The Blossom Creative Media Story
In business terms, creative thinking and innovation are critical to success and offer a means to resolve complex problems and provide solutions to challenges.
Would you describe yourself as creative?
From an early age I identified as creative. There are lots of reasons why, but one memory stands out.
At about the age of ten, I decided to enter a logo design competition, advertised in the local paper. Applications closed and the winner’s submission was published. I was in awe of the winner’s design, it was absolutely fantastic. I was so impressed and examined it’s every detail wanting to figure out how it had been created. Looking back now, the competition was not for young kids and the winner was a probably a professional adult who had capabilities and access to technology, light years ahead of anything I could imagine.
So what is my point here and why is this memory important? This was a formative life stage and I consider this an early spark of creative curiosity. This was a project brief, with a client. Concept development and finished art were required. A process of reflection, review and refinement were needed. Years later I can see the benefits of actively using and continuously refining my creative skills, something I bring as a design discipline to work today.
As my passion for the creative arts continued, I studied writing, art, and marketing, in New Zealand, relocating to Australia and studying textile design. Study is a great foundation but real world work experiences and projects cemented my appreciation for the importance of presentation, quality design, composition, colour, style and excellence in content messages.
Working in business teams with graphic designers, writers, editors, photographers, product designers, videographers and website developers taught me to appreciate the value of diverse creativity in a professional context.
Roles in education, manufacturing, infrastructure, and marketing with Directors, Senior Managers, Boards, and business owners has provided fantastic insights into the intersections between the pragmatism of business goals and the benefits of creative collaboration. These experiences have helped me to appreciate of the value of creative media services, work places where skillsets often overlap and where collaboration is the key to success.
Developing and honing creative thinking skills across disciplines that include marketing content design creation, media and business is invaluable. This is because the most successful teams get results by working collaboratively and recognising the value of creative thinking.
Here are some useful mindset ideas I apply to my work in creative media.
The creative collaboration mindset checklist:
• Have an open mind to problem solving
• Practice being open to suggestions and be supportive of others input
• Create an optimum, safe environment for brainstorming ideas
• Maintain a solution based mindset
• Develop self-awareness, especially when facing challenges
• Stay positive, present and maintain focus on outcomes
• Identify unconscious bias and how it could impact results
• Work on developing active listening skills
• Take notes and document observations for reflection
• Assess stakeholder engagement and be responsive
• Consider and openly discuss any expected outcomes or anticipated results in advance
• Document key questions and clarify any performance requirements
• Take time to follow up and research anything that’s unclear
• Evaluate the status and future objectives if plans need to change
• Be flexible about how things can work
This checklist can really help with collaboration and is central to my creative approach and process for great business.
Other key principals I apply at work are my CONNECT, ENHANCE, GROW framework and Content Creation Journey outline which help focus the creative process on great business outcomes.
I explain more about my CONNECT, ENHANCE, GROW framework at What we do – the Blossom way of working.
With a creative career and skill set that spans sales and merchandising, product development, education, and marketing, Julienne Kretschmer is the owner of Blossom Creative Media.
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