Who a Creative Director is really accountable to.

Hmmm, how do I say this nicely I thought.  “I have to caution you,” I said, “I think incorporating the comments verbatim will lead us to a place where the work won’t be as strong as we all want it to be.”

        The senior client glared at me for a moment. He finally spoke, “I think you’re a really smart guy, I have complete faith in you that you’ll think of a brilliant solution to our problem.”

        Uh oh. That was no compliment. It was a ploy to hold me accountable.

        As a Creative Director you’re accountable to the client for the work. But the critical accountability is actually to the creative people working with you. They are pouring their hearts into the project. Not to mention plenty of hours. When giving direction, you need to be precise in conveying the problem to be solved. Yet, be open-minded enough to allow for unexpected solutions. It’s exciting and nerve racking at the same time.

        We showed our revisions at a follow-up client meeting. Again, the client stared at me a moment. “Well, I wasn’t expecting you to solve that way,” he said, “but it works.” Now, that was a compliment.