who’s a creative?

“Creativity is an attitude, not just a department.”

Over the last week, I’ve been so grateful to consistently hear how agencies integrate planners into their creative process. Early on in the ad program, I felt afraid that definitively placing myself in the category of account planning/managing meant that I was permanently signing over my rights to being creative, that it would no longer be a mindset I was able to have a claim to.

The idea that creativity flows throughout the entire advertising process was especially visible at Joan on Friday. This agency had an energy unlike any other that I experienced this week. They only have ~30 people working there but their small office was absolutely alive with talent, passion, and innovation. It felt like creativity was seeping out of every crevice of the room.

Lisa and Jamie (the co-founders, who were the first people to enthusiastically greet us when we walked in the door and two of the most beautifully energetic people I’ve ever met) told us that every department in their shop has a mandate to be creative. It doesn’t stop or end at any specific stage, and I think that’s absolutely imperative to the process.

Just like the above quote says (those are the words of their ECD), creativity doesn’t only come once someone acquires a specific skillset or masters Adobe Creative Suite. It’s a mindset, a way of life, a thought process. I’m so thankful that so many of the amazing people we met this week have soothed my fears of others not considering me creative because I’ll be working in a department titled otherwise. My ability to think analytically and problem-solve efficiently are just as integral to my personality as my ability to think conceptually and produce big ideas and this week absolutely reaffirmed that for me.

Adriane Hershey / 5.11.18