Managing Director of WayFillian, Ben Krawchuk writes that what makes life exciting is that we all have unique lived experiences. Life is relative. Life is packed full of variables and we each perceive an experience in different ways due to the lens through which we view the world around us. No moment in time, walk in the park, or roaring guffaw is experienced in the same way. Isn’t life great?
One size fits all. Or does it?
In an ideal utopia, a single solution would fit a host of challenges, but in life (as we’ve all learnt through some tough lessons) there is no perfect universal fit. There simply is not a solution that is the right fit for a variety of situations – let alone one that fits each individual or personality.
Design authenticity
In all that we do, we’re communicating. Continually sending and receiving messages. Visual communication cannot be excluded from this mix.
In today’s fast-paced world led by a host of digital trends, one needn’t look far to find a plethora of templates that, by their very nature, imply a one size fits all solution. Yes, you know just the sort that we’re talking about.
While many templates indeed hold a place in the digital space – delivering a low-cost solution to having a digital presence – it is becoming increasingly clear that this type of general-purpose solution is becoming an acceptable norm. Steadily, this approach leaves us with a sense of disconnectedness and an almost robotic approach to engagements. Most concerning of all, is that a growing number of creative agencies are adopting this mechanical standard of work.
As in life, so too in digital, there are just no magic wands or templates. Templatising any work limits the possibilities to share and enjoy unique experience. When agencies adopt a templatised style of working, it leads to diminished creativeness and the adoption of a single approach to differing client needs.
Be Human. Be Unique. Be You.
Certainly (as many years of research into trends has proven) some common patterns, behaviours, and structures benefit greatly from a tried and tested recipe for success. This is an effective and acceptable approach.
Another certainty, however, is that each brand, client, project, and audience member is unique, and they all have differing needs and expectations. As an agency, we have a duty to respect their uniqueness and to celebrate it by providing solutions that are tailored to their individual needs. In short – custom needs require custom solutions.
As an agency that’s where we can bring real and far-reaching value. Adding value to the lived experience of both client and audience.
Taking time to delve deep and to explore the particularities (and peculiarities) of each project, we’re able to highlight the nuances that make the brand and its audience different and exciting.
Here is where we get to do what so few industries do, and that is to create a special recipe that brings to life a distinctive personality and we tweak it to match the special tastes of the audience. We achieve this by adding just the right mix of spice, emotion, expression, and experience to each project. What a great privilege that is.
In experiencing the wonderful spice of life, agencies should be analytic, sometimes critical, certainly methodical, and most of all, experts in communicating stand-out personalities and top-quality ideas. What agencies are not (or not just yet) are robots programmed simply to manufacture.
WAYFILLIAN
www.wayfillian.co.za
