creative briefing

My good friend Derrick from The Music Blogger (www.themusicblogger.com) posted about some recordings him and I did a few weeks back. He’s posted a raw (or ‘unmastered’) recording of Jack Johnson’s Rodeo Clowns done in his basement studio, starring yours struly on the guitar and vocals, and him on the bass and pretty much everything else you can hear.

You can check out Derrick’s post and the song here.

It’s hard to get away from a ‘job’ that doesn’t exactly run on a 9-5 schedule, but I try to step away every now and then and jam a bit. I’m by far an amateur, but it certainly does the trick as an alternative creative outlet. Sometimes it helps to get the ideas flowing too!

I’d be interested in hearing if any of the readers here have any interesting alternative creative outlets of their own. Leave me a comment!

Scratch project management. In the long list of skills that successfully get me from one day to the next, I’d say that people management ranks as one of the most valuable skills anybody can have in any profession. Its significance is no less in the creative field. Designers and developers are definitely, for the most part, an ecentric group. Brimming on creative genius-ness and madness (sometimes all at the same time), managing a creative group can certainly take some extra umph.

While I promise to never depict designers and developers as a breed of mad scientists again, you have to admit that people management plays a big role in helping a creative team channel their energy appropriately into effective deliverables. Throw into the mix the fact that you run a virtual company, and you’ve got yourself the weight that sits on my shoulder every day.

I’m certainly no Atlas, but to keep the creative magic flowing, here are a few tactics and values I subscribe to.

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Anyone who has ever watched a segment of Chinese television will know that very little money is spent on marketing and advertisements, and that the quality of commercials is almost laughable compared to mainstream North American media (more people would laugh if it wasn’t so sad). Anyone who has ever been to a Chinese restaurant will also know that tea is served in, well, a tea pot.

One marketing genius from what appears to be GEM or GARYA has come up with this clever idea:

Talk about capitalizing on high-reach media.

What I’d like to know is (a) how much was paid for this “prime” spot, and (b) what’s the return on their investment.

Then again, I could be wrong and this could be just be one of those “contents are very hot” warnings. Any translators?

As both a Managing Director and an Account Manager at my creative marketing agency, I understand the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship with your client. Likewise, having been on the client side myself, I know that keeping your agency happy often has a positive impact on the deliverables.

Being on the agency end now, I’ve observed, seen, and experienced the things that can make me and my team happy. So, for all those who deal with agencies (or are thinking of doing so), here are 5 simple ways that you can improve your agency relationship.

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A renewed ambition, a renewed blog. Welcome to creativebriefing.com!

I’ll keep the introduction short so we can get to the fun stuff. What you can expect to read here:

• Insight on creative strategy, design, and marketing
• My experiences as an entrepreneur, web designer, creative director, and creative marketer
• Ravings and criticisms
• Ideas
• More as this site takes shape

What I encourage you to do:

• Share your creative thoughts
• Subscribe to the Full RSS Feed
• Register for the site

I’ll officially declare this site live and leave you with a thought to get the ball rolling.

Life is in its details: it’s the small things that paint the big picture. Keep this in mind and creative brilliance will ensue.