Creative work: It’s craft, not witchcraft
The importance of language when briefing creatives and acknowledging their work
In our content-centric culture, great creative work is essential for attracting eyes and ears no matter which sector, industry, or field you work in. A recent study by eMarkerter found that in North America the average person spends 12 hours and 9 minutes a day consuming media. In a world where 8 of those hours are for sleep that’s over 75% of waking life dedicated to reading, watching, looking, and listening.
With so much time taken up with media consumption, it’s crucial that ideas are articulated clearly and quickly in order for audiences to connect with your message and invite that message into their lives. Which is why working effectively with those who are responsible for the articulation of ideas – creatives (writers, designers, illustrators, videographers, etc.) – is so important.
It’s why there are so many articles that tackle big challenges like team philosophy, hiring processes, communication channels, etc. But here I want to look at something smaller, a micro-level challenge that impacts the day-to-day job satisfaction and morale of creatives: language choice.
Semantics are important. The language you use is indicative of the respect and appreciation you have of other people’s work. A wrong word here or there can, over time and with consistency, slowly turn a gently rolling snowball into an avalanche. It’s why how you brief creatives and acknowledge their work matters.
The Current Standardized Language
At present there are two words that come up time and time again when other disciplines work with creatives: help and magic. It’s common in meetings and emails for creatives to be asked to “help” with a task or to “work their magic”. Both phrases are well intentioned, but are often corrosive to the value placed on creative work, let me explain why…
Help: To give assistance or support to – e.g. help a child with homework
The limiting factor of asking a creative for help is that it implies a subservience; a subservience not just in the relationship between two people, but a subservience of articulating an idea in relation to the idea itself. It’s as if having to articulate the idea effectively is a lesser act, and by association so is the creative work.
Help also fails to acknowledge that you’re often asking the creative to do a lot of work. Being asked for help comes with the expectation of a brief consultation and a small amount of assistance, yet help often means an ask of writing a new document, designing a fresh deck, or editing a whole video together from fragments. The use of the word help sets a project off on the wrong foot, with expectations misaligned on both sides.
“While the intention behind such comments is usually good, this language implies that my work is a ‘bonus’ rather than an essential project component. Creatives are often thought of as ‘helpers’ who simply polish work that is already done. In reality, our work is intentional, challenging, and integral to project success,” Taylor Dennis, Science Writer at the Ontario Science Centre.
“I prefer when people asking for my help are more transparent about what they really want from me – if they want help or if they expect me to actually do the work for them,” Sona Kerim, Freelance Writer.
“If someone approaches me with a “help me”, it really feels like a weird spot because helping is an act of kindness and not usually tied to fair compensation. It really feels like they are not really seeing your job as a professional service,” Bomi Min, Designer at NewSkew.
Magic on the other hand has trickier, more nuanced connotations. Asking someone to “work their magic” or thanking them for adding their “magic touch” is undeniably meant as a compliment. The aim from the person briefing or thanking is to say, “you’ve done something amazing that I can’t do”. But it also implies that the solution, the grand total of a creative’s hard work is little more than something they’ve pulled out of thin air. By reducing their “10,000 hours” and years of education and training to a sleight of hand, their craft is reduced to witchcraft, an act not an intentional practice.
“People seem to get more confused when it comes to creative roles because they assume the work just pours right out of us,” Jennifer Backman, Freelance Illustrator.
“It (work your magic) insinuates that the solution pops out of thin air, rather than coming from hard work, skill, and a creative mind,” Katie Luke, Marketing Graphic Designer at Connected.
My Own Learning Experience
Even as a writer I’ve been found lacking in my understanding of other creatives and how they think and feel about their craft. I vividly remember an afternoon in a previous role where I was sat at our ‘design pod’ talking shop with our team of designers. I’d recently been working on a project that included writing a speech for a pharmaceutical CEO on the importance of patient centricity. I was proudly sharing the feedback that I’d received from our client, with one stakeholder calling the work “beautiful”.
To my mind, beautiful is the adjective I most desired to hear in relation to my work, especially given the deeply intimate subject topic I’d be tasked with writing – alongside my own natural inclination toward effusive, flowery prose. As I continued on I loosely made the comment that “I’m sure that’s something writers and designers have in common, a desire to have our work perceived as beautiful.”
I. Was. Wrong. For the next 15 minutes I had a team of designers explaining to me, in vivid detail, that beauty was so rarely the intention. They wanted their work described as meaningful, clear, impactful, smart, thoughtful, but never simply beautiful or even worse… pretty.
I was fortunate to learn first hand how these designers felt about their work, how important it was to each of them to be seen for the value they brought in delivering and articulating an idea or message, not simply as those who “help” at the end or “work some magic to make it pretty.” It gave me, a writer who should have known better, a lesson in semantics; a lesson that lives in my work and my working relationships to this day.
Suggesting New Language
“It's important to make sure you value the role of the person on the project, use words that validate and honour the work they are doing,” Jennifer Backman.
To nurture positive, long-term relationships with creatives that produce high-quality work the answer is simple: be mindful of the words you choose. Think through the micro-frustrations you have about the way people talk about your work and keep that in mind when you’re briefing creatives, providing feedback, or acknowledging their work. Remember that first and foremost their work is a dedicated, intentional craft and then choose language from that insight.
When briefing change “can you help with...” or “hoping you could work your magic” to “I would love your expertise on this project.”
When acknowledging work at the end of a project change “thanks for your help” or “thanks for working your magic/adding your magic touch” to “thanks for your hard work, you really captured the idea perfectly” or “thank you, you’re an excellent (enter job), I appreciate the perspective and experience you brought to the table on this project.”
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In a world of content it can be easy to be swept up in your own day-to-day work and forget to take the time to be mindful about the impact your words have. The relationship between the people with the big idea and those tasked with bringing it to life has a huge influence on the quality of the output, it’s why it’s so crucial to be respectful with the language you use. Because no matter how far our technology progresses, language remains our most critical tool – so wield it wisely.
