Let’s start a band!
It’s fair to compare a collaborative creative team to a band. Each team member is invested in the project just as each member of a band contributes to the creation of a new song. There’s passion, ego, determination, and sometimes stubbornness. If the team is strong, like a successful band, they can overcome these issues to craft something extraordinary. Designing the visual representation of your brand is a major job – and one we do exceptionally well at Powell Creative.
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We are a solid rock band here at Powell Creative. We have all of the issues of passion, stubbornness for sure, and ego if we are honest, but we overcome these issues because we are a great team. Over time we have learned each other’s strengths, and we take advantage of them in every project we do or song we record if we want to continue the metaphor.
Many great bands have disbanded due to creative differences; Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses are top of mind. These bands could learn a lot from a successful innovative team. We often have creative differences; every passionate, creative team does. Still, we strive to work past them and continue to make our team stronger. Sure we can pull the diva lead singer thing and storm out of the conference room because we don’t think our ideas are being heard. Still, we will eventually get it together for the greater good. It’s a struggle sometimes, but that’s part of the creative process. Maybe if Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen sat in on some creative briefs with a good branding team, they would see that their quarrels weren’t worth ripping apart a great band.
A band that works really well together can teach creative teams something about overcoming emotion and ego. This whole essay came from an inspiration break we took to watch the below voyeuristic video of the rock band Queen in the studio crafting one of their greatest songs.