Ideas at a Dime a Dozen?

I've been often at the receiving end of "An idea struck me. Can you do 4-5 options of the creatives and send them to me by tomorrow?" A creative brief over the phone, a rough idea of the objective and where the output will be used, and a tough deadline to meet.

My take: ideas or flashes of inspiration may strike at the oddest of times, even when one is oneself of the previous day's indigestibles. But it is the result of many days and hours of preparation and serious thought. For creativity to work one needs -defined and articulated objectives. The creative team then works on gathering and researching for information, relevant visuals and ideas. The various combinations are analyzed during brain-storming sessions. The designer / layout artist tries out designs, leaving it to the copy writer to see if the intended message is clear.

All the above goes into the converting one idea into a creative! So if there is a request for multiple options, one only needs to multiply the time and effort by the number of options required. And if you expect the creative team to squeeze in effort within a short time, it's bound to show in the quality of the output, the concepts remaining undeveloped.

And unless the client himself is a creative thinker, he is bound to be confused and left lamenting the unprofessional approach to the creative work.