Where Does Creativity Come From? – tbpmx featuring Mara Loera

10 steps to achieve successful ideas.

I’m a Graphic Designer by profession, Creative Producer, and Writer by conviction. I love to fill my life with inspiration, I’m always looking for trends, see ideas in everything I do, and develop all kinds of creative concepts bringing them to reality in a world that needs open-mindedness and more responsible ideas.

I was an Art & Creativity Director for 7 years in a BTL agency, while working under a lot of pressure and without realizing it, I developed a process that uses creativity as a strategy to optimize time, meet deadlines and reduce stress when working as a team, avoiding the classic burnout. Over time, this process became a workshop, having the opportunity to teach it in different universities and companies, proving to me that anyone can learn to work their creativity regardless of their professional background or personality. This demystifies some wrong conceptions like believing that creativity belongs to gifted people and that it’s carried in the blood. The good news is that it’s for everyone!

Here are the 10 steps to achieve successful ideas:

1. The brief and the importance of insights We tend to pay very little attention to this first and most important part of the process. It’s super important to capture the client’s insights, that subjective part of the brief that we usually ignore. These insights, which are easy to integrate into the creative proposal, will undoubtedly be a very good tool to sell the project. Everyone should have the same brief, so take the time to put it all together in a new document before you deliver it to your team, and remember to read it over and over again until you are 100% sure that everything’s considered in the creative proposal.

2. Creative research Believing that ideas come out of nowhere is completely wrong. All ideas arise from other existing concepts that inspire us so we can mix them to create new worlds in our minds. That’s why it’s very important to create a list of topics to research based on the brief, it can be as long as necessary. Always look for inspiration in things that are happening in the most trending cities (New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Barcelona, Melbourne, among others), and open the field of research to images, videos, articles, quotes, Instagram or Pinterest accounts, but also go out into the real world and look for inspiration there. Organize your research, since much of this information will be used in the final presentation.

3. Individual brainstorming Each team member presents their research, while the rest, with pen and paper, will write down all the ideas that come up while listening and watching. It’s a free idea association! No matter how abstract or silly they may seem, if it comes up, write it down!

4. Collective brainstorming All ideas written down individually come together into a shared document, they should be grouped in a natural way. Usually, two or three possible creative paths come up.

5. First ideas Organize the ideas in each possible path trying to give them sense and natural flow without going into too much detail (maximum three paths), it’s just a small sketch to verify which of the paths sounds more viable.

6. Selection of the final idea Probably, at this point, some of the paths have already been disqualified due to feasibility issues. To define the final path, it’s important to corroborate it against the brief and verify that all points are being addressed, choose the path that most closely adheres to the brief, and complete the idea with the points that remain to be addressed.

7. Presentation draft Focus just on writing the proposal in detail, consider the background and goals of the project, as well as the inspiration (it automatically comes from the research). Use notes to specify for images and designs required (several of the references found in the research can be used).

8. Final design The presentation is designed.

9. Review final presentation against the brief Double-check the final presentation against the brief to verify that it’s 100% attended. Be sure to check on typos, writing errors, and design adjustments.

10. Presentation to the client The proposal is presented to the client, emphasizing how their insights were incorporated into the creative proposal, remember this will be your secret tool to close the deal!

These 10 steps can also be used for people who work individually as freelancers, of course, it’s always ideal to have a collective brainstorming, but its absence doesn’t make this process impossible at all.

If you liked what you read, follow me on my social networks and get to know my other projects!

Mara Loera WEB: maraloera.blog IG: @maraloera.blog / FB: @maraloera.blog / Spotify: @Mara Loera / LinkedIn: @Mara Loera Other projects: IG: @desmachízate / IG: @isca_and_julia