Yes, And...
It can be hard to navigate the creative world. I am constantly getting lost in it, and more often than not, I find myself asking for directions. To always know where to take the next step is merely impossible. And I don’t think anyone truly has the map that holds the right paths, or even the correct landmarks.
Figuring out how our creative minds roam, what we want to do, what we’re actually good at, what work brings us joy, how to make money doing so, and how to do it in a professional setting? That can be challenging, to say the least. A lot of those pieces can feel immensely different from one another.
How I went from a little girl with dreams of being a star on the big stage–to becoming a creative director and photographer–is a bizarre journey with quite the Frankenstein road map.
I went from singer, to actress, playwright, videographer, graphic designer, photographer, to creative director. I bounced between side projects, personal projects, questionable experiments, brainstorming, conferences, and then finally, necessary and scary career-driven moves.
I made a lot of mistakes. Made a fool of myself plenty of times.
And it took me awhile to realize my value, my voice, what I believed in, best practices to organize and share my work, and the right way to fuel my creative process.
There are endless actions you take that can help you get to where you ultimately want to go. I want to share three areas of focus that I have found to be extremely helpful in my personal and professional creative development, as well as in improving team innovation and communication.
First (and possibly an on-going) thing to do to help decipher what’s right for you and how best to grow: a lot of saying yes.
But specifically, it’s being thoughtful in your yeses, and realizing that you’re saying more than just agreeing to something. You’re not becoming a “yes man,” but rather saying “yes, and…”
Much like in improv theater, ‘yes, and…’ means to accept an idea or direction, and then breathe more life into the story. It’s saying yes, and asking yourself how you can make it epic. Yes, and this might be a risky move, but I’m going to try. Yes, and I might screw up. Yes, and I will learn.
It’s saying yes to new things you don’t know how to do yet. This should push you to ask why. Challenge ideas. Challenge ideas with what and how you create. It’s a simple exercise that’s necessary in building a conversation and relationships, and can be translated in any role.
Disclaimer: There’s a lot of failing with ‘yes, and….’ I know that sounds uninviting. But failing is so essential.
And the best way to turn this into something that will make you stronger, is through the second area of focus: a lot of sharing and feedback.
A lot of it. I can’t stress enough how important sharing and feedback is to this process. Even when you feel like you don’t need it, feedback can help shape your concepts into clear and meaningful pieces.
I won’t lie, it can be brutal sometimes. It can feel like someone’s tearing apart something you love. But creating great art and design is not meant to be easy, and it’s important to remember that getting insight–that’s outside of the walls of your brain–doesn’t mean it’ll change something from being yours. If you are honest with people when you’re sharing, then they will do the same, and that will only help you emphasize and articulate your vision better.
Even with my role, I’d ask coworkers for their thoughts–inside and out of the creative team–to see how they were interpreting my designs. Seeing if people saw what I saw or if I was illustrating a whole other message.
Everyone thinks differently. We know this. Design, color, composition, images, words–these all trigger different pieces of our hearts and minds. The more you ask for thoughts and why colleagues came to particular conclusions, the more you hear other peoples’ ‘yes, and’s, the more you will gain. And, the more you’ll be able to expand your creative way of thinking and create impactful work.
I’ve learned a lot about myself by carrying this mindset with me and approaching opportunities this way. I consider it a filtering process that’s given me courage to identify areas that I’m most passionate about, and areas I’m not.
Six years ago when I started working at FINIS Inc., a swimwear and training equipment company, I was brought on as just a little print graphic designer, fairly fresh out of college.
With no in-house photographer and desperate need for new imagery on a regular basis, I jumped on the opportunity to give it a go. I had done some swimming/sports photography work during my time at the University of the Pacific, where I swam competitively and studied graphic design. I imagined it couldn’t be much different than how I’d take pictures of my friends on the pool deck.
But then I picked up the underwater housing unit, and realized that this task involved going below the surface to capture a lot of these moments. I remember staring at this equipment thinking, “Whelp, I have no idea how to use this. Gosh, I really hope I don’t break anything.” I so badly wanted to prove myself and show them something amazing.
I definitely did not. Everything I captured turned out blurry and off. And yes, I did end up breaking that camera a couple of months after taking it on.
Behind the scenes video of a FINIS photo shoot
But I was honest with what I knew, what I was trying to learn, and I shared my images constantly to get insight from my colleagues and improve my work. It took me a bit to get the hang of it, but I asked them to take a chance on me and told them they wouldn’t regret it. And eventually, I learned how to properly prep, structure, and run a shoot. I gained knowledge in giving direction, framing product shots, and communicating with professional athletes to best capture their stories. It wasn’t long before I took charge of our company’s photography.
Challenging myself to master this area improved our imagery and overall helped shape the look and feel of the FINIS brand into one that got people talking.
We began saying a lot of, “Yes, our brand looks awesome–people are seeing that.” But we were stuck on the ‘and how do we share what we’ve created, so when people are showcasing FINIS, they’re working with our best visuals?’
There comes a point after you’ve ‘yes and’ed, created, shared, and gathered feedback, that you have to share again. Because when all the hard work is done, it’s time to give the final presentation and deliverables.
So, third: having a professional and clean way to share final work is so important.
And I feel like this final step often doesn’t get the love that it needs. Because truthfully, you could have monumental work and a stellar brand, but if you don’t have an easy way to distribute high-quality assets, things can fall short. That’s why Brandfolder became a part of our family. Their platform changed the game for us and brought all these steps I’ve outlined full-circle.
They made it so we could deliver with confidence, knowing that what people received properly reflected our work and our brand. Having an easy and efficient brand management platform–that upheld the quality of our work–made sharing and feedback loops happen more frequently, and it helped fine-tune our team’s efficiency.
It gave us power to say yes to more creation, saved us time on finding ways to distribute project assets, and kept everyone unified in what the FINIS brand was putting out to the world.
And when people see and use a space like this–filled with killer creative assets that are clean, organized, and easily accessible–the feedback you get in return will make you realize that tools like these turn your brand from good to great. It helped me expand my horizons with how we shared, gathered insight, and continued to improve.
In the end, whatever it is that I may say, your mentor may advise, your role model may do, or social media may claim is trending–none of that will hold significance for you until you make it so. There are many influential channels that surround us everyday, and there are many different creative fields you can step into.
‘Yes, and’ still takes me on a continuous and adventurous path, one that’s currently feeding into my explorations in photography and design. Feedback and sharing still help me perfect my craft and define the right tools to use to shine best.
I encourage all the creatives out there to keep curious minds. Continue to wander around this mad world. Say “yes, and…” And I’m excited to see what you’ll find.
