Posts Tagged ‘creatives’

Asking for creative work on spec

December 15th, 2009 by Sarah Durham
adventure_race1

Many agencies race to produce "spec" work.

In the advertising and architecture worlds it’s common to see projects awarded after competitions have been conducted or pitches completed. Typically, the client issues a brief with guidelines and either puts out an open call for anyone to respond or invites selected candidates to respond. Participants spend time at their own expense to develop creative ideas and present them with no compensation- simply the hope of being awarded the project. This approach is called doing work “on spec” because it’s speculative in nature.

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Take time to smell the roses. And yourself.

December 8th, 2009 by Dan Gunderman

Most of us work in the nonprofit world because we want to do some good. We’d like to leave our particular part of the earth a little better than the way we found it. Sometimes this feels like a higher calling. Indeed, for some religious organizations, it actually is a higher calling.

In other words, we’re saving the world. There: I said it.

As some Duck Call readers already know, I took a sabbatical from Big Duck back in October. I applied and was accepted to an artist residency program in Kentucky, where I’d planned on working on a particular personal (i.e. non-Big Duck) writing project that took a lot more headspace and time than what my life typically allows.

Reading by the wood stove soothes the soul.

Reading by the wood stove soothes the soul.

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Feedback that Doesn’t Screech Through the Loudspeakers
Episode IV: A New Hope

September 25th, 2009 by Dan Gunderman and Sonny Mui
Frankensteining

It's best to avoid "Frankensteining."

We’re sure that, if you’ve picked the right creative team, what they present to you will be glorious. That’s certainly true if you’re dealing with work done by the two of us. We’re tremendous. But what if it’s not? What can you do to keep from pissing off these temperamental weirdos, sitting so expectantly in front of you with their precious, precious work?

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Feedback that Doesn’t Screech Through the Loudspeakers
Episode III: Not Tenants or Tennis, but Tenets

September 18th, 2009 by Dan Gunderman and Sonny Mui

Welcome back to our series about feedback. If you haven’t read our intro ramblings or our suggestions about preparation, you still can. Otherwise, read on…

If you’ve ever worked on a fundraising campaign or a website redesign or any other activity that requires either a creative agency or freelance designers and copywriters, you’ve probably seen a lot of work you hated. We hope that you’ve also seen a lot of work with which you’ve been thrilled.

But you probably know first-hand that getting there can be difficult, especially when dealing with the “quirks of the creative personality.” (We can say that because we’re “creatives,” as we’re called in the biz. We wouldn’t recommend discussing the quirks of the creative personality directly with creatives with quirky personalities.)

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Feedback that Doesn’t Screech Through the Loudspeakers
Episode II: Be Preppie or at Least Prepared

September 16th, 2009 by Dan Gunderman and Sonny Mui

This is a series about feedback, but it’s also a part of a larger conversation about process. Any feedback relates directly to the goals of a project.

At Big Duck, we begin any big project with what we call a project brief. It is a simple document that lays out what you hope to accomplish with the assignment and any parameters related to the project. The strategic and creative teams at Big Duck rely on the project brief to guide our thinking, our brainstorming, our sketching, and even the whining that inevitably accompanies our creative struggles associated with any project.

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Feedback that Doesn’t Screech Through the Loudspeakers
Episode I: We Need Each Other, Like Wall Street and Greed

September 9th, 2009 by Dan Gunderman and Sonny Mui
Dan and Sonny at work.

Dan and Sonny at work.

The two of us have had the pleasure of working together as a creative team (copy and design) over a number of years at two different agencies, for a wide array of corporate and nonprofit clients. We much prefer the nonprofits. Much. Seriously. There’s no comparison. To give you an idea of what we mean, one of our former clients was a major liquor brand. We are both physically unable to drink alcohol. And that, friends, is the tip of the iceberg.

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