Key traits of top-tier creatives
By Kiah Nicholas, Associate Creative Director & Innovation Lead at BMF & AWARD School Head, Online Program
The good creatives are innately curious and actively inspired.
They keep their creative well full. Take inspiration from everywhere. And refine and develop their taste by exposing themselves to as much greatness as possible: pointing their eyeballs at great art, dipping their prefrontal cortexes in masterpieces of cinema, filling their earholes with the best music. They seek out and hoard anything they can use to combine with a creative brief, or insights to spark an idea that works as fuel.
Personal Experiences
Cultural Heritage
Things They’ve Observed In Everyday Life
Travel
Iconic art
Inspiring Websites
Cinema masterpieces
IG Videos, Tiktoks, Youtube, Pinterest
Plays
Music
Provocative Questions
Photo Books
Design Books
Comic Books
Book Books
They’re self-actualised
Not in a highfalutin way. Quite the opposite. They seem to honour their divine stupidity. That is, they are fully themselves.
They bring their unique voice, perspectives, observations, and life experiences to their work; because they know that’s where the most interesting truths are.They show humility
They aren’t precious. They know enough to know they don’t know, and get comfortable with taking on feedback, hearing “no”, and “try again”. They separate themselves from their work and suspend their ego to really listen to and learn from their teachers; to become their best and have the best ideas they’ve ever had.They know (or learn) how to find an unexpected insight AND bring it to life in an unexpected way
You haven’t come up with an ad, let alone a good ad, until you’ve done both. An insight isn’t an ad. And an execution is nothing but pretty wallpaper without an insight. So, a good creative separates themselves from the pack by finding an unexpected insight AND bring it to life in an unexpected way. And by unexpected I don’t mean derogatory, discriminatory, or disrespectful – there’s a difference between thought provocation and thought propaganda.They overcome their lizard brain
They learn to override the part of their brain that wants them to stop at that first “right” answer (an idea that appears to solve the problem). They’re able to tell their brain to keep thinking of more ideas, and push past that first thought, regardless of whether they reckon they’ve already “cracked it”.
They know that the key to being good isn’t being brilliant; It’s being prolific.They’re prolific
The worst way to come up with a mind-blowing idea, is by trying to come up with a mind-blowing idea. Nobody needs that pressure. In fact, nothing kills creativity faster.
So, the best creatives don’t concern themselves with trying to come up with great ideas, they just have fun coming up with tons of ideas and accidentally get to great ideas in the process.
Quantity isn’t quality, but it certainly leads you to it.They embrace brain pain
The brain is a muscle, and when you first start doing this, it’s going to hurt. Yes, literally. Author Red Smith said, “there’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter, open your veins and bleed.” Pushing your brain hurts but, in time, your creative muscles start to get bigger, stronger, faster, and it starts to hurt less.They work smarter
Once they’ve absorbed the brief, done whatever research they need to do, dipped their brains in inspiration, attacked the brief, and gotten down as many ideas as they possibly can, they stop forcing it, walk away, and trust their subconscious do the work in the background. After all, if “nothing exists in a vacuum”, it certainly doesn’t come into existence at a beige office desk. They happen *gestures outside* out there.And most importantly, they’re usually the ones who look like they’re having the most fun brainstorming.
