Meet Ryan Reynolds's Favorite Creative Director

This week, we

? Learn how Jason Kreher, who leads creative at Ryan Reynolds's company, Maximum Effort, works.

? Share five ways to come up with good ideas, as told by best-in-class makers.

? Invite you to apply to join Creative Factory, our new private leadership community for design and creative leaders at brands.

But first, Editor Matt McCue discusses how we "drink our own Champagne" and follow the smart advice of our interview subjects.

The View From Here

At Creative Factor, our goal is to provide readers with interviews that are both entertaining and full of insights they can actually use in their work life. And this past week, our team benefitted from something we recently picked up from creative director Richard Turley.

When working with clients, Turley told us he will fight for certain ideas, but only up to a point. He pre-determines how much feedback stress and grief he will personally accept and then gives himself the ability to walk away when it hits that level. This allows him to push his pitches forward, while still maintaining his sanity. And that doesn’t mean that he cares less about an idea. He has set boundaries around the process to protect his mental well-being. After all, there will always be another idea to pursue.

Our team took that to heart this past week when we presented multiple story concepts to a new client, and they did not share our enthusiasm for any of them. The old us would have passionately fought for the ideas — creative gold, of course! But, at the urging of my extremely practical business partner, Tucker, we made the quick and clear decision to move on, rather than drag out this ideation process for months in an attempt to salvage it. Once the final decision had been made, Tucker told me to stop thinking about that past project — like right this second — and to focus on what's ahead. As someone who rarely gives up on ideas, this helped the whole thing feel freeing instead of like a failure. On to the next idea.

Have a great week.

Matt McCue , Founder & Editor

How I Work: Jason Kreher, Partner, Maximum Effort

Maximum Effort Partner Jason Kreher has been hiding rubies in his commercials for the last 10 years. If you look closely at his reel, you can really start to spot them.

That’s but one of the things we recently learned how he operates. (And just in case you’re wondering what Maximum Effort is — it’s Ryan Reynolds’s incredibly successful production company and digital agency where they "make movies, TV series, content and cocktails for Reynold's personal amusement." Ha.)

Read on to learn about why Kreher never actually writes in his notebooks, the dream studio he is building, and more about his high energy process.

The Coolest (Design) Club in Town

The purpose of our community is to help creative leaders grow in their careers and navigate a path to executive roles, board seats, and leading cultural institutions or government agencies.

Our goal is to help organize the shared learning. We know peer-led sharing of pain points, communal benchmarking, and accountability is one of the best ways we can keep innovating. Ultimately, this group is for you!

Apply now to join other design leaders from top organizations, including Spotify, Shake Shack, NASA, Cannondale, HIMS, Hearst, Flatiron Health, Roblox, Clay, Paramount, The Aspen Institute, Downtown Music, and more.

Joana Astolfi: How to Come Up with Good Ideas

“A lot of things happen during the creative process, and things go wrong sometimes, especially if you're using mechanisms that are more complex. When errors happen, I'm all about celebrating the beauty of the mistake. The mistake can open the door to a path that reaches the final result.”

– Joana Astolfi, Creative Director, Studio Astolfi in Lisbon, Portugal