The Paradox of the Blank Canvas

It stands to reason that creatives need to have space and time to do their work. But in the agency business, it isn't simply our own artistic muses that we are pleasing. It is often a complex series of approvers, constituents, brand police, and senior executives who have to buy into a creative concept. To many Artistes, the confines of deadlines and brand can be too restrictive. They want an empty canvas.

But the empty canvas - a metaphor for limitless possibilities - is a paradox which creates as many issues as it solves. Be it a blank page, an empty stage, or a raw piece of clay, it has no point of view except that which we give it. Infinite potential leads to infinite rumination, and inaction. When anything is possible, where to begin?

Alternatively, if you ignore possibilities, there is always the potential to miss something. Creative people have honed an ability to endow their point of view on these meaning-agnostic objects like clay and paint, and that's what makes them great at what they do. But how do you get creative work that is a masterpiece in an agency context, full of constraints?

My answer: embrace constraints. My medium isn't a canvas but in most cases the written or sung word. Think about your favorite song. That song's ability to transport, provoke, remind, and move you is the result of rigidly imposed limits. In three minutes.... 80 words... a handful of instruments... a handful of chords... an artist creates an entire rich emotional experience. How does this happen?

Limitations help us edit. Artists are conditioned to see potential in everything. Limitations, like those of agency work imposed by time, brand, budget, or any of myriad of factors, forces us to edit. The best creatives I know are the best not because of their ability to have a great idea. Rather, it is in their ability to edit their way to a great idea based on limitations. Some artists would rather throw up their hands than succumb to the confines of brand, budget, or time. But the most successful creative professionals embrace constraints as an opportunity to innovate and find a way to be great with what you've got. The blank canvas may be nice to some, but I'd rather find a way to make a billboard beautiful than a blank space any day.