John Hegarty says a great ad is 80% idea, it’s also 80% execution.
I love that, it’s how anyone from Bill Bernbach to Alex Ferguson puts a team together.
Find people who think their part of the process is the most important.
The resulting energy from their separate passions will cause tension, sure.
But you’ll get something far bigger and better than a merely comfortable result.
So how do you put a team together in the first place?
Students always find it difficult working out who to team up with.
Usually they look for someone they like.
Someone they can sit and chat with.
But spending social time with someone is not the same as working with someone.
They’re two separate briefs.
You need someone who’s good at the things you’re not.
So the first thing to work out is what sort of person you are.
I always tell them it’s pretty simple.
Are you a fusspot?
Do you get fanatical about getting the details right?
Will you be fussing about type faces and point sizes until 2.00am?
If so, be an art director.
If not, be a writer.
“Writer” is actually a misnomer.
The job is actually more of a strategic thinker.
While an art director’s job is more of a tactical thinker.
Think of it as a military airplane.
The writer is the navigator, the art director is the pilot.
The navigator is in charge of the mission.
The pilot is in charge of the plane.
For simplicity, split it into right and left brain.
Right brain is emotion and feeling.
Left brain is reason and logic.
Right brain is the senses: pictures and sounds.
Left brain is thought: words and numbers.
Right brain can tell you what’s good, but not why.
Left brain can tell you if it works, but not if anyone will like it.
Right brain is brand, left brain is product.
Right brain is sizzle, left brain is sausage.
Right brain stops you, makes you read the ad.
Left brain makes the ad work, makes you want to buy.
In any team you need both.
So, first you have to work out which you are, then you can look for the opposite.
A simple test is, do you find this interesting?
If you do (like me) you’re left brain, be a writer.
If you got bored and stopped reading way back, you’re right brain, be an art director.
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great post (yes, I’m a writer).
I can say as a second year student at the minute that its a hard choice to make between the people you get on socially with and the people you think you may be able to collide ideas with whether you get on well with them or not. The advantages are ofcourse that during university (Atleast in the first and beginning of second years) you have the oppurtunity to work with most of your class at one point or another.
What happens to the people who find that they dont partner up well with anyone in thier class? Do they need to start thinking about looking outside of the university for a partner or do they need to work extra extra hard and become the team themselves. Like you said in an earlier post Dave, a good creative (whether art director or writer) will be able to work on thier own and show they are the strong link. Does this apply to someone who hasn’t found that special someone they can call a team mate? Or do they simply knuckle down and grit teeth with someone in the class?
Im fortunate enough to have worked with a lot of my class mates and find i work well with a fair few but what if your the opposite end of the spectrum?
Hi CJ.
In my experience the answer always is do both.
Be able to be a complete team on your own.
(So, whoever you have to work with, you can carry them if necessary.)
Meanwhile keep looking for someone who’s as good as you are, but opposite.
Even if you’re happy as a team, I still think you should do some of your work with different partners, just for fresh input.
Otherwise you get to know each other so well it becomes like one person, and you’re back to square one.
Wonderful post, Dave. The very next conclusion it takes me to is that hiring junior TEAMS is 80% wrong (maybe 90%, but I have a fixation with John Hegarty’s numbers). And it is wrong because as you say, we tend to look for someone we like and this is natural, but it can only lead to drinking tons of coffee together or maybe getting married if it’s the case. An objective judgement is needed. And I believe it can only come from a CD. I’m reducing it to basic maths: if I’m a junior and I don’t have the knowledge to judge the quality of my own work, teaming up with another junior will not result in a stereo-brain that can correctly analyse the collective work. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Two juniors don’t make an experienced individual. So it should be the CD’s responsibility to help juniors find the right partners because it is a vital process. An already established team that lands in the CD’s loving arms is like a (potentially) messed up computer configuration handed to the IT manager. Best components that are not compatible are just as lame as any cheap ones.
As for the process of measuring a team’s results, indeed we’re not talking about average calculations, but layer-style achievements. Average is only valid when dealing with proportions of the same ingredient. Copywriting and art direction are complementary by definition (or side of the brain involved, as you brilliantly framed it ).
Hi Anca,
I agree with you about junior teams.
If you can be bothered to go back through this blog’s archives, there’s a post dated 23rd June that I think you’d agree with: BUDDHA & BERNBACH.
…And I ended up with a smile on my face, wondering how many of your wheels I’m about to “invent” in the days to come. Oh, Dave, I am very very young. Thanks a lot for “the address”.
Great analogy with Buddha. I noticed this myself, years ago. Genius minds by everything they do and everything they say teach us one thing: “Don’t follow me.”
Funny, I always criticised Romanian advertising agencies for expecting too much from one person. As an Art Director, here you have to be a very good Graphic Designer and photographer also, maybe to even know a little bit about programming languages and be a good writer. And this is how universities prepare us. Now I understand the bright side of it all. Even if at times I felt like I was losing control, I don’t regret that I’ve been trained this way. I can literally take photos with a coffee can (really, I mean it, it was our photography exam in the first year at the university). And it’s alright if the budget is limited and there’s no money for a post-production company, I can handle it. Do I have any difficulties in motion picture compositing? No. And it helps a lot.
Even if it’s not necessary/possible to be the entire orchestra, you compose better if you can play many instruments.
And to shoot once more at that TO-TEAM-OR-NOT-TO-BE theory, I’m waiting for the first agency only open to hire teams with partners having the same blood type. Promise to apply. Until then, I’ll describe the team that I am as it follows:
“I am the copywriter, I’m very straight and I wear no shadow. The shadow you see belongs to my Art Director — she’s very spiritual, hence the physical absence. As you can see, we synchronise perfectly.”
Gees, I am a third year student, and was trying to find a partner for ages. I expect my partner to turn up everyday and work all day long, even when we are separate at home at night. But nobody is taking advertising so serious in my class. I always think it’s my own problem being too pushy. Lucky enough I am working with a Chinese, but both of us are Chinese. I am afraid at the end of the day, no one will hire two Chinese students.
No one is perfect, i know but I like to work with him, because he can spend time to work together, but he is still not giving our himself 100%, and we both art directors and Chinese.
By the way, great post Dave. I went back to re read your post because I was trying to figure out what is the logic and strategy behind your post. It seems this post took time to think and write.
G
totally agree. my best partners usually drive me insane in some way.
i can’t remember where i first heard it but the expression “from heat comes light” is so true. but a lot of ad people are uncomfortable having a good honest argument. they tend to confuse it with confrontation.
and then i have to hit them
Hi G.
I think, if you’re good at advertising, you should always be able to turn a negative into a positive.
So, if you’re both Chinese, and you’re worried about it, how could you turn it into an advantage?
My kids are half Chinese and when they were going to go into advertising I told them they should have business cards printed, saying:
THINKS LIKE AN ENGLISHMAN, WORKS LIKE A CHINAMAN.
So an employer would get the best of both worlds.
Treat yourself like a product.
If you were a product, how would you sell you?
Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight.
You’re right, Dave. I’m Chinese. And when I was in London, I teamed up with a Spaniard, probably because he was the only one who would work with me. People had trouble understanding us. But the good thing about most English is, they recognize an idea when they see one. I ended up showing my book to David Abbott, John Salmon, Alan Page (a bold walk-in), Malcom Gaskin, Tim Ashton and Paul Delaney. In the end, I didn’t get a job, something to do with employment laws. But my Spanish friend went on to become CD. And, I think if you look at gwen yip’s site, you’ll see she does Ok. Gwen’s a girl from HK who saw even more people than me - Steve Henry, Sir John- you get the idea.
Great post Dave.
Think assumes both are matured? Otherwise, 2 people who each think their part of the process is more important will end up clashing, refusing to back down and going nowhere. Would you say sometimes the weakness is the pilot thinks he’s better navigating while the navigator thinks she’s a better pilot? And may I assume that Mr Smith is the direct opposite of you, Mr Trott? Thanks.
Robin.
Can I refer you to Orson Welles’ speech in The Third Man?
“In Italy under the Borgias you had thirty years of murder, torture, and bloodshed.
It reulted in Michelangelo, da Vinci, and The Renaissance.
In Switzerland you had 500 years of peace and harmony.
And what did that result in?
The cuckoo clock.”
Robin, whenever you have doubts about this kind of double-faced subjects, try to find their natural equivalent. In this case, compare it to chemical reactions. Agitation speeds reactions. Also, fast reactions are always more spectacular than slow reactions — think of the “artificial volcanoes” (I love organic chemistry). I admit erosion can be spectacular, too, but it takes a very long time for its results to be noticeable. Advertising is a fast moving industry, you can draw your conclusions.
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If you want, you can also compare things in a different way: two substances that react aggressively always result in a new structure (=CHANGE); two substances that don’t react together or two portions of the same substance translate into a simple increase in volume (=THICKEN THE LINE).
Anca, I prefer Mr Trott’s/Orson answer, which is more positive. Chemistry - to me it’s like compare 2 chemicals and next thing, explosion. Don’t do much for career longevity.
See, that’s why the right “chemist” (CD) is so badly needed. I can’t stress that enough.
Thanks Dave. You are a great teacher.
Another fantastic post Dave. I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, esp when I get restless and need to find a reason why I’m still in advertising.
The way you’ve defined the roles of a writer and an art person in the creative process is so simple, its brilliant. I’m a writer, by the way. And I’ve found that the best art person I’ve worked with is the one who doesn’t fuss too much with what I’ve written but focuses on making what I’ve written look beautiful.
Art directors have come and gone, but this one bit of truth has stuck by. I’m considering going back to working with the same wonderful art person again. And the idea excites me as much as getting into advertising had. I guess, the chemistry is going to sizzle again.
I got bored, only read half way, & skim read the end line. True (and spooky) : I’m an art director.
[...] up is the superbly influential Dave Trott. Love him or hate him you can’t ignore what he has to say. I’m not sure I agree with [...]
[...] Trott once wrote: “Writer” is actually a misnomer. The job is actually more of a strategic thinker. While an [...]