The Year of Handcuffs
As economic uncertainty rolls over American businesses in 2009, it’s reasonable that clients who depend on creative messages will take fewer risks. They will be unwilling to invest in fresh, new creative. Instead they will modify, recycle, tweak, Frankenstein, (you pick the verb!) an existing idea. I imagine there’ll be more calls of inappreciable refreshing or reskinning and less wheel reinventing.
While this sounds as thrilling as a wet box, now, more than ever it’s time to embrace the box. We will have to be smarter about thinking INSIDE the box. If you’re a creative thinker who sees the handcuffs of limitations as major burdens, good luck with your cushy job in 2009. This’ll be a tough ride for you. However, if you find infinite inspiration in the finite limitations, this is your chance to grow and shine. The handcuffs of limitations that inspire bigger ideas will be heavier in 2009. This is ultimately a great thing for good creative thinkers, although it’s not going to feel like it. Why? Most creatives can make lemonade out of lemons. How about making lemonade out of mud? That requires far more brainpower.
I find this thrilling, but I’m a sucker for complex problem solving. Most creative thinkers worth their salt are super-charged by this. They get bored easily. So use the limitations. Try to remember that’s when smart thinking really shines. As my favorite adage says, “It’s only in handcuffs that Houdini did his magic.” Embrace that.
Comments
We'll also have to dedicate our selves to our previous work and evolve good ideas into better ones. This evolutionary design of previous ideas may not be as glamorous as coming up with new ideas, but building on past successes and making them better will be an important offering to clients who may not have the money to start from scratch.
Yeah, you're right. I hadn't thought about that. While we, as professional should dedicate ourselves to continuous learning, now is a great time to really take stock of that.
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