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Arenas, Blind Spots, Facades, and the Unknown
Creatively solving problems in the face of uncertainty
Agency work is therapeutic work.
It’s just not a settled issue who, exactly, is the patient.
Agencies think the brand is the patient. The brand has a problem. The brand doesn’t know what to think. The brand needs advice. The brand, the creatives think, is on the couch.
But of course, creatives need brands, too.
It’s the creatives who need the safe space of an engagement to express themselves.
It’s the creatives who need somebody else’s problem to solve.
It’s the creatives who sit down in the client’s office as if to say please sir, please madam: let me sublimate my repressed feelings through the medium of a humorous television spot.
Agencies and brands? Same same. We’re both on the couch.
Given these therapeutic leanings, I suppose it’s appropriate that this agency occasionally borrows a tool from psychology to understand our projects and our clients.
That tool is called the Johari Window.
