The Art of Walking in Circles: If we can’t even walk in a straight line, why follow a linear creative process?
Forgive me for the philosophical rant. It’s one of those foggy days in Frankfurt, and I get philosophical when it’s foggy outside.
Apart from being a nice animation showcase, for me, the below move immediately became a metaphorical insight for how some agencies work (or try to work).
A Mystery: Why Can’t We Walk Straight? from NPR on Vimeo.
Mostly, the creative process of getting to ideas (new ideas, that is!) resembles being blindfolded because you usually don’t yet see the solution. It takes guts to venture out and begin the process. Still: how, where and when ideas come to you is usually random, uncontrolled, and, well, blind. Plus, a lot of the times, even when you suddenly see the idea, it is hard to reproduce how you got there and you can never use the same methods of getting there twice. You just don’t know. It’s not linear, not straight.
Meanwhile, though, we’re being asked to walk in straight lines (metaphorically speaking) by the client’s briefing or constraints, always tugging at us and trying to fence us in, in order to (or so they say) reach certain objectives at the end of that straight line.
Unfortunately, if we continued this simile based on the outcome of the movie, it would mean that we never quite reach those objectives because we end up walking in circles instead.
Unless of course…
- … we stubbornly believe that objectives aren’t the point to begin with, but rather that being creative itself is because, screw it, straight is boring anyway and great creative is all about not being boring. So there!
- Or, we lift the blindfold by using strategic tools and techniques that help us see the straight line and walk it.
The moral of it for me is: a good creative process does both. Neither is it about just lifting the blindfold of seeing the straight line of the purported solution (which is rarely creative), nor is it about doggedly walking in creative circles in the hopes of sudden epiphany revealing itself before the creative mind (which is creative, but, let’s not muddy the issue, falls into the domain of uncompromising artists, not communication artists).
Maybe it’s about seeing what you can see, but not just to see the straight line (and then walk it), but also seeing the creative opportunities lying within walking the circles. Use your insights as a conscious permission or even exhortation to allow yourself to venture off and walk in circles.
Because, as most people would agree, sometimes what’s at the end of the line isn’t the best solution anyway. Rather, it may be hidden in a stump somewhere. *THUD*
