Spotlight on John Devereaux: (Un)Common Threads Creativity & Innovation Summit Featured Speaker
Working with small creative agencies, you learn a thing or two about how to cultivate creativity, how to make teamwork "work," and how to get on the same page with those who have different ideas than yours.
With over two decades of experience working with creative agency Perfect Day (in the U.K. and Canada), John Devereaux has seen it all - and learned lots of valuable lessons along the way. That's why we're thrilled to have John, now Creative Director of Perfect Day Canada, share some of these lessons and life experiences during our (Un)Common Threads Creativity & Innovation Summit on November 7 at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John's.
We recently caught up with John to talk about how he taps into his own creativity, living and working creatively in Newfoundland and Labrador, and what the business and arts sectors can learn from each other.
John Devereaux, Creative Director of Perfect Day Canada
Business & Arts NL: Where and when do you feel most creative, and what per cent of your workday "feels" creative?
John Devereaux: My creative part of my workday is a lot less now than it was, say,10 years ago. We've got five people at Perfect Day and we've got two web developers outside of the province. So I still do some creative work, but I also do a lot of client management, talking to clients, making sure things go to print, picking up stuff, and lots of communication. So you still get to be creative in that...but my actual kind of pen to paper creativity is probably less than 50 per cent now, whereas when I was a designer, only working and not getting into the weeds of things, it was more. And I'm happy where I am now...I still get to work on branding projects, I still get to work on copy and I still get to work on ideas. But I don't get into the guts of some of the projects, and that's okay with me.
And where I'm most creative is definitely in the studio. We've got a great spot on Bond Street. It's an open space studio. We've always got music going, we've always got coffee going, and we just have open banter and we chat. That's a super creative place and my team of Duncan, Heather, Vanessa and Olivia are just fantastic. They really bring that creativity out of each other, too. It's important to have a good team around you.
Business & Arts NL: How do you tap into your own creativity and how do you deal with mental/creative blocks?
JD: I think one of the traps of being a creative on a screen, like behind the computer, is that you think your idea is going to come out through that computer. But really, it's the execution of that idea that's going to come out though that computer. You hear people say: "Oh I've got Photoshop, I can do it." "I've got Illustrator, I can do it." "My cousin has a computer, he can do it." And that's all fine and that all has its place. But the idea needs to come from outside that computer. So what I find really helps is when you get up and walk away - when you go for a walk, when you're driving to work, when you're on the soccer pitch - you have time to sit and think about the problem that you're trying to solve and not the actual visual element that you're trying to create, whether it's (with) a pencil or a computer or whatever. You got to think about it in a different way...I always find it's best to just get up and remove yourself from the situation so that your brain can kind of reset. And that's how you solve those mental blocks.
Business & Arts NL: How does working in the creative industry here in Newfoundland compare to working in that industry in a larger area?
JD: One of the reasons we moved out of London was we were working long hours every single day. And one of the reasons we were doing that was because we knew that if we weren't going to do it, there was another creative studio around the corner that was going to do it. And that was fine when I was in my 20s, but then I just needed a break from that, because you can only do that for so long. So moving back to St John's was great because I found that I was able to tap into all that experience that I'd had and bring that into the province, of helping with, "Hey, why don't we think about it this way?" So one of the advantages of potentially traveling away, or getting that experience and bringing it back to the province, is that you can say, "Well, I know it's always been done this way, but, why don't we think about this a different way? Could we solve this problem like they've done it in these big cities?" Even though St. John's has its own unique things, it isn't exactly a big city and has lots of challenges, there's lots of stuff out there in the world that you can bring back and use that experience. And I think that was one of the big advantages and one of the successes of Perfect Day.
One of the advantages of being in London is just the amount of things that you can just go and see - from museums to buildings to art shows to how people dress. The creativity, especially from a design point of view, not necessarily just an art point of view, everything is so well thought out...the murals and the public art and the signage and the posters and everything - it's great. It's fantastic. And there's some of that in the province, but there could definitely be room for more of it.
Business & Arts NL: As someone who has their toes dipped in both the business and arts worlds, what do you think business and arts have in common? And what does the private sector have to gain from interacting with the arts sector?
JD: The private sector - the biggest thing I think they have to gain is, "How can we look at this differently?"...How can you look at what the creative industries are doing and implement that into your business practices to make it better for, at the end of the day, your business. Your business is run by your employees, and if they're happy, the business is going to be better. So I think business really needs to look to the arts to see how can we do things differently, and how do we not do the same old, same old.
And on the other side of the coin, I think artists need to look at businesses, or the business sector, and say, "Okay, I've got this great product. How am I going to promote it?" And it's totally weird to say art is a product, but if, if, you are making your art to be seen, well, how do you get the word out for that - and it's not necessarily social media or Instagram or this or that. Is it partnerships? Is it sponsorships? Is it approaching a business and saying, "Hey, I want to do the art for your packaging." It could be an endless amount of things. But I do think that it's important that artists - if they want to, and not everyone does - but if they want to promote themselves, they could look to some positive business practices on how to do that.
Business & Arts NL: As someone who has worked with different groups and people throughout your career, what would you say makes a collaboration successful?
JD: I think it's really about trust...if the client wants us to be the pencil - so they're going to dictate what the thing looks like and what colours we're going to use and what font we're going to use, if it's left aligned or right aligned - then why did they hire us? Because we're not going to be having a good time doing that, they're not going to have a good time because they're not getting exactly what they want...and so that doesn't work. It's like, if you hire a mechanic, you're trusting that mechanic to fix your vehicle, whatever the problem is. And if the mechanic comes back to you and says, "A, B and C is wrong," you're not going to question them necessarily and say, "Oh, well, is B really wrong? Because I didn't think it was"... So I think it really comes down to trust, and being able to trust the partners you're with and say, "We hired you to do this job, and if you understand it well and there's a good, creative brief and everyone knows what page we're on, then we need to trust each other." And everyone will get the best product that way and feel the best about it.
Business & Arts NL: Can you give a bit of a hint or a little teaser about what you'll be discussing during your presentation?
JD: Basically, I'm going to go over lessons I've learned over the past 25 years of doing this. So I've always worked in small agencies and I went to a small art college, and I had lots of good experiences, lots of bad experiences, and everywhere in between...and a lot of it is just these personal experiences that you then pass on to people who are coming up through the ranks, or your colleagues or your employees. Or it's also just a fun story to tell when you're having a beer - "Hey, man, this happened to me, and I totally was on the wrong end of it." So I'm just going to share some life lessons.