Making time for creativity

More haste, less speed - an old saying most people are familiar with. We are seeing increased focus on the harm caused by stress, a counter-reaction to everything happening quicker and quicker.

Why tight deadlines damage the creative process and decreases return on investment

The feeling that we are running endlessly in a hamster wheel and never reaching our destination has a very negative impact on productivity and health. This is also the case for creative and inventive processes. As a paying customer, you obviously want to get the most value for your money – straight away. I can certainly understand how people want quick solutions to their challenges, but deadlines that are too short can lead to errors or poorer solutions that can end up having a detrimental effect on all your good intentions and investments - and even upsetting the entire project.

The first option is rarely the best one

Let's have a look first at how the creative process works. Creating something new is more demanding than most would expect. At the start of a project, we pour out options and ideas with the most obvious and "clichéd" ideas often appearing first. It's like you just need to get these out of your system first before the unique and good ideas make their appearance. One idea can lead to another, and that's how the "snowball" gets rolling. This process can take a bit of time, but this is what the customer is interested in - innovative options, not clichés. The creative process suffers if we don't allow it time to mature and grow. Our subconscious is often working on projects while we are doing other things. But new ideas occur when we least expect them. Like working on something, putting it away, and then seeing it in a new light. Then you are allowing your brain to relax a little and suddenly the individual pieces of the jigsaw have fallen into place. But if we are put under pressure to deliver at very short notice, there's only enough time to get to those first ideas and those will most likely be the ones used. They might not necessarily be bad ideas, but they most likely could be improved upon.

Quality assurance

Testing and thinking through a concept and an idea is an important part of the process of creating new solutions. An idea or the germ of it can come quite quickly, but that does not necessarily mean that it is fully matured or well thought out. Good ideas must be allowed to take root, be cultivated and developed over time. When the idea is ready, one must ask the question how it should work in practice? Will it be able to answer all the challenges we have on a specific assignment? That's really when the real job begins. You have laid the foundation stone with an idea, so you have to develop it to be able to work in practice. In a short time, this point will not be worked out well enough. The classic thing is that you just have to see it live as soon as possible. And in the beginning it can go well, but then there may be challenges you were not aware of or have thought of. Then haste can quickly become a burden. A number of elements have already been published that suddenly need to be changed. This appears both unprofessional and can be quite costly as you have to do things again or recall things that have already been published. It does not take much imagination to see how fast this can become costly.

See for example the app "Æ" from Rema 1000 which was launched in the new year 2017. One can speculate whether this was released at a time when there was a need to curb some negative press that the "best friend strategy" gave Rema 1000 In any case, it may seem like it was launched a bit hastily. It turned out that the app had serious security flaws. For a computer savvy person, it was no problem to download the database of all the users with their history, and parts of payment information. This is just speculation on my part, but something tells me that they were a bit too hasty around the launch and that they should have successfully waited or put in more resources for testing.

All challenges are unique and therefore also require equally unique solutions. I've been involved in many projects through the years where we have created new brands for various companies. Although a lot is similar and you can draw a good number of parallels to use to your advantage, none of them are the same. In an earlier contribution, we explained the need for and how important a good thorough brief from the client (customer) is so that we designers can perform the assignment in the best manner possible. I have yet to see a brief complete enough at the start of a project that things didn't change along the way. In other words, it'd an advantage adding in buffer time to any project to take account of unforeseen changes.

"Invest a bit more time and save money on the total amount"

Balance is the key

Paradoxically, too much time is not a good thing either. Deadlines are necessary to achieve progress and get things done. In the world of design, it is not necessarily easy to see when you are finished; there is always something that can be changed, adjusted and polished in solutions. A teacher once told me: "It takes two people to make a painting; one to do the painting, and one to knock you on the head when you are done, so you don´t ruin the work." Deadlines are that other person. Like everything else in life, balance is the key here: allow your creative team enough time and input to do their job but not infinite time so that they end up ruining the good work they have done. Listen to professionals and always estimate more time than you first think you need.