly believe, is why we have succeeded. We were struggling to figure out what an advertising agency actually was. And our one and only client, Nike, was trying to get a grip on what a client was supposed to do with one. We were both incredibly stupid. That was the key. See, when you don’t know, you try desperately to find out. But the minute you think you know, the minute you go “oh, yeah, we’ve been here before, no sense in reinventing the wheel” you stop learning, stop questioning, and start believing in your own wisdom…you’re dead. You’re not stupid anymore.
You are fucking dead."
I rest my case.
Speaking of crappy projects, I was in one such project where the phrase, "No need to reinvent the wheel on this one" was uttered more than a few times. I shouldn't have to tell you that a creative agency worth its salt would never say this in reference to a creative solution; its very phrasing is the antihesis of creativity. I understand cost savings and all that, but there's no faster way to enrage (or depress or dishearten) a creative person than that phrase.
And then something happened right after the meeting. One of my art directors had left a speech by Dan Wieden on my chair. He gave this speech right before W+K moved to its new building up the street from us. It's quite a few pages in length and incredibly motivating.
Here's the beginning:
"When we started, no one in their right mind wanted to come to this weird little city on the banks of the Willamette, cut off from the cultural mainstream. Hell, cut off from culture, period. A city with virtually no nightlife. No history. I mean, the first house here was a log cabin built in 1844. That wasn’t that long ago, guys. The only ad people you could get to even consider moving here were people who had been fired from every legitimate and illegitimate agency in the country. Or kids fresh out of school who didn’t know any better.
We started as a ship of fools. And that, I firmly believe, is why we have succeeded. We were struggling to figure out what an advertising agency actually was. And our one and only client, Nike, was trying to get a grip on what a client was supposed to do with one. We were both incredibly stupid. That was the key. See, when you don’t know, you try desperately to find out. But the minute you think you know, the minute you go “oh, yeah, we’ve been here before, no sense in reinventing the wheel” you stop learning, stop questioning, and start believing in your own wisdom…you’re dead. You’re not stupid anymore.
You are fucking dead."
I rest my case.
posted by The Haiku Review at 1:17 PM
1 Comments:
It's sad to think that so many people just don't get that. Also, add this to the list of annoying anti-creative phrases "this project is just down and dirty." Grrrrrr.
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