Your best friends

Where many think that creativity and criticism are opposites of one another, I’ve long believed that honest criticism is an inherently creative act. Certainly, the best critics love what they criticize, and the act of engaging in honest criticism is, at heart, a striving to make things better. The best creative people often surround themselves with the best critics they can find, and the resulting dialogue between both perspectives is the fuel that propels the work forward.

Great work bears the results of this exchange. Conversely, otherwise quality work that has not withstood this rigorous process seems somehow broken, indulgent, and untrue – worse than mediocre. “Lilies fester worse than weeds.”

I encountered a bizarre example of this while reading “A Seat at the Table,” by Marc Miller. The central premise of the book is that the best salespeople operate not by pushing a particular product but by understanding and strategically solving the needs of their clients. A good book, I thought, until I reached the middle section in which the author sidestepped his core idea and started promoting – you guessed it – his own product, touted as the “coolest invention ever.”

The middle section was so out of step with the rest of the book that it could be separated from it as easily as you would unscrew a light bulb. Its presence was baffling because the author was otherwise smart and on message. It seemed to me the book was an object lesson in how even a gifted person can be momentarily led astray and let themselves forget their core message. A good critic would have made a big difference.

I left this book reflecting on how my critics – clients or colleagues – have improved the outcomes of my own work and I reminded myself to strive to enter the creative process with humility and to appreciate the many people who help make it better.

Some people separate risks into different categories – physical, social, monetary, etc. – where others think in terms of high or low involvement.

A low involvement choice is a product like detergent, gum, or paper towers.  These sorts of decisions are quickly made on the basis of cost,  convenience, recognizability, and familiarity.  There is little risk involved.

Low involvement marketing materials don't involve a lot of trust or risk. Standing out is hugely important for the success of these products.

High involvement choices evoke  a higher decision process because of greater of risk. The decision is much more thought out, possibly more emotional, less subject to being driven by  price,  convenience, or similar considerations.  For obvious reasons, health care is almost always considered  a high involvement message.

High involvement marketing is much more reliant on trust and understanding, and a brand  functions to create a connection between the organization and the client.

When developing high involvement marketing materials, we often use inclusive language (”we,” “you,” “us,” etc.) to address a relationship, and we respect the audience by providing them with  the information they need to a make an informed choice.  We position our client as the organization that helps solves the audience’s problems , relieves an anxiety, or creates an opportunity.  Design in these circumstances is minimal and uncomplicated, created to calm and frame content without competing with it.

The excessive formatting of this ad is just one of the things about this ad that make it untrustworthy to modern eyes.

If your proposition is high involvement and  your materials are cluttered, busy, or inconsistent, you may want to consider the corrosive effects these qualities have on your audience’s ability to extend their trust.  The perceived need to “stand out” is usually the culprit, taking a potentially simple message and ornamenting  it with extraneous formatting, effects or clipart.

Better to focus on a simple message  that differentiates you, use creative concepts that speak to that message.  It’s been my experience that focusing on a message opens the door to more interesting, creative concepts because they were born out of a real need and won’t change every time there’s a new project.  Over time, these choices will make it easier for your audience to understand, value, and ultimately trust you.

Spikes Bursting Through Grid, view 1 (concept and art by Michael Brill).

I think the essence of thinking about communication challenges is stepping outside one’s own skin, embracing the illusion that one can see something from someone else’s point of view and adopting their mindset and values. I believe it is the creative person’s role to be flexible by accommodating the audience’s point of view.

But what if we know next to nothing about the audience? Can such an audience be communicated with at all?

This is the challenge of marking a WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) site, a project also called the “10,000 year test” or the “forever problem.” This is an effort to warn future human beings about the presence of intensely toxic nuclear waste — very likely the most enduring human creation.

The site in question is near Las Vegas, set nearly half a mile underground, within caves designed to collapse within 1,000 years to seal the pollution in place. The waste will remain will remain toxic for 250 times that long.

Landscape of Thorns (concept by Michael Brill and art by Safdar Abidi).

The concept of communicating to people 10,000 in the future fascinates me – and not just because I’m envisioning it next to the ruins of Las Vegas.  Are we speaking to Flintstones or the Jetsons? The challenges are many. How do we create something that can last that long, that can be understood and believed and that people won’t want to steal or to explore?

I’m thinking of the Egyptian tombs and the curses their makers intended to surround them, and how violators were threatened with judgment in this life and the next. I suspect scary “keep out” burial faces are common to many cultures (and museums), and are probably more interesting than dreadful to many. A big lesson we can learn from them is: don’t be interesting, beautiful, crafted, or valuable. Don’t make something people will want to explore, study, or steal.

I’m struck by the thoughtfulness of the project concept, the physical design, and the use of communications without use of language or symbol.  To me, the solutions they present address a fundamental human condition in a way that paradoxically makes them akin great art.  However these sites are marked, I hope the WIPP project is successful.

To read more about this project, click here

Figure 4.3-15. Forbidding Blocks, view 2 (concept by Michael Brill and art by Safdar Abidi).

Self expression emerges from the individual point of view of the artist – unearthing a person’s interior thoughts and feelings and building connections with other people through the work.

Problem solving is based on thinking about the function in more objective terms – communicating a idea to particular audience, emphasizing one thing while downplaying another. On the surface, it’s not really about the creative person at all.

Years ago, I went to a presentation where the speaker said he views his job as a communicator like that of a plumber, charged with the task of moving water from one location to another. The person who said it was a master at his craft, using marketing communications to grab attention and communicate value.

I was struck by the concept of comparing  traditionally “artistic” elements such as illustrations, photography, and writing with laying pipe and wondered if accepting the garb of a trades person made it easier for people to accept the scenario he presented, in which success or failure could be objectively proven in such a straightforward way.

In my mind, it defines the single most important characteristic of excellence in marketing – the discipline of sizing up and solving a problem by seeing it through a different set of eyes but, paradoxically, still trusting in your own intuition and creativity to evaluate the work honestly and accurately. It’s a perspective that I try to cultivate in myself and with my clients, and I encourage you to use when thinking about your own marketing work.