Creative Was Never Just About Making Things Pretty

I've always believed that if you don't know what you're trying to say, a pretty package isn't going to sell it. There are no shortcuts to clear communication, whether it's verbal, visual or digital.

As a designer, I learned to start with two questions: What are you trying to say, and who are you saying it to? From there, you think about the experience. Where are you trying to reach your audience? What would lead them to want or need to hear what you have to say? What's the right channel for the message, and how do you make it stand out there?

All of this happens before we even begin to conceptualize. No colors, fonts or photos yet. First, you have to understand the problem.

Then you take all of that information and begin figuring out how to communicate it visually. You create, iterate and try to put yourself in the shoes of the audience. Did we say what we wanted to say? Is it clear? When someone sees it with fresh eyes, do they understand what we intended?

That's where feedback comes in.

It has always surprised me how hesitant people can be to give creatives feedback. Because we're sharing something we've created, a form of art in a sense, people sometimes worry we're going to be offended. One of my current leaders often says, "Feedback is a gift."

YES.

That feedback helps us improve the work. It helps us clarify the message, clean up the design and reconsider decisions we made along the way.

Well, guess what? As I've moved further into content, search and digital discovery, I've realized that a lot of the feedback is now data.

Of course, data has always been there. Even in science, we make a hypothesis, test it, see what happens and rework it if needed. Data doesn't worry about hurting your feelings. It is what it is. Engagement is feedback. Search queries are feedback. Conversion is feedback. AI citations and visibility are increasingly another form of feedback.

What I find interesting is that data can tell us what happened, but it doesn't necessarily tell us why. It can show us that something is working or isn't working, but it still takes critical thinking to interpret what we're seeing, decide what to change and go back out and test again.

Today, we can put content in front of people at a scale I couldn't have imagined when I started my career as a designer. We can see how people find it, whether they engage with it and what they do next. The tools have changed. The channels have changed. The feedback loop has gotten a whole lot bigger. But the thinking behind it doesn't feel all that different.

The further I move into content, search, data and AI, the less I feel like I've left creative behind. It feels like I've followed the same questions I've been asking my entire career into a new place.

That's Up The Line.

This is where I'll connect those dots, document what I'm learning and share what I discover along the way. I hope you'll follow along.