While a lot of times on our blog we talk about the work we’re proud of, our amazing clients, and our thoughts on the communication industry, we also think it’s important to share some behind-the-scenes insight into our agency culture and processes. Our small yet scrappy team is filled with creative individuals who all bring their diverse background and experiences to the drawing table. Check out some of the things that inspire them to create their best work:
Madison Bledsoe, Account Coordinator
When I write, I love listening to classical music. There’s so much variation in the genre, so I can pick out the exact mood of music that fits how I’m feeling that day. If I need something energizing, I put on Vivaldi. If I need to relax and focus, my go-to is Yiruma. My absolute favorite classical album, and the one I often default to, is called “Flowers From Froso Island” by the composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. It’s a single-piano album written entirely about an island off the coast of Sweden. Classical music is a perfect backdrop to creating excellent content because it’s intelligent, creative and it doesn’t have any words to distract you from what you’re trying to articulate!
Caleb Hall, Video and Design
In video production, inspiration can strike anywhere at anytime and must be retained until it can find its natural place to be unleashed. When on set, in terms of lighting and shooting, I’ll often have video essays on the brain. I also like to do research on other filmmakers and the decisions they’ve made and why they made them. This drives me to try and bring out the beauty in any location and shape and bend the light to create an interesting frame for the subject matter.
Once I’m in the editing room the inspiration is purely driven by the story, what story is being told and most importantly how it wants to be told. I begin to experiment and try different things to feel the natural rhythm and pace of the edit. After that I’ll bring in music and start experimenting with color. I’ll sometimes reference other color grades to get a direction of where I think the piece feels most natural versus how far I can push it. During every step of the process the experiment begins again, as I try different things and see what feels best for the piece and drives the story.
All decisions made must work in harmony to tell a compelling story and engage an audience. My main inspiration is the idea of telling that story.
David Kim, Senior Designer
I draw a lot of inspiration from the neighborhood we work in. I walk around the area for thirty minutes most days, which gets me away from the computer and exposes me to different people, colors and visuals that bring new ideas to my work.
Angie Maddox, Partner and PR Director
I am constantly inspired by being exposed to new clients, new challenges and new ways to think of solving a business case. When we started Seed Factory, we never wanted to be a niche agency that only focuses on one industry or category. We love to learn, inquire, explore and understand while challenging our way of thinking and approaching a situation. What we can take from other diverse experiences always gets us to a better place. One of the most fascinating and interesting parts of our time at Seed Factory is uncovering an insight or nugget that we hadn’t thought of before. A different way to approach a business challenge – whether it’s in the non-profit sector or the building products industry. My inspiration personally comes from asking questions, meeting new people, reading non-fiction, exploring and collaborating with different industry veterans. While marketing and channels have greatly evolved over the past two decades, the foundation of what drives someone to learn is still so important and inspirational to me.
Marcella Tabares, Associate Account Executive
Something that keeps my creative juices flowing is being able leave my desk and work from different locations in the office. I find ease in creating a client’s social media calendar at one of the office’s standing desks or sitting on one of our comfy couches when I need to read over a press release. Not only does it increase creativity, but it helps with productivity.
Mark Sorensen, Partner and Creative Director
To me, I don’t consciously take my creative inspiration from anywhere, but I do know that going through life with curiosity about everyday things and truly practicing my observational skills, you will subconsciously use what’s in your library of life learnings. I also know that routine is an enemy of creativity. Being on auto-pilot is not where original thoughts come from, and to me, creativity is simply about having original thoughts. Since I’ve been brought up as a “creative in advertising” it’s all about using creativity to solve problems. Often times the marketing problem or brand positioning is not new or unique, but if you can think of a new, creative way of saying or showing a solution, that’s a win and that’s the power of great creative. Often times I have no idea where my creative inspiration comes from, but you have to put in the time and effort. Even if I can’t consciously get to a creative solution while “I’m putting the time in”, I’ve been doing this long enough that I know my subconscious will solve it at some point in the future (Which is also why it can be hard to put a price and timeline on creativity).
Eddy Hodgson, Brand Strategist
The best way of inspiring creativity in myself is to draw off of the creativity of others. Fortunately for me, I’ve worked in advertising, so I’ve had lots of excellent choices readily available. But not everyone can walk a few feet away to a cubicle to chew the fat with a legendary copywriter or art director. No matter, because everyone does have access to podcasts. Yup. Podcasts. And there are few that I listen to for this very reason…to get me out of a creative glut.
My favorite of these is a podcast called Magic Lessons. In this series, author Elizabeth Gilbert interviews people about how they overcome the fears that are inherent in the creative process, calling up famous creatives to get their input and approach. Very inspirational. Similarly, Being Superhuman is a podcast that interviews people who have achieved ‘superhuman’ performance in their field and explores the strategies they use. It’s a reliable source of insight into the lives of people who live at extremes, providing me inspiration for developing ways to meet the creative challenges I may be facing. Finally , there’s the TED Radio Hour, which as its name suggests, are TED Talks repackaged into the radio format, with talks focusing on the emotions, insights, and discoveries that make us all human…very relevant stuff in my line of work. Listening to one or two episodes gets me out my own routine perspective and helps me realize how the things I look at in my work – and in my own life – can be connected.
