Creative Spaces: We Need to be More Beatles to be Bonkers

In 1969 the Beatles were asked to conceive and record the entire ‘Let it Be’ album in under three weeks. THREE WEEKS. If you have seen the latest documentary ‘Get Back’, one thing is clear; it wouldn’t have been possible without all four band members in a room, having a laugh, messing around, uninterrupted.

The industry has spent most of the past two years debating how or if we will ever return to an office-based 5-day week. Often the argument centres around the areas of wellbeing, overheads and productivity. However in focusing our energy here, aren’t we forgetting one major component of what we offer? One of our biggest exports as a country; that is - creativity. 

Where would our country be without our creative industry? It’s our superpower.  

When we are weighing up between a hybrid, or full time return-to-office model, we must consider if the working environment we have landed in is conducive to applied creative thinking and discipline. Shouldn’t we be asking, ‘how do we create environments that help us get to better ideas and craft them into brilliant communications’?

Do we need to get back and come together or let it be?

I have always thought good creatives need two essential character traits: optimism and humour. 

Humour is an extraordinarily important driver of creativity. Because it breaks down the barriers between everything that we think we know and what we don’t know. I’m not talking cynical humour. Ironic humour is ok….but Positively bonkers humour is always the best humour, because it not only breaks down barriers, it detonates them with belly laughs and complete nonsense. Thus creating new paths for progress. 

If you have a good laugh at the beginning of any creative process, I can assure you, everyone is more creative. 

(personally I have never had a really good laugh on a zoom call). 

I’m lucky enough to have worked in most creative environments over the years. The first professional environment was BBH in 1996, which was arguably the very best creative department in the world at that time. Fresh out of St. Martins Art school I swaggered into the creative department, cockier than the king of diamonds. As I walked around the creative department, the thing that struck me the most was how many old creative dudes worked there. 

I thought ‘fuck me, we’re gonna kill this place, what the fuck do these old dudes know?!’ I thought, creativity is a young person’s game. Doesn’t your creativity die when you have a pram in the hallway?

What can they teach me about creativity? 

Hahahaha quite a lot it turns out. We may have been fresh out of art school but these old dudes absolutely schooled us everyday. They inspired us and humbled us all at once, but most importantly, they taught us the craft of the industry. They taught us how to shape, simplify and craft an idea. The power of an original idea. The difference between applied creativity and pure creativity. And so on and so on. The lessons gained were endless. But without having these people in the room with you, can a young person really soak up this kind of knowledge?

In many cases, those of us who have been in the industry long enough have already accrued the training, discipline and experience after decades of collaborative working, but where does that leave the next generation? And where does that, in turn, leave the future of our industry? 

Denis Lewis blew my mind when teaching us the craft of how to edit a film. Graham Watson did the same on photography and composition. Rosie Arnold was inspiring on Art direction and illustration. Then there was John Hegarty on sock coordination and just about everything else. 

The older dudes knew the craft that only experience can teach you. And craft is very important. An idea is worthless unless you know how to craft it. And craft is something you only gain from experience. It all comes full circle. 

Now I’m the old dude, so what the fuck do I know?  I'm still waiting for the grown ups to come into the room and drag me away. But I thought recently, if the Beatles worked in our creative industry today, they would be made to do creative sprints every morning. Their day would be littered with meetings and conversations with strategists. I suspect that half baked riffs would be killed off before they even had a chance to crawl, nevermind run. Lyrics would be analysed alongside an SEO benchmark, rather than the benchmark of heartstrings and soul - true feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I know the technology revolution is changing how we work and is re-shaping the world faster than ever before, but millions of years of evolution cannot be ignored. The principles are the same, our brains are still wired the same. When we are having fun and messing around, our minds become open to new ideas.                                                                                                                 

If you get a bunch of playful inquisitive creative minds from different backgrounds, cultures, ages and stick them physically in a room, something truly amazing happens. 

In the words of the legends themselves, the only way we can achieve this, is if we ‘Come together, right now.’