We presented initial brochure creative late last week.

For those of you who don’t know how creative is developed, let me explain. Typically the creative team (in this case, designers and a writer) convene in a meeting room, huddled around a creative brief. Brainstorming ensues.

A brainstorm is basically a long conversation about the client. We throw out a lot of ideas and see what sticks. I’m a vocal participant in the process, punctuating important points with wild gestures. I also tend to bring pages of ideas to a brainstorm, and maybe 3 of those ideas will actually end up getting used.

Brainstorming is my favorite part of the process. I love the serendipity and the surprise of metaphorical sharp turns down alleys that eventually open up on leafy courtyards with people sitting at bistro tables, talking, eating and drinking. On a project of this scope, I normally spend at least 4 hours “thinking” about the themes that are important to capture. I often research competitors to see how they’re talking about themselves. Sometimes I write rough headlines and bring them to the brainstorm.

This time, I came to the meeting cold. I figured I could skate by on team chemistry and catch up on the writing in the first copy draft. The team on this project has excellent chemistry. I’ve worked with the Design Director for years, and both Designers are familiar to me. They are all people with diverse interests who are extremely good at what they do. That makes for lively conversation and a level of trust that the work will not suck. Despite my lack of preparation, I walked out of our initial brainstorm feeling positive that this project was in good hands.

That’s not always the case. I’ve worked with designers who are never happy with what I bring to the brainstorming table or the copy I write. I’m pretty sure that I don’t suck that bad or I wouldn’t be doing what I do for the length of time that I’ve done it. So it really is about chemistry. This applies to clients as well. It takes time to build that chemistry. If I was a marketing exec looking to hire a creative team, I would inquire about the chemistry. I’d want to know upfront who my team was, and how long they worked together. In some ways, this is more important than experience.

In our creative presentation, we showed 3 design directions to the Marketing Director and 3 of their user interface designers. Everything we do has to play out on the web, so it’s important to have the UI people involved. We went in with 3 very different approaches, ranging from a safe, expected evolution to a far out, make you twitchy treatment.

The reaction to the presentation was positive. They did not choose a direction in the meeting, prefering to shop it around and think about over the weekend. This is common. I suspect that they’ll want to merge elements of each concept, or go with the middle ground.