The Adnostic

Well, I finally got my creative brief back from the Russell Davies Account Planning School of the Web and although I didn't win, I did get a special mention for my insight linking post WW2 Germany with post Apartheid South Africa. Not bad for a first entry. Especially considering that the format was completely different from the way I was taught.

At the old agency I worked for it was all about communicating the ideas and goals of the project through the written word on one typed page (font size could be manipulated to maintain length). Under the Davies method it is all about the pictures because (and I have found this to be true) creatives don't like to read about ideas, they want to see them. So the main focus of the brief must be the pictures and they better be strong images.

I got a lot of positive feedback from the judges over at The Design Conspiracy. I was very pleased that they liked the positioning continuums I had made and they also liked the page explaining the complexity of the audience they had to communicate to. Which is good. I was really afraid they wouldn't like that page because it tried to say too much and would have preferred that I bring it down to one picture and statement that said it all. I took a risk and it paid off. I'm actually really proud of that page now because it communicates all the different aspects of being an intense fan that they need to be aware of.

The only negative comment I got, and the main reason that I didn't win, was that the brief wasn't inspiring enough. This is a very difficult criticism to receive because it is not specific or quantifiable. How do I make a brief more "inspiring?" Do I make the pictures bigger? Find better pictures? Find better words? I'm not really sure how to write the next brief assignment based off of that.

Back when I submitted the brief, I showed it to Ms. Jen (a creative) along side a winning brief and expressed concern that I wasn't really getting it right. She said that she actually liked mine better and that it gave her more of a sense of what to do. That made me feel more confident about my entry.

The Zen Master (also a creative) went through the critiques of my brief and evaluated the winning entry, and although I'm sure he's biased, he said that my brief was better. It was his opinion that the winning brief was lacked real substance while mine gave concrete, meaty ideas that he could really work off of. It was nice to hear that unprompted, but trouble with creative briefs is that they seem to lack any hard science. It all comes down to opinion and as a planner I have to be aware of how different creatives work and adjust my methods and delivery accordingly. ZM would prefer strong parameters with context along side the direction. The people over at The Design Conspiracy need strong statements and powerful images with loose structure (I think). Different strokes, different folks, and so the world goes round.

Anyways, I'm proud of the work I did. I think it's a good brief. It may not be an amazing brief, but a good solid effort all the same.

[I perform a deep bow of gratitude in the general direction of Russell Davies and the good people over at The Design Conspiracy]

As promised, here is the brief, warts and all. Take a look at the other efforts. I found it interesting to see what the other students did.