Creative Direction Now
When I was in a class at the American Film Institute, I got in a bit of a friendly argument with the instructor, who was an episodic TV director. He kind of looked down his nose at those of us who directed spots. Of course, I was the only commercial director in the class, but that's neither here nor there. The particular lesson was on the role of the director in the film-making process. He said, “The director’s ultimate role is to be the advocate for the audience.”
I agree with that completely. Did then, do now.
Like I said, he knew I was a commercial director. He gestured toward me, and said to the class, “Unless you’re directing commercials, in which case, your job is to be the advocate for the client.”
I spoke up, disagreeing with him: "I think bad commercials are made by directors who are only the advocate for the client. Good commercials are made by directors who are the advocate for the audience, within the boundaries of delivering the message that the client wants to deliver."
Now, no matter how many Creative Directors there are who think differently (and there are a lot) I can promise you that directors (film, video, spot, episodic, etc.) and Creative Directors are not the same thing. I've been both. More than once. Not the same. However, they do share some similar skills. One of those is being the arbiter of what's good, given a specific set of circumstances.
For as long as I can remember, the job of a Creative Director has been to apply his or her knowledge of the client and some knowledge of the target with talent and experience in an artistic category (writing or art direction) to determine what was good for the piece. The focus is on the specific piece of work, in context with the campaign, if applicable, taking all the above into consideration. The skinny: A Creative Director (when not in meetings) is the artistic arbiter of creative decisions about what combination of words and pictures are best suited for a particular piece of communications.
Except, not anymore.
The web changed that. On the web, it's not just the pictures and words that matter. It's the whole experience. It's what happens when you roll the mouse, how easy the tabs are to move through, where the links are, where you're transported when you click, what you find when you get there, what you do and don't do with the things that you can do, and what you feel throughout the process. "You," as you know, in the above run-on sentence, is the user. And the user experience is not only an opportunity to create -- it's a critical part of the user's decision about whether to pay attention at all to what you create. It is the single most critical consideration in a piece of interactive work.
But, I don't think paying attention to user experience is just an interactive thing anymore. Because the web, and the way it works, has caused a cultural shift, on and off line. People don't form the same relationships with the things they buy anymore. Or they form the same relationships, but they form them via different processes, now. Processes that include every single time they come in contact with your brand. The experience they have when that is happening -- whether they're on your site, or catching a glimpse of a logo from a speeding car -- affects the way they feel about you. Every experience with your brand is, in fact, a user experience.
You won't be able to control that experience. Notice I didn't add "all the time" to that last sentence. Because the truth is, you can't really ever control it at all. No matter how well you craft the architecture, no matter how many possible paths you predict -- no matter how brilliant the outdoor placement. But you can work hard, and work creatively, to give the experience the ability to positively contribute to the message.
A lot of Creative Directors will think I'm talking the talk of the media department. And I am, but I'm not. Because you can't separate a creative idea from the experience the user has when she interacts with that idea anymore. Nor can you any longer separate a truly creative message from the medium for which it was created.
Advocating for the audience = Direction. And now, advocating for the user = Creative Direction.
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Advertising Marketing Creative Interactive Online Marketing Design Digital Design Blattner Brunner Ernie Mosteller BB Digital
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