(Editors note: Tricks of the Trade is an editorial column written by guests, propville.com members, sponsors and, occasionally, by the publisher. If you have interest in submitting material, or seeing an industry related topic explored, please inquire via the contact page at propville.

THE CREATIVE SPIRIT

We are honored in this column to have some encouraging thoughts from two highly respected and veteran creatives, Bobbi Wendt of Parallel Universe and Ian Summers of Heartstorming.

Bobbi Wendt has worked in the visual communications industry for over 20 years. Her past experience includes work as a creative director, artist agent (marketing and licensing commercial artist's work), executive print producer, prop and wardrobe stylist, casting facilitator, photo editor, and creative marketing consultant. Since 1997, Bobbi has offered creative consultation services through her company, Parallel Universe. Her client's are typically commercial photographers and artist's agents (AKA, "reps"). Work is generally focused on identifying the client's career goals, his or her best and most marketable imagery, graphic identity and packaging, positioning, media recommendations, publicity, alternative promotions and custom edited mailing. Bobbi Wendt can be reached at:
(p)650.594.2857 (f)650.598.0840
(e)stellartart@earthlink.net

Ian Summers has been a lot of things like an art director, creative director, painter, poet, investigative journalist, think tank operator, and publisher to name a few. Ian was Creative Director of The Creative Black Book, Leber Katz Partners, and Random House. He's won lots of awards in the advertising and publishing worlds including a Gold Medal from The Society of Illustrators. Ian has written and designed dozens of books including Tomorrow and Beyond, Mute Evidence, The Guide to Extraterrestrials, and The Art of The Brothers Hildebrandt.
Summers moved off his concrete shelf in New York City about a decade ago. He lives with his wife in a two hundred year old farmhouse near Stockton NJ where he paints and presents workshops in his renovated barn.
Ian will be speaking at the APA Sponsored "Creative Currents", March 18, 2002 at The Laurel Heights Conference Center in San Francisco. Check out his website at www.heartstorming.com

Before we talk about working, have you been outside today? Did you put your face in the sun for just a minute and fill your lungs to their full 2-liter capacity?
Breath it all in, because this is all you have. The emotion you feel right now, frustration, boredom, unexplained joy. Feel it, name it. Those emotions are your cliff notes. Assignment and stock photography alike are powered on emotion. Since much of what we create is influenced by mental state, the suffering artist aside, we need to get inside and turn it out.
When we talked to some of the creative consultants listed in www.propville.com interesting ideas emerged. Listen. Talk.

Ian Summers, of Heartstorming says, "Creating is about manifesting, it's energies come from within. I define creating as causing what you do or what you love to come into being."
Do you keep a journal or sketchbook of ideas? Do you tear things from magazines and file them with post-its, referencing interesting backgrounds or locations that move you.
Do you travel, in your neighborhood or around the globe?
Ian also mentions a tactic he calls hitchhiking:
"Allow others to add to your idea. Your idea may stimulate something in a collaborator. Do not have so much pride in your idea that you think you own it. Give it away. There is an endless supply of ideas in the universe. …. Each concept may generate dozens of additional concepts. No two creators would interpret them the same way."

Opening up some symbiotic relationships can yield some business building results.

Bobbi Wendt, of a Parallel Universe©, suggests:

Pro-active Business Strategies that can Enhance Your Creativity:
The talent and skill it takes to create an image can often be greatly enhanced by the talent and skill it takes to generate the resources (time & $) to make it happen in the best possible way. A well thought out production budget can maximize your opportunity to create images with excellent production values that you can be proud of. Being pro-active in this process will help both you and your client shine. Here are a couple of ways to help make that happen:
1) If you are offered a project which does not include enough time or money to do the job properly, do yourself and your client a favor - respectfully turn the work down under the terms that it is being offered - Advise your client that, while you appreciate being considered for the project, you feel that the project will be compromised by a shortage of resources. Often, there is more time and money available in the budget that can be re-allocated to you.
Be prepared to walk away, and also recognize that you may not have to. 2) If you find yourself working on a project, which comes up short on resources, do what I call a "Post Mortem Review". Following the completion of the project, invest the time and effort to analyze the project. How could it have been improved? What resources could have made the project sing? Call the photographer and/or producer and let them know how much you appreciated the opportunity to work with them. Tell them that you have a few suggestions on how to improve the production values next time you work together. Ask them to consider this information next time an estimate needs to be generated. You can also volunteer to collaborate with them to estimate and/or review your portion of the project before it goes to the client.
© 2002 Bobbi Wendt, Parallel Universe

These pro-active strategies can go a long way to build more productive and creative opportunities for you and your client.
If any of this feels like work to you and you'd just as soon play today, do it. Go to the MOMA, buy your tickets for Burning-man or walk the beach at Fort Chronkite. (Look in your hand for the carnelians.) Take a field trip to that fabric store you've been wanting to check out or go to the bookstore and pretend it's a library. Live.