Vol. 23: Creativity at scale.

A weekly newsletter on our modern Renaissance, the issues and ideas driving today's creative work.

Canva Create: A masterclass in storytelling.

From my Substack,?Renaissance Plan. Read the full article here .

Whether you’re talking about the creator economy, the democratization of design, or the modern Renaissance (three topics close to this writer’s heart), there is one company that has helped empower design for everyone of all technical ability: Canva.

The team at Canva has taken a simple idea, that everyone should have the ability to design, and used it to build an enormously successful, increasingly global company. I’ve been very fortunate to partner with them along with my colleagues at Monotype for just over a year now, and last week, I had the chance to attend the first ever Canva “Create” event open to the public, held in Inglewood, California at the beautiful YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park.

The event did not disappoint, as Canva’s founders Melanie Perkins (CEO), Cliff Obrecht (COO) and Cam Adams (CPO) laid out a vision for the next decade of the platform, making it clear the product is ready to tackle a new frontier, the enterprise audience. This led to some notable headlines such as, “Canva’s radical overhaul aims to destroy Microsoft Office and Google Workspace .”

Among other updates, the opening keynote underscored new features being released for the enterprise with four key disciplines in mind: HR, Marketing, Sales, and Creative. You can read more about the updates on the company’s website . And be sure to check out the “enterprise rap” that has been largely discussed across the internet over the past few days (more on that below).

Staying true to its ideals.

Surely, there is a lot to admire about this Australian juggernaut that has continued to grow and engage more users from around the world, now with more than 185 million monthly users reported. Perhaps more than anything, however, I deeply admire how the company has scaled while retaining its personality, its mission, and its vision for how business should be done.

The kind of people that Canva attracts backs up this ideal. The team we at Monotype have had the chance to partner with is smart, motivated, fun, and very generous with their attention and their energy. The founders reminded the audience of the many socially-responsible decisions it has made since its inception, including its “One print, one tree” initiative, its decision to donate 1% of its resources to causes that matter, co-founders Cliff and Melanie’s pledge to donate most of their equity to social causes, on and on. And then they announced yet another, an expanded partnership with enterprise sustainability company Watershed , designed to clean up the grid in Illinois as a way to offset Canva’s supply-chain emissions.

Moving into the enterprise market is no easy feat, with entrenched players like Microsoft, Salesforce, Google, etc. The conversations at that level are fundamentally different even when you consider the “creative” space. Security and governance becomes paramount, you’re more likely to engage with legal or procurement and your product has to be ready for primetime. Of course, Canva could have put together a list of security updates and delivered it as a presentation to quell any fears about its ability to be a serious player. But instead the company did what it has always done, threw out the playbook and did something fun. The rap above has been ridiculed by some online as “cringe,” but I can tell you that in the room, the energy was fantastic. For Canva to signal a move to enterprise in any other way would feel disingenuous.

Canva will never beat Microsoft or Google by trying to be Microsoft or Google. The company has to stay true to what has gotten it to this point.

Storytelling and creativity wins the day.

Beyond the product announcements and the seismic news that Canva will be taking its “creativity and design for everyone” mantra from the consumer creative to the enterprise, the lineup was packed with an amazing list of thought leaders and creators from Canva’s network. And among several keynote talks, one central theme emerged: the power of storytelling.

To begin the day, Perkins invited Disney CEO Bob Iger (a Canva board member) to stage for a discussion on brand-building. When asked about the process of storytelling and creativity that happens at Disney, Iger underscored how storytelling at scale requires enormous collaboration. “I see stories in their infancy,” he said. “Animated films take four to five years to come together.” He noted how deeply personal the stories we see on film often are to their creators, citing the wildly popular film “Inside Out,” directed by Pete Docter, which was based on the creator’s young daughter.

He also focused on the impact technology can have on storytelling when applied appropriately. Creators challenge technologists to give them technology that makes them better storytellers, and that technology will always evolve and move us forward. “There’s never been a generation of people who could stand in the way of technological advancement,” he told the audience. Still, interestingly, at Disney stories are evaluated the “traditional” way, as animated films are hand drawn and produced in a rough format (with stock music and temporary voices). Why? Because the team wants to evaluate if the project (and thus the story) is strong on its own before applying technology to amplify production. In this way, creativity has not changed since film-making began. We don’t love films or television series because the technology is spectacular. The technology helps, but we love these projects because their stories are universal, they engage us in meaningful ways. The impact of storytelling has stood the test of time.

Actor, writer, and producer Mindy Kaling closed out the day, being interviewed by Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Co-Editor-in-Chief at The Hollywood Reporter. When asked “what can the people who produce media do better?” Kaling replied by asking Bob Iger and his peers to bring back 22-episode programming rather than just 10-episode series. “I’m sure there is data that says the [10 episodes works]… but viewers want longer series. I work hard and I want to come home and watch these characters I’m invested in,” she told Moody and the crowd. “And creatively, you can take more chances when you have a full season to fill.” She highlighted the Diwali episode of The Office as a good example of one that may not have been made had producers only had 10 episodes of stories to fill.

Of course, the topic of AI also came up, as it was a hot-button issue throughout Hollywood over the past year. To this, Kaling was very direct. “I’ll probably regret saying this, but I just don’t see AI replacing true comedic talent,” she said. As AI trains on all of the material previously published and put into the model, Kaling noted that the best entertainment thrives on being fresh and new, something artificial intelligence (as we currently know it) can’t achieve on its own.

Fostering creative organizations.

Of course, the theme of the day was “the enterprise,” and so all of the guest speakers were prompted to discuss lessons for scaling individual creativity for teams in the workplace. Iger started the day by highlighting the importance of a brand’s values in driving creative work. “Your values do not need to change because the world has changed.” He noted that when you look at how brands fail, over the last century most examples you’ll find can be traced back to when the brand abandoned its core values. Professor, organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant also took the stage and was interviewed by Canva’s Head of People Jennie Rogerson, and focused on the importance of structuring a team around trust. He cited three types of people in an organization: givers, takers, and matchers.

• Givers are people trying to fix things for you
• Takers are looking for what you can do for them
• Matchers are more transactional - “I’ll do something for you if you do something for me.”?

Amazingly, takers have double or triple the negative impact as the positive impact givers bring to an organization. As Grant puts it, “takers are great at kissing up and kicking down.” Still, he notes that having various kinds of personalities, especially on creative teams, is imperative for performance. Harmony does not fostering a kind of homogeny in the workplace, it means having a healthy balance of optimists and pessimists, agreeable folks and disagreeable folks, etc.

Bringing it back to Disney, and Pixar, this reminds me of research that Harvard Professor Linda Hill published on the creative process of making a Pixar animated film. As noted above, it takes 4-5 years to produce a Pixar film, and roughly 250 people involved. Hill discovered there were three primary capabilities that have led to the success of these particular creative teams.

1. Creative abrasion: the ability to “create a marketplace of ideas through debate and discourse.” She argues that in creative and innovative organizations, differences are amplified, not minimized. Creative abrasion is not an exercise in brainstorming; instead of suspending judgment, teams are able to have intense but productive arguments to develop alternative solutions.
2. Creative agility: the ability to test each of these alternative solutions “through quick pursuit, reflection and adjustment.” Here, it is critical that the creative team takes action to find the best future state for a project, as Hill puts it, “running a series of experiments, and not a series of pilots.”
3. Creative resolution: the ability to combine competing ideas into a final product that is new and useful. The focus for creative and innovative organizations is to find “both/and” solutions (yay improv!) instead of “either/or” solutions.

You may notice that these capabilities require disagreement and both individual and team strengths. Grant told the audience at Create that normalizing tough love is important to drive performance culture. You may also notice that Hill speaks more about “creative abrasion” than “brainstorming.” Grant agrees. “People generating ideas alone first is more effective than brainstorming,” he said.

Brainstorming really became popular in the middle of the 20th century, but is not agreed upon as the most effective way to generate successful ideas. One reason, according to Grant, could be the “HIPPO” effect: The highest paid person’s opinion. In an open discussion, once the highest paid person in the room (or most senior) shared an opinion, it’s more likely everyone will follow them. Instead, Grant recommends having everyone ideate on their own, then bring ideas for an anonymous and independent vote and finally a group discussion. Of course, he acknowledges that group creative work ultimately yields the best ouput (hence the 250 people who work on a Pixar film).

Individual creativity is stronger, and then is benefitted through group scrutiny.

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Canva Create was an amazing day of learning, networking and excitement. Aside from the relationship we have between Monotype and Canva, one reason I love the brand is that they are empowering creativity for people at all stages of their career. Many of the people I met with in Los Angeles were there to learn, to meet other creators, and to work on how they can take the next step in their creative journey. That energy is palpable and it is contagious.

As Canva steps meaningfully into the enterprise world, it will be interesting to see how the platform and team can retain the personality that has gotten it to where it is now. It wouldn’t hurt for the enterprise space to be injected with a little bit of fun, after all.

From my Substack,?Renaissance Plan. Read the full article here .

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Community Thoughts.

Meet us in France for Cannes Lions!

Monotype is thrilled to be sponsoring Cannes Lions for the first time this year. And while the awards are fun, our focus is on supporting the next generation of design leaders in the Young Lions design competition. If you're competing, best of luck! And if you'll be in France next month, let me know as we have a few fun activations coming together and I'd love to include you.

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Typography and communication.

I could listen to my friend and colleague Charles Nix speak about the creative process for hours, and finally, there is a forum where we can read his thoughts regularly, as he has joined the Fast Company Executive Board. His first piece, "Typefaces help brands communicate more than just words ," is now published, have a look at bookmark as you'll not want to miss Mr. Nix's musings.

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Protect creativity at all costs.

An alarming study by LinkedIn and Microsoft found that 68% of people struggle with the pace and volume of their work. And so increasingly, executives are taking measures to protect time for creative thinking. Perhaps it is something we all should be doing at all levels of our organizations?

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Wishing you a creative week ahead!