I had a very long and exhausting day yesterday, 12 hours of creative productivity. I did 2 entire campaigns so I was kind of really tired when I got home. The campaign ideas are pretty good, according to my colleagues. I figured out quite a solid strategy and concept. I’ll blog about them as soon as they’re out in the open. (Might take a little while though, because the design still needs to be done etc.) – In the beginning of a creative process, ‘the brainstorm phase’, there’s always some real ‘idea killers’. Things people say that block what you’re doing. Here are remarks you don’t want to hear/say when you’re thinking about ‘things’, because they interrupt the free flow of ideas and associations:
- Yes, but…
- There’s no time for that
- No
- Can’t do it
- Too expensive
- It’s not logical
- Need more research
- Let’s be realistic
- That’s nothing for our customers
- No budget
- Don’t make mistakes
- The board isn’t going to like it
- I’m not creative enough
- It’s not my responsibility
- Too difficult to control it
- The change is too big
- The ‘old generation’ will not comprehend
- The market isn’t ready for that yet
- Think ‘real’
- We’ll think about that
- Maybe later
- Been done before
- That’s future-talk
- Might work somewhere else, but not here
- Since when are you the expert?
- We’re too small to do that
- That’s not our style
- Are you sure?
- Why?
Later on in the process, some of the remarks mentioned above might become keypoints (been done before, budget, …) to take note of. But in the first phase, when you have to think of ideas, you have to make sure nothing stops you from going down a certain road. You never know where it might end. If you don’t try to think in a certain direction because of one of the remarks above, you’re already limiting your creativity and that’s not what you want. Or is it?
