If you went to KFC would you be impressed if they gave you some asparagus and said “we’re thinking outside the box”?

If you collected your car after a service only to find they’d replaced the engine with a cauliflower, would you tip your hat to them for their creativity and vision?

No. Stop being silly. Of course you wouldn’t. 12 hot wings please.

Before becoming excellent at new business development (#blatantkeyword) I had a few rows in my career after describing creative teams as a “service department”. They do not like that one little bit I can tell you.

To a marketing/sales manager, design is a means to an end. One (sadly) can’t just drop a blank white box into Sainsbury’s and expect people to pick it up; it has to be covered in colourful shapes or photos of nauseating children pushing sugar balls into their face holes.

I once asked for a simple glowing icon reminiscent of an on/off switch on a PC. Before I knew it a ‘mood board’ had gone up and the department disappeared for a day to ‘conceptualise’. Luckily I found a friend of a friend who knocked up exactly what I wanted in 20 minutes for £100.

Never forget (I’m talking to you now creative folks) that while people will want to hear your thoughts and ideas, they also have something specific they want, so work with them to produce the best version of THAT rather than sell them something that turns you on more than their ‘bland’ requirement does.

They also serve those who wait INSIDE the box.