We need to talk about creative
The transition from working in a conventional design studio to working in a company like Fluxx is at first a shock to the system. Instead of poring over a design for weeks, pushing pixels to perfection, we work at speed; creating just-in-time designs for experiments.
We believe that building a product, even in the simplest possible way, makes it real and forces us to explain ideas clearly. This enables us to test, learn and validate our assumptions and design better products. It’s a challenging way of working but gives Fluxx a distinct creative voice.
We unlock people’s ideas and help develop them into products or services. But these new propositions only succeed if they are desirable — this is where our Storytellers and Visual Designers step-in, positioning new brands in the minds of new customers.
In his candid and insightful book, Creative Mischief, Dave Trott mentions direct questions as part of a binary brief:
The Binary Brief is a way of simplifying things down to their most basic. This or that. Black or white. On or off….
He also says:
If it’s going to be simple, we need to know 3 things: WHO should buy it. WHY should they buy it. WHAT should they buy it instead of.
If you’re working to a tight deadline this is a good starting point. But the brief should be the floor, not the ceiling.
The next part of the design process is to draw-on inspiration, this is what designers are doing when they’re working independently, (with those big headphones on). But where does the inspiration come from? If you’ve ever listened to a creative leader talk they will stress the importance of getting out of the studio. And this is true. Inspiration can be a creative talk, a quote from literature, a title sequence from a movie, a colour palette in some street art, a conversation in a cafe or some notes on an audio track. And creatives hang-on to all this stuff in memory or on Pinterest.
Because our creative work will only be as amazing as our inspiration, Fluxx challenged ourselves not only to get out of our London studio but to invite the inspiration in. Last week we hosted our first episode of dialogue, a meet-up that explores what digital practitioners can learn from analogue artists. Aimed at digital creatives, we hoped to inspire the audience with photographers that shoot on film, musicians that play real instruments, dj’s that scratch vinyl and artists that sculpt with clay.
Our keynote speaker at our inaugural event, Wilfrid Wood, makes heads and figures entirely by hand. They are of famous people, invented characters, and friends. His talk was both entertaining and inspiring as he took us all on a magical journey through his career and his work.
Don’t be afraid to not use technology
Instagram is so huge that whilst 95% of it’s content is rubbish, the remaining 5% is a great source for creative inspiration
Everybody likes naked bodies, don’t they?
dialogue has given Fluxx an opportunity to start a creative community and begin a conversation about inspiration which is really exciting. We hope that you will join us for the next event on September 27th.
