As creatives, no matter where we are in the chain ­– writer, concept artist, director, editor, sound designer, or animator – it’s quite daunting when it comes to presenting our first draft. Remember, a lot of our behaviour networks were forged either before we could run or as we hit puberty – so it’s not unusual for us to suffer from imposter syndrome!

What is a solid idea?

A solid idea has to do one thing: to answer our proposition in an engaging way. Only then will we feel ready to move our work into a space where we can confidently reveal it to the excited client.

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Persevere

We go blank. We fall out of love with our work. We lose faith and believe that it’s the worst idea we’ve ever created and sometimes we think about starting again and then … then, we fall in love with it. The key is to hold on for the ride and not let go.

2. Create boundaries

We cannot create work for our clients without building some form of boundary. We decide what promise the client is making to the customer and use this proposition statement as the mainstay for everything we do. We throw down a brand anchor and think wild thoughts.

3. Break it

We ask ourselves if we’ve taken it far enough. As Pete Barry says:

“Reductionism is the practice of reducing the elements of an ad as far as possible, but to the point of where the communication still works.” (Barry, 2012, p. 77)

We peel away at our idea and see what we can remove before the idea breaks.

4. Go along for the ride

We are our own worst enemies. We self-edit as we work. Let’s be guided by the creative. It has to stand on its own two feet one day! So we must let it take us on a journey and play with ideas no matter how unusual they are. We’re realistic; we know that no one is going to see this part of our process – so we have a bit of fun!

5. “Who’s Queen?”

We’re dealing with a lot factors: imagery, text, colours, tone of voice … If it’s film then we’re also looking at the style (animation or film) , voiceover, music etc etc. If too many things are shouting we’ll shutdown our viewers with cognitive overload. We work out which part of the creative needs to be the Queen in our story and position it at the top.

6. Walk away

We know when it’s a solid piece of work when it answers the proposition, it differentiates the brand and it’s very engaging. It’s never a case of “it’ll do”. It’s always got to be “I’m really happy with this”. Now it’s time to take a step back. We’re too close to it. We go for a walk. We let it cool. We sleep! Take back some of the hours we owe to ourselves. And then ­– when we’re ready – go back to it and make sure we’re still happy with it. We know that others will make suggestions. Our relationship with this part of the creative is over. We’ve given it the best start in life it can have; we’ve found its soul. Now it’s ready for other people to have their say.