Creative on tap

I'm back to the land of the living.  Sitting in bed with flu (well it wasn't really flu - more of a bad cold but flu is quicker to type) gives you time to reflect on life, the universe and everything.  For some reason, I thought of the Chinese proverb that if you find a job you love, you never have to work a day in your life.  I love my job, but I feel like I work very hard.  I often think about how people start businesses and why.  For me, making money out of design was a natural step.  I'm a creative person and design is what I'm good at.  I also relish the challenge of running a business, so I put the two together.  However, I think that there is a snag in running a business that relies so heavily on being creative - you have to be creative on tap.  I know a lot of musicians, designers and writers and without exception; they have dry periods in their creative outputs.  Some days, they simply get out of bed and struggle to be creative.  I'm no different and it can be very tough sitting behind a desk with a deadline looming and no inspiration to boot.  This is probably not too relevant to many people reading this but I'd like to offer a solution which is this;

The type of design that we do is informed by our Clients' commercial objectives.  We have to create work that will appeal to their target audiences and engage with their key markets - it might not be our bag at all, but there is satisfaction in taking a pragmatic approach and getting it right.  Take a Ford Focus as an example.  Its aesthetic qualities aren't going to set the world alight, but it has been designed with a particular market in mind and has been one of the best selling cars in history.  So if you can't be creative, be pragmatic.  Pragmatism often rules the day.