Creative Jam: 7 Exercises to Enliven Your Office

BRANDING A PHILOSOPHY

The unanimous front-runner for favorite Jam of the Year didn’t entail any field trips or special equipment. Jerde elaborates: “I asked each person to think of a personal philosophy or core value. Maybe it’s love or friendship or saving the best thing on your lunch tray until last. Then, take this and distill it into a single word. Next, take that one-word attribute and turn it into a consumer good that might change people’s beliefs if it showed up on the grocery shelf.”

Puckett recalls one participant who developed “Loyalty” branded aerosol—so it could be more easily spread around. Another staffer designed a “Freedom” brand F-logo with a “live free” slogan, which could be molded onto the tread of a shoe to leave its mark on impressionable surfaces.

“We do this same exercise in interpreting our clients’ brand values and communicating them through a package or a brochure,” Puckett continues. He explains that the Jams have reminded him that it’s often worth gathering objective feedback to ensure others interpret your vision the way you—and your client—intend. “Our creative recommendation may meet with the client’s approval, but it’s important that we also step back and make sure that others arrive at the same understanding.”

He adds, “In the Jams, we aren’t locked into any budget. We can be as outlandish as we want. But it reminds us to search for that same emotion in our client work when we do have a budget.”