Pinwheel Creative Manifesto

These creative tenants are based on decades of experience working in the communication arts. May they serve as a compass and a telescope, to guide you as you do our daily.

— Todd Anthony, Founder & ECD, Pinwheel Agency

  1. Everything starts with the audience. Our job is to persuade. That’s why EVERYTHING we do should start with a keen understanding of the human beings that we are talking to. What motivates them? What are their struggles, needs, desires, aspirations, hesitations, and fears? Our success, and our client’s success, is directly tied to our ability to empathize and relate.
  2. Center yourself on the moment the audience is in. Once you’ve placed yourself in their shoes in that moment ask, “What will change their minds?” What are the circumstances guiding their decision making? What will move them to take the next step?”
  3. Lean on human truth as your source of inspiration. This is the fundamental, often unspoken, and sometimes subconscious insight about human nature, emotions, or common experiences. Things that reveal the “why” behind our behaviors, desires, and choices. Like the need for love and belonging. Or they could be little observations about the universal human experience.
  4. Everything we do comes back to the human brain. Most clients have a LOT of things they want their audience to hear, understand, know, and absorb. And they think the best thing to do is to simply tell their audience those things. But, since they’re normal humans, their audience only has an infinitesimal sliver of interest in what your client is selling and the attention span of a fruit fly. We must be ruthless about simplification.
  5. Strive for work that feels uniquely human. Intelligent, fluid and woven together as a story. Stories lift our clients above the din, grab attention, and make their messages memorable. Not every client asks for this, by the way. Not every client wants it. But they should, because this is the kind of communication that moves people.
  6. Every project, no matter how small, is a creative opportunity. There are no small projects, only small thinking. That Linkedin post, that flyer, that two sentences of web copy – it can all be great.
  7. Ask the stupid questions. The so-called stupid questions are very often the right questions. Most people, myself included, tend to be incomplete communicators. So a basic question helps to ground the conversation and fill in the gaps. Better to ask than guess.
  8. The wrong answer might be the right answer in disguise. People seem all too ready to reject ideas. But an idea that doesn’t work might serve to inspire an idea that does. Jot down every idea, revisit them often, and hone in on what’s interesting about them. What did you like about them for that split second when it left your lips or was transferred to ink on paper?
  9. Wander beyond the barn and into the wide open fields where the sweet grass grows. In other words, don’t settle for your first thoughts. Have them, but then explore the world of possibilities and see what there is to see.
  10. One good idea begets other good ideas. Coming up with ideas should be fun. And once you have a good idea, it reminds you what that fun feels like. And that feeling helps you come up with even better ideas. It’s like a flywheel! Weeee! Plus, you know you have something, so you relax. And once you relax, all kinds of things happen. You feel confident enough to go farther afield.
  11. Always be “on brand.” The brand is the system, the chosen pattern for generating trust. Applied consistently, it will become the signal the brand is known for. Applied inconsistently, and it’ll come off as the orchestral pit tune-up before the symphony.
  12. Always deliver more. Give the client what they asked for, what they forgot to ask for, and what they needed but perhaps didn’t realize they needed. I mean… don’t kill yourself. But do please look for ways to solve more of the client’s problem(s) than what was requested.
  13. All creative choices should be in service to the idea. We don’t do things just because we like the way it looks or sounds. We’re not clever for clever’s sake. We choose clarity over ornament.
  14. Take your time. Yes, even when you have no time. Once you slow down, the work gets easier.
  15. Don’t be afraid to start over, or do another version. Working through ideas, we can sometimes tie ourselves in knots. Sometimes it’s better to crumple the paper and begin again. It’s in the repetition of a task that we sharpen our craft and improve our output.
  16. Study. Dig. Do the work. Visit the client’s factory. Read the product reviews (good and bad). Talk to the end customer. Use the damn product. When I worked at a training company, I did their team workouts 3-4 times a week. I talked to the exercise scientists. I learned the physiological processes that contribute to physical improvements.
  17. There are a million ideas in the universe. For every project you work on, there are almost endless possible solutions. For every area you explore, there are a thousand other idea “solar systems.” The idea that something can be done quickly is premised on the notion that you won’t be doing much creative exploration. Which means it likely won’t be very creative or very good. At Pinwheel, our clients hire us to go out there.
  18. Process often determines outcome. Successful creative projects generally start with a good brief, a reasonable timeline, and good collaboration between client and agency. Woe be the creative who thinks the brief, timeline, and process are set in stone. They usually aren’t. So do not be afraid to advocate for a process that will lead to a better outcome.
  19. Be original. Some say there is no such thing as originality – that every idea is derived from other ideas. Maybe so. But, by definition, an original idea is one that you have not seen before. So even if it was inspired by existing ideas, they sparkle as fundamentally new creations.
  20. Simplicity is a superpower. With so much clutter in our information environment, the only things that stick are those that are extraordinarily simple. So don’t put anything into the world until you’re confident it’s the simplest, clearest thing out there on the subject.
  21. Work the idea. Having a good idea is just the beginning, so resist the urge to simply reproduce the idea on the page. Keep playing with it, fine tuning it, honing it, imagining it in different ways. Design, then redesign. Write, then rewrite. Then rewrite again. You’ll find that sometimes all it takes is a simple tweak to turn something good into something positively brilliant.
  22. Feedback is an opportunity. Keep your feet on the ground and resist spinning. When the feedback comes, however off-base it may be, treat it as an opportunity to make the work better than it was before. Apply your creative genius to the new draft.
  23. Great work doesn’t always get approved. Oftentimes our clients posses a keen sensibility and know quality work when they see it. But it does happen that perspectives can be skewed by the biases born of being submerged in company groupthink.
  24. The music is not IN the piano. People can become obsessed with the tools of the trade. The computer software, the AI machines, the big screens and the little ones. They are truly impressive, but they also tend to narrow our thinking and mute our creative genius. Their limits show up in our work. So remember, the creative genius is in YOU. Put the tool down and pick up a pen.
  25. Swing free. Our wonderful clients have a lot of things they want to say and many parameters for us to remember. Sometimes it’s best to put all that to the side and write what moves you. That’s how you become great. Chances are, if you’re not moved by what you’re doing, nobody else will be and you won’t be able to persuade anyone.