What Makes Creative Teams Kick-Ass Creative?

Creative teams can easily burn out without extra nourishment. 

Trust me, I’ve seen it happen over my 10+ years as a creative director.

A creative team needs constant stimuli for both personal and professional growth. 

You’re essentially making the same moves, more or less the same projects. It’s very easy to fall into the same patterns you’ve been following for your last few projects. This can make the creative process dull and sluggish. But it shouldn’t be this way! The creative process can be fun and engaging.

At Brandon Archibald, we embrace a philosophy of constant improvement. Each new project is an opportunity to outdo our last, making each step forward meaningful.

After all, If you don’t improve, your competitors will.

So here are 7 tips to keep your creative team creative and effective (that at least worked for us):

1. Retrospective
2. Design Review
3. Good Feedback
4. Participate in Design Festivals
5. Engage with Design Communities
6. Change the Scenery
7. The Wild Card

1. Retrospective

Think of this as a “creative autopsy.” It’s an hour-long session where the team that worked on a project sits down to dissect what they did. Everyone—from project managers to designers—fills out a form beforehand to review what went well and what didn’t. Did we miss something? Could something be done better? What went well? What didn’t? Where did things slip, and where did they succeed? What can we do better next time?

This meeting allows the team to look at the work comprehensively and share successful experiences. For example, someone might share how they used Midjourney to generate mockups or highlight a successful moment that sparked a big idea.

This kind of communication helps build a better process for the next project. If you’re just starting to build a creative team, this is a very useful tool. Highly recommended!

2. Design Review

Here’s a spicy take: clients don’t always get it. They see designs from a business viewpoint, not an artistic one. A design review lets the team get feedback from their peers—people who actually speak their creative language and have a higher level of design competence.

It’s important for designers, especially beginners, to hear productive and constructive feedback from more experienced colleagues. That’s how a junior grows into a senior.

3. Good Feedback

Creativity can be tough. You pour your soul into your work, and a harsh word can feel like a punch in the gut. 

That’s why good feedback is crucial. It’s an affirmation that your work is really good and you’re doing great. It motivates you to keep trying and producing excellent work.

Share good feedback from clients with the team. If a client says nice things over the phone, share that with the team. If they write an email, take a screenshot and share it in the work chat. 

It boosts morale and fuels the drive to keep creating great stuff. So, celebrate the compliments. Make a big deal out of them. Your team’s spirit (and output) will thank you for it.

4. Participate in Design Festivals

Contests and awards can be used as a metric for team effectiveness. How else can you measure performance other than getting an objective assessment from recognized industry experts? 

Participating in contests and receiving awards is an easy way to measure your team’s effectiveness. Plus, it’s a fantastic excuse to party once you win!

5. Engage with Design Communities

Design contests are a social event. They feature lots of cool entries, lots of cool coworkers, lots of socializing, lots of interesting lectures, and lots of useful new insights. These are goldmines of new trends, killer designs, and networking opportunities. 

They’re like booster shots of creativity and can be way more stimulating than scrolling through endless design blogs.

6. Change the Scenery

You need to change the picture and do something out of the box. Aristotle liked to walk during his lectures for a reason. Static environments kill creative thought.

Get up from your desk. Go for a walk. Work in a coffee shop. Take the team out of town. Brainstorm around a campfire. Change the color of your agenda paper. 

Any out-of-the-box action will generate new neural connections that will help you look at a new project or task from a fresh perspective. Anything that breaks the monotony can spark an idea that could be your next big break.

7. The Wild Card

This technique is useful for teams that work in the office rather than remotely. Imagine you have a role in your team, which you randomly assign to one team member every week or month—the Madness Duty Officer. 

It’s a rotating position where the chosen one for the week gets to shake things up. This wild card might rearrange the desks in the office at night, designate Wednesday as the day when everyone says only “yes,” or announce a black-tie dress code so everyone comes in tuxedos and evening gowns. It keeps everyone on their toes and, more importantly, keeps the creative juices flowing.

Final Thought

There you have it—seven strategies that could turn the mundane into the extraordinary. They’re not just tips; they’re a methodology. A way to ensure that creative output isn’t just good, but great.

Remember, creativity isn’t a finite resource. It’s a flame that needs to be kindled, fed, and sometimes, wildly fanned. 

So here’s to staying inventive, folks. Keep creating, keep excelling, and let’s show those projects who’s the boss!