(Originally posted on www.GangreneSymposium.com)

Being a creative in a Business environment involves a lot of presenting and selling creative execution to clients that do not have strong creative backgrounds. As part of that, there comes some stead-fast rules that are important to keep in mind. These rules are designed to make the process simpler and more intuitive for the client, and therefore are fairly straightforward themselves. The main goal, always, is to hide the complexity of executing creativity behind the big emerald curtain and make the experience as rewarding as possible for the clients.

So, without further ado, may I present to you: The 6 Rules of Being Creative in a Business Environment.

1 – Building great collaborative creative is all about iteration.

2 – Well managed review cycles are important.

3 – Always set expectations before every review round of creative – surprises are bad.

4 – The Client generally does not know what he wants until he knows what he does not want.

5 – If you, the creative, get exactly what you want all the way through the process then you are not listening to what your client wants.

6 – The end audience doesn’t know what the original goal was, so never apologize for it not being what you wanted it to be initially.