Thought leadership / The Brief
Briefly | How creative icons use The Brief
Every project starts with a brief, but very few end up exceptional. I set out to find out why, by asking some of the most consistently acclaimed creative icons across architecture, design, illustration and advertising: Frank Gehry (Gehry & Partners), David Rockwell (The Rockwell Group), Maira Kalman (Illustrator), Yves Béhar (fuseproject), John Boiler (72andSunny) and John C Jay (Uniqlo).
The context
A lot has been written about how great ideas come to life, but it felt like there was one important POV missing: the creative leaders’ voice. So I wanted to capture how they felt about, and used, The Brief to achieve consistent creative excellence.
The film
As I planned the project, I set a few guidelines. Go to them. I wanted each person in the environment where they were most themselves, so I traveled with a film crew from San Francisco to New York, Los Angeles and Portland. Do it properly. We had a crew of eight: I interviewed, with two cameras, lighting, sound, make-up and PAs. Make it for the next generation. The audience I had in mind was the next generation of professionals, as a way to help raise the overall bar of excellence.
The process
I still remember how unnerving it was running a rough cut by Frank Gehry (I was worried his chapter could torpedo his bid of the Eisenhower memorial) and John Boiler (we had worked together at Wieden + Kennedy). But what came up during those sessions was their interest in the similarities they shared with one another in terms of how they worked. So at the end of each chapter, I included what I loosely referred to as “the echo”; each sharing how their philosophies aligned with that chapter’s theme.
The outcome
Briefly has over 300,000 views online, and has been shown at Art Center, RISD, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Stanford, Miami Ad School, the University of Oregon School of Journalism and more. It has been closed captioned into multiple languages, initially by volunteers from different countries. It is free to watch on Vimeo.
A Thought leadership piece.