I’ve heard the word creativity far too many times in the last few years. Stop the count, as they say. The problem is, despite the over usage and the ease with which it is thrown around, it is easily identifiable. Even in this age of thumb stopper videos and meme templates that last all of 2 days. (The struggle with the latter is real, trust me). Also, the folks in this mix are a lot of fun. Living life on the edge, subverting the usual and an incessant need to make everything humorous. The problem is people not realizing that it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, yours truly included.
I mean it’s there in the title. There are no rules as per John Hegarty’s Hegarty on Creativity. The man lives up to his words as they don’t seem to be any rules guiding the framework of this text. The famed advertising icon probably looked at creating a primer of sorts. He talks about the struggle with a blank page and how it’s important to be fearless. He also mentions that words are a barrier so focus on the visual and use juxtaposition effectively. There are write-ups on both ego and hubris as creatives. He also recommends not to look at money as a glittering chest of gold but simply as an enabler. Now while all of this makes absolute sense, I fear that in his quest to keep it simple Hegarty refuses to scrape the barrel beyond the obvious. Yes, we know that too many cooks spoil the broth and it’s important to have a guiding vision for collaboration. Yes, we know editing and external feedback is important to the process. Yes, we know that nothing’s really original and a differential recreation of what exists. Yes, we know that practice does make perfect. You get the gist. Yes, most of what he says, we know.
The read: When I read books in a similar vein, industry experts penning their thoughts or explaining their process, there is a natural expectation of deep insights. Not remarkably evident observations, but refined lines of thought honed over years of excellence, practice, or both. I wonder if I’m committing some blasphemy here but Ogilvy on Advertising lived up to that expectation. It feels timeless. Sadly, this read was an absolute cookie cutter. Very simplistic writing but equally simple thought projections. Perhaps, my favourite part of the book was the hand-drawn illustrations/cartoons. There are no rules, but there are perils of oversimplification.
27/365.
Trivia: The iconic black sheep in the BBH logo is actually inspired by their most famous campaign ‘When the world zigs, zag’ for Levi’s black denim.
Documentation:
Book: Hegarty on Creativity
Author: John Hegarty
Year of Release: 2014
Publisher: Thames Hudson