COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMSPECIAL REPORT JUNE 2019
“Clients appreciate it when
you take ownership”COLLECTIVE
MISTAKE“I was working on a
poster campaign for a
multinational client,”
recalls Simon Wright,
managing director at
Greenwich Design and co-founder of
The Chemistry Works. “When it arrived,
ready to be rolled out across the UK,
we spotted a typo that neither the client
nor agency had caught.”
It’s something that happens to most
agencies at some point. But that doesn’t
make it any less horrible when you’re
in the midst of it. “It was the worst
day of my career,” Wright says. “I felt
frustration, then guilt, then anger.”
But crucially, he took steps to put
things right. “We accepted ownership
and offered to reprint the posters at our
own expense,” he says. “We could have
played the blame game and absolved
ourselves of responsibility, but the long-
term health of our client relationship
was more important. As a result, we
continue to work with it to this day.”
The agency also put new procedures
in place to prevent a repeat
occurrence.“We learned that even if
there are a number of people signing
something off, you can become word
blind,” Wright says. “So now we always
give the creative to someone who hasn’t
worked on the project for a final check,
before anything goes to print.”
Wright’s team also makes sure it
builds in enough time to look at a project
with fresh eyes before it’s sent off.
“Often, the reason mistakes happen
is because when a deadline’s looming,
proof-reading is given less attention
than it should be,” says Wright. “So I now
ask myself, what’s more important –
getting it wrong but on time, or getting it
right, even if that means extending the
deadline? If we get it wrong, we have a
much bigger problem on our hands.”
And finally, a broader lesson: “When
things go wrong, take positive steps
to correct the issue: the client will
appreciate it far more than finger-
pointing,” says Wright. “I think it helped
that we had an open, collaborative
approach with it – we felt like an
extension of its team – so when things
went wrong, we were all in it together.”‘When you admit
to a mistake, in
front of your team
or your company,
it’s a sign of
incredible
confidence’
JONATHAN AIZLEWOODOf course, not every mistake made in the
creative world ends so happily. Whether it’s a
brochure that gets printed with a typo, or a client
hating what you’ve produced because of poor
communication, making a mistake can often be a
truly horrific experience.OWNING YOUR MISTAKES
When you’re in the eye of the storm, and everyone
around you is focusing on your error, at best
it makes you fear for your future, and at worst
makes you physically sick and unable to function.
But everyone makes mistakes. Inevitably, at some
point, you will too. So the most important thing
is not to fear them, but make sure you respond to
them in the right way.
“You can’t get away from it: things just go
wrong,” says Redfern. “So you have to learn not
to take that personally and instead deal with it.
What are you going to do: crumble, run away,
hide? Or stand in front of it and say: ‘Okay, what
are we going to do?’”
Sadly, many creatives go the former route,
trying to cover up their mistakes or blame
others for them. “I’ve seen this many times,” says
Jonathan Aizlewood, new business director at
Brighton-based digital consultancy Clearleft.
“Some young designers gravitate towards: ‘Oh,
that wasn’t me, that was someone else who did
that,’ and they won’t own their mistakes. Even
when it’s very clear that it’s their fault.”
And that’s perhaps not surprising. “I hate to
admit it, but as designers we primarily trade on
ego,” he continues. “And the fact that ego often
gets in the way means people often can’t take the
constructive criticism on board to make them a
better designer.”
Of course, no one wants to look bad in front
of their peers and superiors. Yet, Scileppi argues,
owning your mistakes is actually a way of making
you look good. “I think that when you admit to a
mistake, in front of your team or your company,
it’s a sign of incredible confidence,” she says.
“Because admitting mistakes openly, when you’re
responsible for it and you learn from it, that’s the
kind of person I want to work with, and for.
“It shows you’re not hung up on your ego, you
don’t worry about what other people think of
you, and it demonstrates vulnerability, which will
only encourage other people in the company to be
vulnerable. And really good things happen when
people feel safe, psychologically.”CREATING AN OPEN CULTURE
Redfern agrees that the ability to own mistakes
is a sign of confidence. “And the only way you get
that confidence is by making those mistakes,” he