You’ve probably seen the social trend of taking someone else’s logo and ‘making it better’.
It’s an interesting exercise. And getting a second pair of eyes on creative work can always be useful.
But I can’t help feeling for the original creatives whose work is being scrutinised.
Because they didn’t have the luxury of cutting it up and doing whatever they wanted with it.
They had a brief.
A strategy.
An audience.
A client.
And probably 10+ people with a stake in the outcome, all with different opinions, tastes, objectives and agendas.
That’s the bit the ‘fix it’ trends leave out.
Working creatives negotiate constraints and conflicts every single day.
And increasingly, the final power of veto sits somewhere outside the creative team.
So sometimes the win is simply creating something everyone can agree on that serves the brand.
The bigger win is creating something everyone can agree on, serves the brand and that you’re proud of.
That’s the rare beast.
It’s easy to look at a finished piece of work and say:
'They should have done this'.
'They should have done that'.
But how do you know they didn’t?
Maybe they presented that.
Maybe it was route three.
Maybe it got rejected.
What you see on the social feed is the finished work.
What you don’t see are the hours behind it. The negotiation. The feedback. The internal reviews. The selling. The opinions. The restarts. The late nights. And the determination, resilience and agility it took to get something made at all.
Being a good designer, creative or copywriter is only half the story.
Knowing how to navigate all of that and still protect a great idea is the other half.
That’s what makes a great working creative.
Making a living from creativity is hard.
Getting work made is harder.
Getting work made that you genuinely love is harder still.
So hats off to everyone in the creative trenches who manages to get one over the wall.
So as creatives, let's support each other a little more.
Like the work.
Share it.
Celebrate it.
Give props to the people who fought to get it made.
Be curious before you’re critical.
Be a fan, not a fixer.
So we all have a little more energy to keep fighting the good fight.
(And don’t get me started on Campaign’s Turkey of the Week.)