Triptych Concepts Limited

Steve Jobs and the Macintosh in 1984

It’s a valid invention, the Apple movement is. And what a bummer it can be when you don’t have one. Among friends, workmates and peers, it’s easy to feel left out of the party when not being able to access what seems like a limitless world of potential creative permeation.

But it can be a caustic way of life. The product and innovation cycles by which we can measure our progress in work, social settings and play have easily affected our psyches and the industries renowned for original, thoughtful ideas.

The Denver Egotist’s Felix Unger speaks to this point in his recent piece, where he dissects many of the often-pondered habits of today’s advertising folks:

“Why?

Because in advertising, you go big on ideas and small on technology. At first, anyway. You throw down as many ideas as you can, as quickly as you can, and to my knowledge no one has invented something that helps you do this that’s better than paper and a pen/pencil.

Your big ideas stay big by being loose. They have endless possibilities. The sketch does not paint you into a corner. There is no elaborate work that people are afraid to comment on, because it’s finished already. The client feels like part of the process too, because they are along for the ride to help shape that big idea into the finished ad. And as several great designers and advertisers have said, it’s hard to kill a baby if you birthed it.”

The trending methodology behind new work has morphed, Unger points out, to teams channeling creativity through the computer rather than the conception, which greatly discounts the natural progression of ideas and the relationship with clients, where big-picture execution has suffered greatly:

“If you’re a “modern” CD, you have no doubt become accustomed to seeing work that’s of a more finished level in the initial stages.

You know as well as I do what happens when you present something that looks like a finished ad to the client; they comment on the intricacies of the ad. They don’t like the color, they don’t like the texture on the background, they think the smile on the guy’s face is off brand, and they have an issue with the size of the logo. They can’t see the big idea because you’ve hidden it under technique (and if the technique IS your idea, I hate you and everything you stand for).”

And on Unger’s advice to today’s creative professionals:

“Here, the emphasis is on thinking. And if you want to be thought of as someone who has great ideas, you need to cut the cord between you and your Mac when you’re concepting.

Blow the dust off those Prismacolor grays. Break out the bleedproof marker pads. Buy a big box of Sharpies (my preference, as a writer, is for Ultra Fine or Extra Fine) and write down ideas until your pens run dry.

So, sorry Steve Jobs. As much as I love your products, they should be banned from the thinking process; even in 2010, the pen is mightier than the Mac.”