What is my Creative Process? I have written a few times in the past about my creative process and how it compares to other processes, modes, and theories that have been discussed in this class. Here is a diagram showing the exact process a project goes through in my studio:
This process has been refined during the past five years of running my studio, and is successful in my operations. The weakness in this process is how scalable it is with a limited team. I currently delegate certain parts of the process out, hiring additional team members as the project scope requires it.
The challenge that I have in this process is finding skilled team members that I can trust take on chunks of the process at a time. For example, when I hire a Designer, being a small studio, the designer must be skilled in almost every part of the process. I traditionally have always retained the Discovery step, as well as the Follow-up step, given that I have the relationships with the various clients. The Conceptual Development step is also crucial for me to oversee and lead in order to ensure that the highest quality work is leaving my shop. But the more steps in the process that I retain control over, the harder it is to grow.
What I have found is the larger the agency, the more people are involved in the process. In the past, when I worked for a large agency, there would be an individual team member on almost every step! An Account team to handle the client portions, as well as a Research person… or even a Research Department! The Creative team was composed of a Copywriter, Art Director, and Designer and would handle the Concept Development and Design steps. Then there was the Production team to handle Production and Delivery. Revisions would often touch every person’s desk in the agency, and often there is even a proofreader on staff!
Over the past five years, the size of my company has fluctuated depending on the volume of client work. I have been as large as a team of 6, and as small as a force of 1. My eventual goal would be to grow to have an Account Executive to handle the client interaction portions of the process, and allow me to focus more on the Conceptual Development step. As the company grows, having the skilled design team and developing outside freelancers for specialty skills like illustration, video production, and programming, will allow me to continue to be flexible and form teams to handle a variety of types of projects.
