The C Word

A few years ago while working for a big box brand, I was asked to host a series of meetings with a cross section of the design community. The purpose of these meetings was to connect and energize the staff in an attempt to address the waning morale infecting the design function as a whole. That’s a really polite way of saying that design was deep in the throes of nihilism and despair. The topic of the first meeting was COLLABORATION. There were about 12 designers in attendance: some design directors, a few senior designers and couple of young ones. 

As we know, collaboration has become a huge buzzword. As with all overuse, the result is the watering down of the term’s original intent and meaning. But that doesn’t diminish its actual importance. In our field, collaboration is not only a necessary component of our process, but a vital element of innovation. The meeting went something like this:

Question one. “Can anyone describe a successful creative collaboration that they’ve experienced?” 

Crickets. 

Question two: “Anyone? It can be with another person, or a group?”

Deafening silence. I got nothing. Nothing. 

Now before you say that is was a Zoom call and that people don’t like to open up and blah-blah-blah, let me tell you where it went. The first person to speak was a recently promoted design director who explained that they managed their way through most collaborations  by “…trying to stay quiet and not make any waves”. Right, well that’s encouraging. The conversation didn’t get much better from there. Overall, the sense of fear and cynicism expressed by that designer was shared across the board. 

Even though we all left that call feeling worse than we did going in, I was glad that we talked about collaboration because in truth, that response was a direct reflection of how most collaborations went down in that environment daily. We also left that encounter with the stark understanding that we weren’t collaborating, and worse, most didn’t even know how to start. I’m sure that during the discussion I sounded like a substitute teacher desperately trying to excite his class. But I actually came to that meeting with a genuine excitement for the discussion-around and practice-of collaboration. 

One of my favorite collaborations has been with Berlin-based executive producer, artist and friend, Kazim Rashid. When we begin a new project Kazim will start by introducing the band or artist and their sound. Much of the time the inspiration is so intangible that he is feeling around at words to describe a mood. This may sound daunting but that’s ok because it’s our job to make something from nothing. When you strike that chord and you both feel it, the reward is magical. You know you’ve struck it when visuals start to flood your mind’s eye. This particular creative relationship is dynamic because we also work together in Kazim’s  capacity as a filmmaker and visual artist. In this case, with fewer stakeholders and parties who have to agree, there is the opportunity to have a more direct meeting of the minds. This usually results in more boundary-pushing work. 

Another highlight of collaboration is with my wife and creative partner, Lizzy. When we are creating we can have those really hard discussions. We exorcise ideas until they’re bullet-proof. These are the sorts of drills that might scar a lot of creatives, but for us it is necessary. We share a deep commitment and dedication to the thing we are making. There is a clash because we are so different in so many ways, but there is also trust. We can swim in the spaces where we overlap and always create something that we feel is quality. What these two collaborations have in common, is that I leave with something I couldn’t have created on my own. 

Most of the time, in professional conversations we talk about collaboration as part of the design process, but actually its tenets have nothing to do with design at all. In an individual endeavor or as a partner in a collaboration, the success of your effort relies on the deeper components of human expression:

• Trust

• Openness

• Honesty

• A willingness to be wrong 

These deeper parts of a person can come with baggage. I mean, how many people do you know who trust anything, let alone other people’s creative ideas? Knowing how to find that nugget of good to expand on in any idea requires humility. Understanding how to push and pull in a creative conversation takes emotional maturity and tact. We have a responsibility to keep the conversation flowing so being constructive and additive are part of the job.

Many collaborations fail when at least one party starts out by saying “Let’s make sure not to…” or “can we make sure that we don’t…”. At the beginning of every project there are infinite possibilities. Yet many creatives immediately invert this equation and design themselves into a corner. 

Now that’s person to person. As you can imagine, group collaborations can be much more tricky. I’ve seen groups work seamlessly to stunning effect, but I’ve also seen many a shit show. For example, when the idea of success is that everyone at the table gets their way, you end up creating something that’s literally compromised. Like a bridge that is compromised, it is dangerous and eventually ceases to function. This dysfunction will leave the end product in one of three states:

1. Hideous

2. Banal

3. Hideously banal

We’ve all seen what happens when brands merely trade logos; more irrelevant stuff.  But that sea of stuff didn’t just come out of nowhere - it came from US. Designers.

At its core, collaboration is about sharing and you don’t have to dig too deep to understand the values of sharing that we were all taught by age 5. As creators it’s our responsibility to tap into the higher levels of our being. There is great benefit in holding yourself to a standard in the way that a collaboration demands. That’s why it’s called a discipline. What we create is a direct reflection of who we are. My advice is to be brave enough to enjoy that process.