Controlling Creative (Part 3 of 3)

I’m frequently asked, “How can you keep people from stealing your ideas?”

Answer: I can’t. In fact, I don’t even try, figuring that creativity and originality are muscles—what doesn’t get regularly used (by the habitual plagiarist) will become flaccid over time, but you can’t let those negatives keep you from striving to be creative and original, or from producing your ideas.

This is the last of three client examples that come to mind when talking about controlling creative.

Finally, there was Rich Chey, an Atlanta restaurant entrepeneur who wanted to start a chain of noodle shops where diners could choose from diverse mix of noodle and rice dishes from differing parts of Asia, with wait staff that could advise them fluently on the way each dish was prepared.

I’d already done a logo for him—Highland Bagel, formerly in Virginia-Highland—and was impressed by his blend of openness and practicality. It did not surprise me to learn he had an MBA from Wharton, where relational skills are a premium.

Once I was on his team, he trusted me, showed me his business plan, walked me around the restaurant site so I’d experience it as future patrons would, welcomed me into his home where he and I studied colors from Chinese watercolor scrolls so I could get a sense of his druthers, while my daughter, then a little kid, played catch with his wife. 

And here’s the thing about Rich: when I was developing the Doc Chey’s Noodle House logo, he never had me sign a non-disclosure form (it’s automatic with me and my clients that I work non-disclosure anyway). He gave me notes on each idea, but he never micro-managed me. Years later, whenever he staged a mock service to test new menu ideas, he’d invite me as part of the Doc Chey community.

It did not surprise me that Doc Chey’s had community dining tables, participated in charity events; that they welcomed walk-up, dressed-down patrons from the neighborhood, whose small children are always kindly accommodated; or when he and his partner came up with the additional “Peace/Love/Noodles” idea for the T-shirts.

And he always referred to the final logo as our logo.

Controlling Creative (Part 2 of 3)

I’m frequently asked, “How can you keep people from stealing your ideas?”

Answer: I can’t. In fact, I don’t even try, figuring that creativity and originality are muscles—what doesn’t get regularly used (by the habitual plagiarist) will become flaccid over time, but you can’t let those negatives keep you from striving to be creative and original, or from producing your ideas.

This is the second of three client examples come to mind when talking about controlling creative.

Donna, the self-made home decorating expert, had contrived an elaborate kit for helping  homemakers come up with just the right palette, textiles, and tschotkes for each room of their homes. I didn’t want to do this job—from the first I sensed something was wrong or, at least, not positive—but she worked in a client’s office and it would’ve been churlish to refuse her.

From the outset she was paranoid that this idea would be stolen, so rather than show me any business or marketing plans, she preferred to feed me discrete portions of the project and to micro-manage me, much as the CIA may handle a new operative of whom they’re not entirely sure.

At the end of the project she had me sign a complex disclaimer form, basically pledging to never try and steal her ideas, or to reveal any of it to others. I felt tempted to make jokes about how my entire life had waited for this brass ring, this home-decorating kit, but feared she’d take them seriously.

Not surprisingly, the kit never took off and I suspect it’s because to put something on the market, you have to be public about it, not guard it like the formula to Coca-Cola.

Controlling Creative (Part 1 of 3)

I’m frequently asked, “How do you keep people from stealing your ideas?”

Answer: I can’t. In fact, I don’t even try, figuring that creativity and originality are muscles—what doesn’t get regularly used (by the habitual plagiarist) will become flaccid over time, but you can’t let those negatives keep you from striving to be creative and original, or from producing your ideas.

Three client examples come to mind when talking about controlling creative.

Example 1: Troy wanted me to rip off—there’s no other way to put it—the Nike line, changing it to “Just do I. T.” The local VP of an international software firm, he figured any ensuing U. S. controversy would be excellent free advertising.

I said, “Troy, I’d like to continue working in my profession long after your time’s up at the minimum-security white-collar prison where they’ll be sending you for copyright violation.”

“So you’re not going to do this?” he asked.

“Not a chance in hell,” I said tactfully.