The Creative Companion by David Fowler

Instead of freaking out over not having an idea, shift gears and think about humor.

The crucial moment in a pitch begins at the end: the Q & A.

Don’t abandon handwriting.

The most important part of any video or television commercial is its conclusion, the last five seconds.

When all else fails, just start writing.

When presenting work, tell your clients what they’re going to see before you show them.

Maybe you need to push away from that blinking cursor.

Define the problem in your head, as best you can, then just chew on it for a few days.

If you’re not sure about an idea, noodle it out
 and put it away.

Everybody wants to have their idea validated by someone else.

Trying to read the creative director’s mind may be the thing that’s holding you back.

When the muses are singing to you, when the ideas are pulling you along, don’t get up and go shoot hoops.

If you want to tell a story about your product, remember that marketing operates on a mere handful of story lines, retold in hundreds of new ways.

If you’re working with a partner and nothing is happening, split up and work independently, returning at a specific time.

It’s not just having ideas.

When you don’t have an idea, maybe you should ask around and see if anybody else has one.

Having a great idea can seem overwhelming.

Stop trying to create a brand.

When you’re trying to define a company, don’t just look at the physical, obvious products they make.

When the brief or the strategy isn’t great, offer to sit down and discuss it.

An idea is like love.

It is infinitely helpful to realize that in creative endeavors, as in life, there is no grand road map that everyone is privy to except you.

Think about your theme.

Everyone struggles when asked to define a company or product using just a handful of words.

The real trouble starts when you’ve fallen in love with an idea and had it rejected.

When you need an idea get out of the office and out of your own mind.

David Ogilvy once said that, in the end, making an ad comes down to one person shutting the door and just putting it down on paper.

I’ve worked in creative departments across the country as a freelance writer and creative director.

Think of yourself as an app.

There’s one thing you must always have on hand: a decent suit or a nice dress.

One of my favorite writers, George Tannenbaum, advises a colleague who dreams of the perfect job: Note to a disconsolate friend.

Making advertising is about having ideas on behalf of others for money on deadline.

A brand isn’t an ad or a slogan.

When you’re facing a client, your body language says a lot.

There’s only one thing more cliched than creative people wailing about the account team.

If story is what you’re trying to do, Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling is a brilliant road map.

There’s a classic New Yorker cartoon (Marisa Acocella) showing two singles standing at a bar and the guy saying: “Copywriting is too ‘writing.'”

Advertising as storytelling is not a new idea.

You’ve heard it before.

In the rush to create, the pressure often mounts to meet a deadline (right) and follow all the rules and guidelines (right.)

Eventually, you and your clients will release the project to a director, photographer, editor, illustrator, etc.

Sometimes, you can be a lone creative genius.

You’re waiting on a brief.

You have to check in on this letter every year or two, just to remind yourself that it only takes a couple of paragraphs to make a great brief.

Sometimes you just need to wait.

Ours is an advertising era determined to rename simple ideas with mystical names.

Your team arrives at the pitch location, and is ushered into the room.

A pitch may seem like an exercise to see who can best solve a client’s advertising problem.