I’ve been in this business just long enough to remember when art directors did marker on paper comps. My memory is slightly romantic, but it seems to me that the alternative using stock photography for comps is in a way “F*©king with the magic*” of the creative spirit of custom photography.

I know these days that client’s, especially visually unsophisticated clients, want a “clear picture” of what the agency is pitching and to what they are “buying”. The look, the feel, the taste but there are downsides and some liability concerns.

The first is that clients fall in love with the comp, so much so that I have actually convinced Art Directors to, “just buy the stock.” Why fight the emotional connection a client has for a stock photo. The downside for the client when buying stock especially for brand building, is that their competitor across town may have fallen in love with the same stock image. (This happens more often then you think.)

The next issue is that a client loves the comp and wants it “copied.” There is no percentage amount of changes that makes it safe to copy. Copying is copying. You can be inspired. You can be encouraged by an approach. Even the underlying concept or idea may be taken, but let us be a little more creative than copying. Again if the client loves it that much, buy the stock.

Finally the magic. If you are like me, and you love advertising and design and you wonder where the magic has gone? It might be because we are not trying hard enough. We blame the budget’s, we blame the time deadlines, we blame our clients. Those all of course play a factor, but I blame laziness and the fact that we as a community of creatives fall back on safe.

Don’t take this the wrong way, I have a clip file, I call mine “sparks,” a collection of cards, magazine pages, ad’s, things I find on the street, my daughters iPad drawings, snapshots I make on my walk to work, movie notes, dream notes, favorite music video’s. Of course this is where I go to to get “fired” up for an idea.

But I miss the day’s when art director’s sent me marker comps. The perfect script to build something new on. Something we could collaborate on together. To deliver to the client something better than they could see in their minds eye.

Hell, if you are going to use photos in comps and you want me to shoot the job, at least ask me for pictures from my archives, at least then I know the image I am competing with.

“*F*©king with the magic”” to quote Mel Karmazin (then CEO of Viacom when talking about Google.)

Tags: Advertising, Advice, Art Direction, Collaboration, Creativity, Design, Inspiration, Photography, stock

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