Creativity versus constraints!

Hi everyone

Hope the semester started well!

The 2nd Anniversary of the Golf Club of Four Seasons Mauritius at Anahita was yesterday and it was a success!

We were expecting around 15 invitees and we actually had 25 persons present. The press conference also went smoothly and today I had to draft a french post release but did it in the form of an email with a summary of the main points to send to the journalists.

This week my work was focused a lot on research and finishing the presentation for the General Manager. I am discovering that a good PR person should have a keen eye for details!

Today during my placement, I also had to work with Rhena, my supervisor, to design a print ad for a long weekend that's coming up in Mauritius. March 12 is Independence Day, hence a public holiday here and another public holiday is on the 16th of March. This means that Mauritians will have plenty of time for relaxation. So, the sales and marketing department chose to advertise in the local media. Usually this is for advertising section but the resort does not have one and Rhena is the one who usually designs the ads.

To start with, I had to do research on previous ads that have been designed by other major hotels and resorts to have an idea of where to start. This yielded practically nothing particularly interesting and hence we had to rely on our own imagination and creativity. I came up with a couple of lines but we could not use that for the simple reason that we did not have a picture that would speak more than words. First constraint!

So Rhena worked on writing up a more detailed text for the ad and sent it to her two heads for vetting. As different individuals, they obviously had different opposing opinions and all had to be taken into account and text modified accordingly. Second constraint!

Then started the design of the ad (I learnt how to use Photoshop basics on the spot!) and that brought about the third constraint. We were to use one specific photo for retention and recall purpose but we did not think that it was adapted to our text. We then made the choice to find another that would be more appropriate even though this was not the initial idea.

In this end the ad was finally designed but was a lot more different than what we initially had in mind. These were simple constraints but they affected the creativity and artistic value of the ad. There may be other constraints that could crop up- time constraints, budget constraints, technological constraints etc.

Did anyone come across any other kind of constraint during their placement, which affected the creative aspect of their work? And if yeah, of what nature and how did you deal with it?


Cheers

Tavinia