(gentle music)
Eliot: Loaded question. (laughs) Could you imagine?
-: Nah, no, actually no. -: You should be very safe.
-: Be safe. -: Yeah.
-: It's important to take creative risks
to create something different and new.
-: The idea of being brave can feel quite scary.
You know, when you think of the word you think you have
to kind of go into battle or do something very aggressive.
But it isn't that.
It's simply about choices you make.
Gaby: Going where no one has gone before,
doing the things that people haven't yet
been brave enough to do.
-: Pushing the boundaries.
-: You need to take risks with yourself
to see where you can, where things can go.
Push yourself to places
that you don't necessarily feel comfortable.
-: You are not just following trends,
they're following what other studios are doing.
-: You know, leap in, follow your gut.
Maybe do some things without an end goal.
Just express it.
-: That like, the sky's the limit.
That's when you find that little piece of light bulb moment.
-: And you get that little spike of excitement,
which I think is probably why a lot of us do what we do.
-: And the fact that we don't ever do the same thing twice
or the same way, it's something that excites me every day.
-: What's the point in doing stuff that's already been done?
The fun of doing this professionally is in
trying to find new ways to solve old problems, right?
You know, challenges that might exist.
It's really satisfying when you do eventually get there.
You find the idea, that kind of new way into something
that you've seen a hundred times before
but never done in quite this way.
And it can be quite, like, challenging.
I think we've all been there, you know,
that sort of you're trying and you're trying
and you're trying and nothing seems to be working.
And then suddenly something clicks and it's like,
"Oh wow, this is really cool."
-: If we don't push ourselves into that really risky space
then the bigger risk is that you don't make that difference.
-: Being innovative sometimes might feel, you know,
a bit overrated, but it's creating something authentic,
which then ends up being new.
-: But it can also be about how you champion your work.
If you genuinely believe in something
and you believe that something has the power
to drive change and be amazing,
to have that brave quality within you to fight for that
and prove it to be right, I think is really important.
-: We've got this really good new phase
at the start of creative projects called "Ignite".
That phase is very empowering because by having
no pressure of the end result, you create more freely.
Often you try things that you wouldn't have tried otherwise.
Because I actually went about it this way
and I didn't really care about the end result,
actually something really great came out of it.
So it's about giving you that space to actually be brave.
-: I remember seeing the piece of work
that's literally just down there that you created.
You literally created a model and cast some shadows off it
and that became like a fundamental part of a project.
-: Jazz, I love how she works because she's very tactile.
She's a very sort of physical designer. She loves art.
-: If you decide, like, well, actually the way to
really express how I felt when I was in this place
I'm signing a brand for is a playlist or making a song
or making a painting or, like, it doesn't always have to be,
like, the things that you know really well.
-: The other day I came upstairs to the kitchen
and she had these bio science Petri dishes. (Jazz laughs)
And I'm like, "What are you doing?"
And she's like, "It's, I'm just testing some stuff
around the agency and I'm gonna put it in a cupboard
and we'll see what the-"
and I'm like, "What is this for?"
Even we're like, "Oh, where's that gonna go?"
But starting at that point just means you end up
doing work like that, which ultimately creates things
that people haven't necessarily seen before.
-: You have to be brave enough to be uncomfortable.
-: Starting somewhere that is uncomfortable,
whether it's uncomfortably transparent
or uncomfortably unsure and curious
or uncomfortably different, you'll end up further ahead
and in a really interesting new territory.
-: The move towards the things that make you feel
uncomfortable. -: Oh yeah.
-: The things that make you feel comfortable
are normally the things that you've seen before,
the things that you are used to.
-: Yeah. -: But that's not
where distinctive design exists in my opinion.
They live beyond the familiar space.
So it's when you push all the way to the uncomfortable,
it's where you can find that creative magic
or creative sauce as we talk here.
-: It's really important because to take even a small step
forward you have to aim to take many steps forward
and things naturally kind of settle back.
-: You give the client 10, you know,
they'll probably get seven, eight if they're like,
you know, really brave. (laughs)
-: You have to almost aim for sort of 11 or 12
before you can get, to kind of get to five
and actually achieve that, and you have to push some clients
all the way to 28 to get to five or seven
or whatever we want to kind of call that.
-: And if we gave them six, they're gonna,
they're gonna take four. You don't want that.
You want to, like, push the client.
-: We'll push you off the cliff edge and catch you though.
-: It's like we wanna scare the client
so we don't wanna scare-
-: Scare them. (everyone laughs)
-: "Oh I'm a bit scared. You're scary."
-: You're terrifying me.
-: Embrace, you know, embrace a bit of chaos
and help them see that there can be something,
like, way beyond what they expected.
-: That's what uncomfortable allows you to do.
It gives you the license and agency to do more
than what you think you can, you know?
-: Any invention that's ever been made,
it's been a massive risk.
People always doubt them, but then when it comes off,
"Okay we need it, it's great."
You know, "You took that risk, we now need it.
It's a good thing." So it's the same with design, I think.
-: If we take them on that journey and if they trust us,
the results will be outstanding.
-: Yeah.
-: Sounds good.
(Marta laughs)
I think for me it's by not being brave,
life's a bit boring. (laughs)
-: And why the fuck be boring?
Why not do something that is gonna surprise
you and other people and shake things up
and make things different?
'Cause otherwise it's a waste of your career
and it's a waste of your time, basically.
-: So let's not be boring.
-: Let's not be boring.
That's your- -: Yeah.
-: our new mantra.