Variety in creative work isn’t just interesting. It adds real value.

The value of variety.

One of the pleasures of working in branding and design is the wide range of challenges that come across our desk.

Over time, that variety proves valuable not just for us, but for the brands we work with too.

It does more than keep things interesting.

It becomes a genuine creative benefit for us and for the brands we work with.

Working across different sectors, and on different scales, creates a wider range of experience to draw upon.

It allows ideas to travel between industries and often reveals opportunities that a more narrowly focused approach just might miss.

From law firms and financial organisations to ambitious start-ups and cultural projects, each brings a different perspective.

Just as importantly, it encourages a mindset where every brief, whether from a one-person start-up or a household name brand, receives the same curiosity and attention.

Of course, that’s not to say deep sector expertise isn’t valuable. For clients, working with an agency that knows their industry inside out can be hugely beneficial.

But the most interesting and powerful results often come when that kind of in-depth knowledge is illuminated by a broader perspective. Bringing relevant ideas and thinking from outside the sector, rather than slipping into familiar patterns and ways of communicating.

This belief in the value of variety goes back a long way for me.

Seeing the potential in every brief.

At Norwich Art School one of my tutors, the now legendary Ray Gregory, had a simple ethos: inspiration and opportunity could be found in any brief. The size, subject, sector or even the status of the project mattered far less than the curiosity brought to it.

Later, during my time at The Partners, that same philosophy was reinforced. The focus was always on the strength of the idea rather than the prestige of the brief or the size of the budget.

Ray jokingly warned us not to become what he called “big-time poncey designers”, by which he meant the kind who only fully engaged with projects they considered prestigious.

For Ray, every brief contained the potential for a good idea.
It’s a belief that has stayed with me ever since.

Variety brings a questioning mindset.

For us, working across different sectors helps us avoid staying in the same valleys of thinking for too long. Otherwise mental ruts, habits and familiar visual styles can easily form.

Variety keeps curiosity alive.

Variety means we bring a restless curiosity, that sense of “oh, this is new”, backed by broader experience and a fresh perspective for every brief, and the confidence to dive deeply into new sectors and offerings.

And perhaps more importantly, it gives us as creatives the confidence and conviction to question the status quo. Sometimes that simply means asking the deceptively simple question no one else thought to ask, the one that opens everything up again.

Because that’s often where the most interesting ideas begin.

Some of the branding work we’re most proud of has been in sectors many might assume are quite traditional or conservative.

For example, working with law firms has resulted in some of the most distinctive work we’ve created. It has helped clients be bold and authentically stand out in a sector where ideas and visual expression have often become well-trodden paths.

Variety builds humility that creates opportunity.

Tackling projects of all kinds and sizes also keeps creative minds grounded.

One day we were invited to design something relatively small for a large law firm and began to get to know them. A year or two later that same organisation invited us to help them rethink their brand.

Treating every brief with the same level of thought and care often leads to stronger ideas and stronger relationships.

Variety sharpens thinking.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of a varied creative diet is sharper thinking.

Working across sectors allows ideas to travel. Insights from one context spark possibilities in another, habits are harder to form and thinking stays fresh.

At first glance, different branding and design projects may appear to sit in completely separate, unrelated worlds.

Yet the creative challenge is often remarkably similar. It involves understanding what makes something distinctive, clarifying the idea at its heart, and expressing it in a way people recognise and remember.

Variety and the joys it can bring.

Ray used to describe the moment when the right idea finally emerges as “the click.”

It’s that wonderful moment when the thinking, the context and the creative expression suddenly fall into alignment.

And the joy of that moment is exactly the same, whatever the sector and however big or small the project. It is especially satisfying when you are not simply treading the same old boards.

So perhaps that’s the real advantage of variety.

When creative teams work across different sectors, different challenges and different scales, they bring broader experience, fresh perspectives and renewed excitement to every brief.

And when that happens, both creative teams and clients experience the variety of rewards great ideas bring: the thrill of the chase, the moment of the click, the joy of the journey as an idea comes to life in the most memorable and carefully crafted way, and the results that follow.

Now I’d better get back to the variety of creative challenges waiting on my desk…

 

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Written by Dana Robertson, Founder and Creative Director at Neon Brand Consultants — sharing thoughts on branding, campaigns and creative strategy. Neon is a Chichester-based consultancy working across sectors from law and finance to culture and start-ups.

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If you have an upcoming project you’d like to talk about, then for sure contact Neon we’d be absolutely delighted to hear from you.

Please drop an email to or connect with via LinkedIn Dana Robertson.