Feedback that Doesn’t Screech Through the Loudspeakers Episode I: We Need Each Other, Like Wall Street and Greed

The two of us have had the pleasure of working together as a creative team (copy and design) over a number of years at two different agencies, for a wide array of corporate and nonprofit clients. We much prefer the nonprofits. Much. Seriously. There’s no comparison. To give you an idea of what we mean, one of our former clients was a major liquor brand. We are both physically unable to drink alcohol. And that, friends, is the tip of the iceberg.

Anyway… We’ve gotten a lot of feedback over the years — some good, some bad. Good feedback makes all the difference in getting to that final place of mutual creative satisfaction. It helps us, and any creative team, get to a stronger result. Bad feedback can either impede us completely or, in a best-case scenario, just leave us hanging to figure it all out for ourselves.

So how do you get the best work out of writers, designers, and other freelancers? We’ll get into some details about feedback in the forthcoming posts, but here are two opening points to keep in mind as you read this blog series:

• Creativity is a two-way street. You need the creative minds and talent that come with a writer, designer, or other freelancer. If you could do it yourself, you almost certainly would. Likewise, these creative people need you. You know your organization inside and out, and they need you to offer clear direction from your unique point-of-view.
• Feedback is part of a larger conversation about process. Collaboration takes effort. The first thing you can do to get things off on the right foot is to prepare carefully. (Preparation is the topic for the next post.)

Our goal with this series is to help you navigate the creative process, which goes hand-in-hand with navigating creative people. We aren’t that different from other people most of the time, but we do have our quirks. The two of us are now old enough to admit this about ourselves. But like you, we creative types also take our work very seriously, even when it looks like a lot of fun. And whatever the project, we’re all in it together.

So keep your eyes peeled to the Duck Call for forthcoming posts in the Feedback That Doesn’t Screech Through the Loudspeakers series.