Hey guys, just finished uni and I’m starting to build my portfolio again (to be more focus in advertising). However, I’ve been struggling with the creative process and being able to tell what’s good from what’s bad. What’s your creative process? Do you start by researching? Do you have questions that you do to yourself?What I struggle the most is having concrete concepts, mostly I just have thoughts or small ideas that could be used as one execution of the campaign.

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This is normal early on, it’s always a WIP. You need to continuously curate your creative taste.

When you see a piece of work you like, ask yourself questions like ‘what makes this idea interesting to me? What was the thinking process that led the creative to this concept/execution? What business objective did this work solve for the client in a creative way?
Flipping through old award show annuals is very valuable.

The more you do this, the more you start to apply this type of self-directed Q&A into your creative process. Think of concepting as a series of Q&A with yourself. Ask the right questions and you will be led to interesting answers.

Always do your research. When you concept, aim for quantity first, not quality. You need raw ingredients before you can cook.

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The first thing is understanding the context and purpose of the piece/campaign (aka the brief). Then focus on semiotics. What can be said, and what's an effective form to say it (in order to achieve X)? As simple as that. Start with broad strokes, conceptually, then get to the details.

Don't restrict your approach. If you think you have a nice idea for an execution, bullshit its way into a concept. How does the idea help achieve X? Then scale that answer into other coherent strategic applications, and you got yourself a concept.

Also, presentation is important. Browse some agencies' websites and see how they present their work. Sometimes the concept isn't great, but the execution is. It just needs to make sense on paper. The usual award board has a context > idea > results structure.

Buy two books. Used. Positioning and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

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