craft skills

   

           

In some ways the future of agencies is obvious. Departments and professional divisions will have to disappear. Great creative work will be made by teams of people, some of whom are good at powerpoint, some of whom know some photographers. The creative/strategic/account management distinction is already pretty meaningless, I suspect the departmental follies will wither soon too.

But it won't eradicate the need for some of those people to have actual craft skills, to actually know how to do some stuff, because craft skills inform strategic thinking. And being able to explain the mysteries of craft will make you absolutely invaluable. Which brings me to this lovely post at Noisy Decent Graphics. He takes on the challenge of explaining kerning. And he does it well. Craft skill plus a mission to explain; this mystery man has a future.

Renewed respect to spell with flickr.

Comments

[MarcusBrown]

The "disapering department" thing is already happening. I'm experiencing it with some of the agencies I work with in the UK. Doesn't happen much in Germany (Tim what to you think?). Craft skill is a must. But I'm also experiencing a readiness to bring in external skill and creative thinking from places which would normally have been looked down upon. Noisy Graphics is great and well worth a lookie.

[Ruth]

Agreed, but do we not as foward thinking folk preach this every year or so but fail to practice. How many account planners - the hubs of rapid mullti minded continuos knowledge and switched on thinking - come from a different gene-pool.

Account Planner via Account Manager Grad Trainee Scheme: from the same uni's after 5 years of taking it (or as some like to say learning)

Account Planner Via Qual Researcher: See above but replace roles, and add client requested (Ummm bar Unilever!) 5 year stint of making up crap after a train journey to cheam to a bunch of lying old ladies.

Account Planner Via Art Director - As above but do the maths with role play

Given the famous work of the 1960 - 1980's to birth this role, why do we not take advantage and have the guts to do something with it to change the agency structure for real?

Keeping up with the Saatchi's? Think about it.

Then try discussing Vanishing points in a Damian Hirst next to a Klee in the same blog as the role of strategy within media neutral consumer mindsets....

[Gavin Heaton]

Interdisciplinary teams are great but also have a greater reliance on communication. The role of storytelling becomes stronger as the breadth of the team increases ... and the same disciplines used to convey marketing messages can come into play with the team - work from a strategic premise, create a message that resonates for all ... then let the team interpret and create. The tension comes when we all return to "critique" and "provide input" on the work.
Until we find like-minded folk who thrive in a collaborative arrangement, it is hard to break down the barriers and produce innovative work - there is often too much need for control in each of the camps. So finding someone with a foot in each of those camps can help smooth the transition ... and they are worth their weigh in gold.

[tom martin]

Seems the key is trust, respect and caring. Give me a group of folks that genuinely have this for each other and you can pretty much throw their titles out the door and let the magic begin. Though as Russell points out, would be helpful if their respective talents complimented one another to provide a complete capability.