UNSEEN. ESSENTIAL. BRILLIANT.
I’m a bit bored of the endless LinkedIn love letters to Creative Directors and their so-called “game-changing ideas.”
Not because they’re not talented — some are — but because we’ve built an entire industry that puts the person who thought of the thing on a pedestal… while the ones who actually made it happen barely get a mention.
This one’s for them.
The real creative team
Here’s how the “big idea” usually lands:
“I’ve cracked the VW brief! Three kittens on trapezes, swinging off the Burj Khalifa, singing a sea shanty. Then a husky VO says something heartfelt about torque.”
“Brilliant!” says the CD.
“Jesus Christ,” mutters the team who now have to make it.
Because while the pitch gets applause and the awards night gets sparkles, the real creative team — the motion editors, the producers, the artworkers, the brand designers, the editors, the retouchers, the UX/UI designers, the copywriters, the project leads, and the account crew — take that unhinged Post-it and shape it into something that works on a bus shelter, in 6 seconds, with six rounds of legal feedback, across 14 aspect ratios.
They take the thing from ‘mad idea’ to ‘shippable asset’. On budget. On brand. On time.
There’s more art in artisan
I’ve been interviewing recently — meeting people who know their baselines from their bleed, who care deeply about white space, who talk about layout like it’s architecture (because it is).
They’re the modern craftspeople.
They’re not on stage.
But they make the show happen.
These people don’t just do the work.
They are the work.
The production gap
Some “creatives” still don’t know how to open a Figma file. Or render a frame. Or set type without breaking design law.
We’ve let that slide for too long.
It’s like calling yourself a Michelin chef but not knowing how to turn the oven on.
If Pope Julius II had decided to paint the Sistine Chapel himself, it would’ve been a beige ceiling and a footnote in history. Instead, he hired a technician named Michelangelo.
And let’s be honest — these days, Michelangelo would be buried in the credits as “Junior Asset Lead.”
Let’s be clear
Big ideas matter.
But big ideas mean nothing without the people who know how to land them.
So here’s to the makers — the doers, the fixers, the finishers.
The ones who turn chaos into clarity, scribbles into systems, ideas into impact.
You’re the reason the work works.
And the reason the clients come back.
Keep showing up.
Keep making it better.
Keep rolling glitter on the impossible — and making it look easy.
SHA. is a strategic advertising agency, creating brand strategy, advertising, design for print and content for web and social. If you want to know more, get in touch with nigelh@sha-agency.com or visit our contacts page.
“The opinions in this article are that of the author alone and in no way, reflect the opinions or viewpoint of the agency. Unless of course we happen to agree with those opinions completely, in which case they might, but otherwise they don’t”
