Teaching junior creatives how to concept is one of the toughest things I’ve done in my career. Such a hard thing to explain and every creative learns in different ways. I’m trying to be better than the CD who taught me, aka the guy that would make me write 100 concepts and reject 99 of them with no context or explanation. Doing it the right way takes so much more time, though. Anyone else feeling this?

i've found they need to figure out HOW to concept on their own. we need to give them reasons WHY their concepts work or do not work. then they can figure out how they got to the better ones and keep doing that.

but with that, we can supply them with tricks we've picked up (like those tips on deckofbrilliance.com...also i'm not affiliated in any way, i just love the toolkit they made). aside from that, they need to figure out what works for them.

We've all worked with creative directors who have shot down ideas with no context after a lot of hard work, but in my experience, getting in front of the problem is the solution. It is creative direction, not reaction, after all.

I'd start with creating a shared understanding of what good looks like and why. Being open with the team about your principles, expectations, and parameters of what makes an idea worthy of development really helps juniors work towards the ultimate goal of critiquing their own work and, one day, even knowing what you'll think before you see it.

It also starts to build a common language between your team and you that enables them to discuss the merits of each idea, supporting them in selling the ideas to you, the team and the client with persuasive and considered rationales.

This doesn't have to be a 50-point checklist; the simplest that springs to mind is "Just move me, dude' from Dan Wieden. Still, I have also taken inspiration to create my creative principles from examples such as the Contagious Ten Steps to Brand Bravery and Heineken's Creative Ladder. Once you have this shared vision for what good looks like as a team, it becomes the North Star for all creative work alongside the brief. It'll help the junior members of your team develop quicker, know what you are looking for, and eventually give them something to challenge you on as their beliefs, ideas, and talent grow beyond your own. Perhaps, in fact, almost definitely, a better idea is to co-create the principles of what good looks like with your team. With everyone creating their own manifesto/principles, sharing them, and then working on combining these to be our team principles will be a much more powerful exercise.

The surprising aspect of defining these principles was that it also made my creative work infinitely better.

In short, which this wasn't, invest more time out of projects with your team, and it'll save time on them. Fingers crossed.

I’m in the school of “original guy was right”. That repeated failure builds emotional resilience, helps them work faster without getting attached to ideas and helps them identify what not to do. But it also helps them find their voice / unique ways in, and most importantly hit random unexpected solutions.

Striking gold with a few swings is statistically unrealistic.

I hate to say this but I dont know if it's something you really can teach 100%. You can try but either some people get it, or they don't. I learned as a young buck graphic designer who knew jack shit about concepting by devouring every deck I could get my hands on from other teams. I learned more that way than I did from any of my managers. Sample size of one however. I think the drive has to exist to understand insights and how that leads to things real people will find cool or exciting. If that passion isnt there it's hard to teach it.

I’ve found one of the best questions to ask in a review is ‘what’s your favourite?’
This makes them think about what makes a good idea.
It’s simple, but it gives you a positive place to build their skills from.
Then you can clearly explain why it’s not your favourite.
Probably better than the advice I got when I was starting out…I asked the CD for some direction. He told me to walk out the door, turn left, walk down the corridor, turn right into my office, sit down and write something that isn’t shit.
At least we had offices in those days.

I am proud of you that you chose to be different. I've been through the same kind of CD and it was an unpleasant experience that I don't want other people to go through the same. Have to mentor one junior creative because everyone refuses to do it. Then I found out that he was a little too slow. I have to put a lot of patience and effort so it was really tough. But it was all worth it.

Worth getting them to think about work that inspires them. Also always worth sharing examples from a similar brief and breaking those down.

Depends on how Jr they are. There is a “too Jr to concept” out there. I always base it on what are they capable of doing, what are they excited about doing. And, then align with them on what success is for them, which is probably not the same metric as someone with more experience.

For explaining what it means, I like to sit down with them in a 1:1 and break down a produced ad from the client we’re working on. Usually their eyes would light up when they start understanding the concept of concepting.

Grind and curate.