Anoop Chugh
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

A few things every creative director should or shouldn’t do.

If you are a creative director or want to be one, here is a list of things you should or shouldn’t do to prove your mettle, and this doesn’t include pointing fingers at the gullible servicing guy.

1. DON'T MAKE GOOGLE DO IT.

Let’s admit this, Google will never give you a unique never-done-before idea. Why? There’s a reason a thought is on Google - it has already been done and dusted. Start with a pencil and a paper. That’s how your dad wrote his first love letter to your mother and look at yourself - it worked. Mostly, it works. Unless, you don’t know how to write or draw. In that case - please quit. If you can’t think of an idea without Google, then you must join a digital agency - the people who think they can write.

2. LEARN TO BE FOOLISH

Not because Steve Jobs said so. You need to set examples for the junior-most guy at work - it’s alright to be stupid. If you don’t annoy people, or get on their nerves, most likely you are a management graduate with a degree. MBA is weighing you down. Relax. Unlearn. UnIQ. Unun. Get into a brainstorm. Yell the most foolish idea possible. Give reasons for people to laugh at you. Give them a belief — they can think better than their CD. Be a few fries short of a happy meal. Be a few beers short of the six-pack. Be a few punjabi wedding short of Daler Mehndi. Whatever it takes, don’t forget, you are an experiment in artificial foolishness.

3. DON'T LOOK FOR A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN.

Find an odd match. Rihanna and Chris Brown odd. Think harder. Rihanna and Drake odd. Think harder. Beyoncé and JayZ odd. Close enough. Priyanak Chopra and Nick Jonas odd. Bingo. Don’t work with the best copy guy or the best art guy, they will always take the credit, even if it’s your baby. Work with some unusual suspects. Work with a guy or a girl who is not from MICA. Work with a guy who can’t write Hindi or English. Work with a guy who has self-learnt adobe illustrator and totally suck at it. Work with a guy who dresses like a girl because these fellas are a story each, not the guy from the best art school.

4. QUIT A LOT.

Be a quitter. Leave. So that you can arrive at another place. A Creative Director without experiences is like an actor without filmography. It’s like a smoker without cigarettes. A pope without excitement when he sees young children. Always be ready to be vulnerable. Get uncomfortable. Suffer. Live in different time zones. Sleep with others' wives. Beg money. Spend a few weeks in a jail. Basically, have a lot of stories. If you aren’t a story yourself, you’d never be able to tell a convincing one.

5. NEVER READ A BRIEF.

Brief is for those who don’t like being naked. Bare it all. Write your own brief. Don’t sell an idea, sell a brief. Don’t sell a script, sell an insight. Get rejected. Argue. Confront. Question. Never read deadlines. If you don’t read briefs, you wouldn’t even know what a deadline is. You are ready when you are ready. Most of the time when you work without a brief and without a deadline, you work. Otherwise, you Google. Some of your best writing is without a brief and a deadline. Get into the brand manager’s shoes. If he/she is hot, get into their pants. Do whatever, but never read a brief.

6. NEVER BELIEVE A LISTICLE.
Too late.

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