One of the hardest jobs for a creative is ‘a bit of dev’.
Normally by this stage you’ve already done a lot of thinking, worked the best ideas up and presented them. So how those ideas look, sound and work are fairly fixed.
That’s when ‘dev’ shows it’s ugly face.
When the feedback’s clear it’s not too bad, the worst comes in two forms…
‘The Vague’ and ‘The Push It’.
With both of those you’ll look at the work and not be sure what to do.
Leading to a tweak spiral.
Changing the odd word or nudging things around by a pixel or two because in your head the idea’s already worked out, it’s down on paper as you think it should be. That’s why you did it that way.
It’s a hump that’s hard to get over and, more importantly, a barrier to making it better.
Whenever this happens I tell the creatives to deliberately break the idea.
Change all the things that are working and you don’t think can be changed. What you do obviously varies by the idea but try things like…
Reversing the order.
Adding in too many messages.
Giving away the reveal.
Make it too long or too short.
Go way too obvious and way too subtle.
Switch off your judgement and get loads of weird options down. Then look back over them, you’ll often see a new angle or approach. Maybe one of the extra messages works better or the reversed order’s clearer.
It’s about breaking free of little changes, giving you more chance of finding an idea revolution.
And if not you’ll at least have proved why the original work was right to start with.
