You Don’t Have To Pick One: Combining Creative Ideals
Flipping channels late at night the last couple of weeks, I’ve been running across a commercial for an advertising firm promoting the work they’ve done for local businesses. The ad simply consists of the president of the ad firm looking straight into the camera and presenting the singular question that local businesses have a choice when looking for firms to help promote them. Do they want a commercial that will make them money, or do they want a commercial that will win awards? He then presents his firm as the one that will make your business money, and subtly reinforces the point by raising his hand, which is holding a fist full of cash, and shaking it at the screen. The ad’s concept is simple and effective. Effective at enraging me every time I see it, because it perpetuates a stereotype that many, many people have of the creative world.
The idea is a simple one, and one that is seen in all walks of the creative industry. Money will be made if you appeal to the broadest audience possible, and it will be better for the bottom line at the end of the day. A broad appeal doesn’t always mean that it’s of poor quality, because quite often creative work that’s done with broad strokes can be quite appealing and very effective, but it does mean that the creative bar is set for the lowest common denominator, and that ambition will take a back seat to known commodities. For the sake of this argument, I’m going to label this the “Paul Blart Aspiration”.
The reason that the “Paul Blart Aspiration” gains traction with the general public is because “award winning work” is often associated with a self indulgent creative vision and frequently results in a low return on investment. And while it may be lauded by people who bestow accolades, it doesn’t catch on with the consciousness of a mainstream audience, and can often alienate the audience that’s attempting to be courted. While I’m a big fan of the following work, I also sat with my parents as they watched it on my recommendation and were very close to disowning me for ever pressing play on the DVD player, so I think it’s safe to call this the “Magnolia Effect”.
While there are certainly more than enough examples of both approaches above (other possible titles were the “Two and Half Men Corollary”, “Anything by David Lynch Approach”, and the “Michael Bay Explosion”), the idea that the two are exclusive of each other is creatively lazy. And everyday, the web is proving that the two ideals can live side by side beautifully. That’s something that we can’t take for granted.
We are able to work each day within a medium where creativity is constantly rewarded, and where there isn’t necessarily a line between mainstream and prestige sites. Certainly the content being presented can create classification, but overall, elegant, sophisticated work, often representing a new creative direction or utilizing an unique technology implementation, are both lauded critically and result in increased site traffic. It’s win-win.
How long will this last? I don’t think anyone can set a timetable, but it’s the responsibility of the creative and development community to keep this marriage of ideals consistently moving forward, and that should be easy, because that desire is the fuel which gets us into the office everyday.
Assuming, that is, we didn’t stay up too late getting upset at local TV ads….
Posted by Jeremiah Worth
Additional Posts (2)
Categories:
Discuss this article (4)
mStonerblog & Pwireframing Featured On Smashing Magazine
It’s not every day that you can open up one of your favorite online design resources and see the writing of one of your co-workers featured, but today was no ordinary day. We were honored to see Doug Gapinski’s excellent blog post on the paper wireframing work-or Pwireframing, as it’s known in the business (or will be)-included in a fantastic article in Smashing Magazine, entitled “35 Excellent Wireframing Resources.”
For those of you who want to jump directly into the good stuff, here’s the Pwireframing article.
Posted by Jeremiah Worth
Additional Posts (2)
Categories:
Discuss this article (0)
