DBurns is proud to have been awarded two Davy Awards – a reflection of our constant strive to remain creative.
Before getting to the premise of this blog post, I want to give a bit of the back story behind it. It starts with three words: We won, again.
We will be popping the cork on a bottle of Beckmen’s wine again this month. Why? Last month the W³ awards honored our firm with three creative design nods for www.beckmenvineyards.com. This month it was two Davey Awards for the same site: a Gold in the Web Graphics category and a Silver for Visual Appeal.
Awards matter to us at DBurns Digital, but not for the reasons you might think. This is not about plaques on a wall and puffing our chests — these awards acknowledge that even small firms can build big-time creative concepts. It made us wonder about the formula behind our recent wins. And it turns out that the ways small firms like ours maneuver around roadblocks — like limited resources — are the same ones we use to come up with winning creative.
We boiled it down to these ways small digital firms can build big-time concepts:
1 – The First Step is Preparation
When you see the end result of months of creative collaboration, the instinct might be to imagine food and alcohol-soaked sessions stretching into the wee morning hours. Then “Aha!” — someone on the team comes up with a winning concept. Actually, that’s not how it happens.
The secret to delivering stunning creative is — first and foremost — preparation. You must know both your client and its target audience as intimately as possible. Their likes, dislikes, what they do for fun — every bit of information that is possible to mine, you should know. Creativity is a beautiful process that most people errantly think is simply spontaneous — like an epiphany you see in the movies. It actually stems, first and foremost, from rigorous research and preparation — and from there blooms into something special.
2 – Next Comes Breaks and Stepping Away from the Project
Ever think too hard about something? It stunts your creative process, right?
One way to keep that from happening is to force your team to step away from the project for a little while. This might mean taking a few days off and switching focus to another client — or taking a few hours off and doing something fun to divert your attention. When you do this, you prime your team to have those amazing epiphanies from out of the movies.
3 – Balance Out Your Team
Make sure teams are composed of both your creatives and your analytical thinkers; both your big talkers and your quiet folks.
At Los Angeles Website Design the programmers, marketers, interns, designers, front desk staff — everyone has input into the creative process if they want to contribute. There is no one type of person who makes biggest creative contribution. Everyone has potential.
4 – Don’t Keep Creative Discussions Confined to the Office
Staring at the same four walls every time you are trying to jumpstart a creative process is, well, boring.
We try and mix it up and do creative sessions outside the office. It depends on your staff and their interests, but those environments could be restaurants or coffee shops. Maybe the park, a bowling alley or even a yoga studio. For us, future creative sessions will likely involve all those steps — oh, and that bottle of Beckmen’s.
Looking for an award winning website for your company? Contact us!