When I first started my own business, creative block terrified me. I felt paralyzed, knowing I had to get the project finished, but unable to start, or stuck at a certain point with no idea how to finish. I wanted to deliver projects that were both great and on-time, but creative block threatened either one or both of those. I was tempted to give up on some projects, and wanted to just call the client and tell them I couldn’t finish. My creative block could last a few hours, or a few days, and I never knew when it was going to happen. And the anxiety I experienced when it did happen made it worse.

Over the 11 years that I’ve run my own design firm, I’ve developed several strategies for getting through creative block and keeping my clients happy with great designs.

Learn to Recognize It: The first step to beating creative block is to see it when it’s happening, and to accept it. There’s a difference between simply struggling to come up with a good idea for a design, or having difficulty laying out content on a page, and true creative block where nothing you do seems to satisfy you or you can’t see any way to even get started. Pushing through a design difficulty is usually the right thing to do, but pushing through creative block is nearly impossible.

Don’t Freak Out: Anxiety is not a great tool for creativity. Creative block is going to happen, and it will sometimes happen a the worst time, under a tight deadline for example. When it happens to me, I acknowledge that I’m blocked and that I’m going to have to get the project done when I’m not, even if that means pushing a deadline, or pulling an all-nighter.

Do Something Else: The primary way to defeat creative block is to find something else to do that has nothing to do with design. Take a walk or a bike ride. Do some yard work or clean the house. Play a video game or read a good book. Take a nap. This is a lot harder than it sounds. My instinct at first was always to keep hammering at a design until something broke through, and taking time out of my work day to “goof off” made me feel like I was losing money. But the simple truth is that I can spend three hours pounding away at a project, trying things that never seem to work out, and afterward be no closer to a finished project, or I can spend those three hours not thinking about design, giving my right brain a chance to reboot and come back to the project refreshed and inspired.

Finally, Find Your Rhythm: It took me a while, but I eventually noticed that I tended to get blocked mostly in the afternoons, and I was generally more creative in the mornings. So I planned my design projects such that initial design work that required a lot of creativity would happen in the morning, and in the afternoon I focused on more mundane tasks, like making text corrections, answering emails, writing proposals or setting up project schedules. It’s all work that needs to be done, but it doesn’t require a lot of inspiration.

Ultimately, inspiration and creativity are not qualities that can be called up upon command. By staying calm and working around creative block and not trying to work through it, I can be confident that the inspiration will eventually come. When it does, it always comes back with a vengeance and I can deliver a design and project that I’m proud of and that will wow my client.

I opened up the proposal that I had written for the project. I winced at some of the language — I was just figuring out how to write proposals and I think I went a little overboard. “I am confident that my services will be of tremendous value to Hattaway. Following is a proposal for initial services in what I hope will turn into a long-term relationship.” I laid it on a little thick. Nonetheless, I got the project, and it was a project that tided me over through some lean times.

Then I came to the schedule. The kickoff meeting was set for September 4th. The final approval of the brochure was to be September 28th. One date stood out to me in particular. “Final Logo Approved — Sept. 12″ It strikes me that I have no strong recollection that this was my client in September of 2001, but I can’t imagine that the final logo was approved on September 12. I’m pretty sure Doug was busy that day.

It’s odd and wondrous how looking at an 8-year-old proposal can remind me of an indelible event, and I can marvel at the success of a long-lost client, and somehow at the end of it all feel a little hopeful that this economy and this country may actually turn around.

Disney has a successful brand for a lot of reasons, but I want to talk about the way they reinforce and strengthen their brand through the experience that visitors have at their Disney World collection of parks and resorts. I’m not a Disney astroturfer or cheerleader, but I can appreciate what they have done with their brand and pass along what I’ve learned from it in a marketing framework.

Here are the four main things that Disney does to consistently strengthen their brand:

1. Go Big or Go Home: Disney doesn’t do anything half-way. Their resorts are big and comfortable. The rides in the Disney theme parks take a theme and follow it through with well-produced introductory “stories” that introduce you to the ride while you’re still waiting in line. The ride itself might not be any more thrilling or complex that one you would ride at Six Flags, but the ride is much more engaging because of the entire story and immersive experience that is wrapped around it. There is a tendency in corporate marketing to “play it safe” — to find out what your competitors are doing and do exactly the same thing except using your own color palette. This strategy might keep you afloat, but it won’t turn any heads or make you a leader in your market. Don’t just give your audience the same ride as everyone else; engage them in an experience that they will remember.
2. Content is King: Disney has a ton of content and they use it in ways that are continually strengthening their brand. Your company probably doesn’t have 70 year’s worth of content to draw on, but if you’re inventive and tell a compelling story with your content, then the people you are marketing to will pay attention. One client of ours, Hyper9, developed a “character” — Hugh, the Alien — to engage their visitors and make them feel part of a larger world that exists separate from typical corporate marketing speak. As they grow their site and add new campaigns, they’ve found they are able to expand on the Alien theme in new and interesting ways.
3. Details Matter: Disney is great at details. From the styling of their resort hotels to the set dressing that surrounds their rides and park attractions, Disney excels at interesting and appropriate details. On one ride — the Tower of Terror — there is a open window into a bell-clerk’s office at the exit to the ride. The office is filled with period equipment and decorated flawlessly. I even peeked around the corner and discovered that the wall that faced away from the riders, which would normally never be seen, was decorated. That level of detail greatly aids in the immersive quality of the ride and gives riders things to discover upon multiple visits.
   
   In your corporate marketing, there are two ways to incorporate a detail-oriented framework. First, make sure your pieces are grammatically perfect, consistent throughout in fonts, colors and imagery. Nothing breaks a person out of an engaging experience more than a blatant typo or a misaligned paragraph. Second, add creative flourishes wherever it makes sense — graphical bullets instead of standard ones, decorative lines instead of flat and straight, callout boxes and drop quotes. All these small details will add up to an engaging experience and provide reasons for your prospects to dig deeper.




4. Be Engaging. Throughout the Disney parks, there are street performers who wander about, doing skits or magic tricks and engaging the participation of the park visitors. In Hollywood Studios, a director and his leads bring in extras from the crowd and shoot their feature, while in Tomorrowland, a robotic trash can follows children around and talks to them while they stare wide-eyed and wondering how it is done.
   
   Too often, corporate marketing is a one-way street. Brochures and direct mail pieces inform but don’t often elicit a response. Web sites can be more engaging, but most companies settle for brochureware sites that offer little in the way of true visitor interaction. The best marketing creates a dialog between a company and its customers. Develop a contest that rewards the best product suggestions; use social media to interact with your clients; invent an iPhone game that features your brand — there are so many inventive ways to engage your prospects. A little time, thought and imagination will help you discover them.

Let me know in the comments what you like or don’t like about Disney’s brand and how you’ve used these characteristics in your marketing.

Too many marketing campaigns that I’ve seen are based on features and benefits, rather than stories. A bulleted list rarely engages and inspires. A screenshot has no inherent drama. One of the reasons social media has become more and more popular with businesses is that it engages an audience in the story of your business as it unfolds.

So why don’t more businesses take their products to market with compelling stories? Because telling good stories is hard. Marketing professionals are rarely gifted with the same talents as good storytellers — a sense of character and motivation, a gift for drama and plot, the ability to create an engaging setting.

Here are some ideas for using good storytelling techniques to market your products:

1. Understand Your Audience: If you’re reading a young adult novel, and it opens with a discussion of theoretical physics, you’d probably put it down pretty quickly. Or if you go to a movie called Robot Invasion and it turns out to be a chick flick, you would lose interest and walk out. Delivering the right story to the right audience is crucial. You want your prospects to see your materials and think Yes! This relates to me!
2. Use Three-Dimensional Characters: The latest “laptop hunter” ads from Microsoft show how using what appears to be a real person involved in a genuine struggle (to find the right laptop) can create a compelling marketing campaign. Whether you use actual testimonials from your customers and clients, or you create compelling fictional characters whose motivations and experiences are believable, having great, relatable characters in your story is a must.
3. Provide Real Conflict: If your product is any good, it solves a real problem. Use storytelling to highlight in a meaningful way the pain that affects your prospects and show how your product delivers them from that pain. When the story gets to its satisfying conclusion, and your product has saved the day, your audience will appreciate it.
4. Deliver a Sequel: The best stories don’t end after the first installment. Keep your audience engaged by creating new scenarios, bigger drama and more powerful resolutions.

One of the ways we’ve put this theory to the test is by creating what we call “Hell and Heaven Slides” — PowerPoint presentations that use graphics, animation and text to tell a story. The first slide is the Hell slide and it shows the viewer how the world looks without our client’s product, and the second slide explains how that Hell is transformed into Heaven when our client’s product is introduced. It’s a simple concept that works because it targets the right audience, introduces relatable characters, and provides conflict and a satisfying resolution.

The next time you’re planning a marketing campaign, ask yourself: Is this a good story?

The truth is that most presentations — whether sales pitches or convention keynotes — are boring. The presenter may have chosen a sharp-looking template from the PowerPoint library, but most of the slides are long lists of bullet points, broken up by the occasional stock photo, clip art doodle, or line drawing. These rudimentary graphics can serve to break up the monotonous text-only slides, but they generally offer little else.

A truly engaging presentation will use graphics to articulate the speaker’s ideas, provoke thought and inquiry in the audience, and bring understanding to viewers who cannot grasp your concepts through words alone. If those graphics are professional and artistic, they will also cast your corporate image in a stronger light, priming your audience to trust your vision and believe your pitch.

We believe that presentation graphics should achieve three goals:

1. They should explain rather than simply illustrate: The best graphics tell a story, for which the presenter is the narrator. Layered graphics that animate and grow as the presenter speaks can make complex concepts appear simple and understandable. A screenshot of your product next to a list of bulleted features can’t compete with that.
2. They should enhance your brand, not limit it: A stock photo rarely does anything for your brand. A stylistic diagram that uses your corporate palette can reinforce your brand’s best qualities while elucidating a difficult idea. The higher the graphical polish, the more your audience will associate quality with your company.
3. They should promote order, not chaos: Most presentations that we receive for updating, contain a random mix of photography, clip art, line drawings and “smart art” scattered throughout the presentation as though the author thought each and every slide could be improved by some graphic. I think graphics should be used only where logical and they should all be of a consistent style and palette. A few well-designed and well-placed graphics can achieve much more than a multitude of bad clip art and photos.

Ultimately, the best presentations tell a story and engage the audience through clear, concise text and powerful, relevant graphics. Plenty of presentation authors are good at the text part, but neglect the graphics. We think success depends on both.

Our portfolio contains several examples of the types of graphics we think work well, and we have created a short video of a presentation, using graphics and text to explain our process. We also sell hand-drawn, professional PowerPoint artwork via PointClips.com. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Recently I put together a collection of my first 80 logos. I have done a few more since then, but this is a pretty good amalgam of my work. Click the image to view a larger PDF, or click here to see the collection organized by date.

Spec work is work that is requested by a potential client with no guarantee that you will get the job and be paid for the work. Some designers see it as a way to get new business and write off the effort involved as a sales expense; others do it because they are desperate for work and see it as a way to get their foot in the door of a lucrative client. Some clients have come to expect spec work as part of the process of choosing an agency, so in certain cases, it seems like it’s just the cost of doing business.

I’d like to spend a minute articulating why we have a policy against it, and then explain why it’s a bad idea for companies to request spec work from potential designers and marketing partners.

Why we avoid spec work:

1. It takes time and effort away from other, paying clients: since spec work is always a gamble, what you end up risking is either quality or timeliness of your other work. For me, it’s always better to improve those attributes with an existing client, than to sacrifice them for a potential client. If we deliver better, faster work to our paying clients, we are likely to get more projects from them.




2. It starts a relationship off on the wrong foot: It’s a psychological truth that people value things more when they pay for them, and designers always produce better work when they know they are being paid. We’ve always striven to be an essential, trusted partner with our clients, and that’s difficult to do when we don’t feel like they trust us enough to give us a project based on our experience and reputation. Even if we do end up with the project, and ultimately get paid for the spec work, there is a sour feeling of being abused that is difficult to erase.




3. There are too many gray areas: generally spec work is done without a contract in place. This creates some ambiguity about who owns the work, what you will be paid if your work is chosen, and what recourse you have if the client uses your work without paying you. All these issues can be ironed out, but it can be a hassle, and for us, not worth it for the potential of payment.




4. It starts a vicious cycle: The more spec work you do, the more it is expected of you — and worse, the more you expect it to be part of the process. Time, energy and creative concepts are finite resources, and we feel it’s best to devote them to projects for clients who respect and value those resources.

As you can see, it doesn’t make sense for us to do spec work, but I also feel it doesn’t make sense for companies to request spec work from potential designers.

1. It’s the illusion of choice: Most companies I know who request spec work do it to have a variety of agencies and concepts to choose from. They ask 3 or 4 firms to present their ideas for a campaign and sit back while those companies work for free to create their concepts. This method will not produce the best work from their candidates (see #2 above), and it will dilute the creative process as the client must divide their time and give creative direction to 4 different groups. The ultimate result is 3 or 4 mediocre concepts to choose from.




2. It’s exclusionary: The truth is that there are many firms (like us) who make a point to not do spec work. If you require it for your project, you will unnecessarily exclude some potential candidates. In fact, you will be most likely excluding the best candidates, as those who don’t do spec work feel their portfolio and reputation is strong enough already, and likely are not desperate for work (and thus have plenty of work from their highly satisfied client base).




3. It’s insulting: Although clients may not intend it this way, at the core of a request for spec work is a kind of disrespect. It devalues and commoditizes creative services. We feel that our time, creative thought and past experience has value, and if we give that away without an agreement for compensation, we are essentially devaluing our own work. This will not lead to the best end result.

To break out of the cycle of requesting spec work, I recommend clients do a couple of things to gain comfort that they are choosing the right creative services firm — request additional portfolio samples that are similar to the type of work requested, talk to current and past clients and prepare a thorough creative brief. These simple steps will produce much better results than sifting through a pile of spec work that was created quickly and without compensation.

I refer to this dog-and-pony show as “Selling the Design.” Each concept is given it’s most flattering treatment and then paraded in front of the client, while the designer explains the subtleties of the design. Designs that might have at first seemed obtuse or unattractive are given new life when the designer can explain the reasoning behind the design choices. It works wonders. Clients who are “sold” a design are much less likely to reject it.

There are two reasons that I don’t take this tactic with my work. The first and most obvious is that designs need to stand on their own. I’m not going to be available to explain the nuances of the logo design to my client’s prospects. If part of the logo forms the shape of the first letter of the client’s company name, it better be obvious on the first or second look. Otherwise, what’s the point? I’m not saying a design can’t have subtlety or depth, but that depth better not be essential to conveying the brand qualities, or people are going to miss it.

The second reason is that I don’t have the time to do this for every concept or logo that I have to deliver. I wouldn’t be able to get anything done. That said, I do believe there are a couple of cases where presenting in person (or via conference call) and explaining the design is a good plan. The first is for PowerPoint graphics, which will have someone there explaining the design to my client’s prospects (their sales staff). The second is company names, which usually requires an interactive session, whittling down a large selection of names to just a few candidates. Often, the client does need to know the thought processes that went into selecting each name idea.

Ultimately, selling the design is done for one of two reasons: to make a bad design look better or to impress a client with personal attention. The first is a bad reason, and the second can be accomplished another way. Take them to lunch, and talk about their business.