Creative Talk – By @McfadzeanSusan
By Susan Mcfadzean
Creative Talk
At SCA, we learn a lot from our mentors. We have fabulous masterclasses, receive invaluable advice and get spoilt with critical feedback. But there’s also a secondary learning curve simmering below all of this. It’s learning from one another.
From day one, we are thrown together and paired up randomly to complete projects and answer briefs. And as the year progresses, we are asked to decide on our own partnerships and nudged to consider who might fit us.
Now that I’ve found my creative partner, I realise how important it is to understand each other. An obvious point to make you think? Well, the part I find so interesting is how us creatives all speak a different language. Yes, it’s predominantly English and for some, it’s their second language and others it’s tainted with a hard Scottish accent… but nonetheless, it is for the most part English. But the differences come rolling in when you consider how we express ourselves and how we articulate our ideas. Some come fast and thick in a tumble of words. Others will always scribe their thoughts first and some people can calmly present them to their partner.
But here is the golden part of my findings. I’ve learnt from SCA that you shouldn’t worry about your own creative talk. You can’t try to force yourself to speak another way when ideas and thoughts come rolling in. Rather, us creatives should practice listening to our partner and work to find a solution that helps decipher or decode their excited babble or scribed ideas.
Because at the end of the day your working together to make the job more fun, but also to get it done. And if you miss valuable ideas because your failing to translate their creative talk, your only going to set yourselves back.
I’ve spent the most of my uni years receiving blank faces when people haven’t ‘understood’ me. So you can imagine my excitement now that I’m in a space where people actually try. Of course, it’s then about translating those ideas into legible communication for the public, but that’s for another time.
One final heads up, sometimes my ‘i’s can sound like ‘e’s… so if you hear from Helena that I’m spending the night knetting, she really means knitting!!
Happy weekend everyone!
