An exploration of Creative Ops for the overwhelmed, disenchanted creative professional and the
organizations that rely on them.

Ask yourself right now, at this moment, “am I proud of my work?”

black and white photocopy of an image of a man's faceair logo on a transparent background

Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe “meh”.

But the answer should be yes.

And for far too many of us, it is not

Maybe you won an award

Maybe you earned a headline.

Maybe you got a raise.

But are you proud of your creation?

Humans now capture more than two trillion images and videos per year,

and generative algorithms are already responsible for billions.

Every business trying to sell or market a product today needs an ever-increasing amount of content.

square polygon with circular hole cut outcircular disc
900m text

People need to work with images and

videos every day during the work week.

brown mountains in a desert landscape
~68M Creative Pros
~900M Communicators
~4B Consumers
illustration of a gray colored flowers on a red orange background
text that reads "more"
illustration of a gray dandelion against a red background

teams,

content,

channels,

pressure on creatives

We’ve brought on more
tools to templatize and democratize creative work —all it has done is created more
freeway traffic at night
We’ve brought on more
tools to templatize and democratize creative work—all it has done is created more
chaos
picture of rainbows emanating out from CRT monitors
picture of rainbows emanating out from CRT monitors

Phase 1 — 1990+
Digital Professionals

Adobe
PowerPoint

Phase 2 — 2010+
Democratized Creation

Instagram
Canva
TikTok

Phase 3 — 2022+
Generative AI Takeoff

OpenAI
Stable Diffusion
Dall-E
Midjourney

We are our own
worst enemy.

We are responsible for shaping the brand,

but we no longer have the capacity to

influence it.

We need tools that allow us to scale our

judgment, and to distribute it into other

teams and processes.

Returning the time to think, debate, go on

a walk, or do absolutely nothing.

Clear your head, be totally unstructured,

free — this is how to generate something

truly original.

close up of an index finger with a tiny caterpillar on top

Creative minds need time to do

nothing

A love affair with the unknown.

Every day, creatives head out into the unknown

in search of the new and powerful; in search of rare creative seeds.

And once a seed is discovered, these creatives aim to develop it into something original, comprehensive, and compelling.

But it all starts with the vast

unknown and the perennial appeal

of exploring it.

Today, the unknown is as magnetic

as ever.

orange rose on an orange red background
orange rose on an orange red background
Original work is impossible without

We need a factory, a container

for our thoughts, ideas, and

priorities.

One that syncs across our

technologies, our teams, our

worlds.

A language that understands the

complexity of our work. Where

working files are as important as

the ones we publish.

In this world, there is no

definition of done.

time.

We need a factory, a container

for our thoughts, ideas, and

priorities.

One that syncs across our

technologies, our teams, our

worlds.

A language that understands the

complexity of our work. Where

working files are as important as

the ones we publish.

In this world, there is no

definition of done.

Opportunity is everywhere but everywhere needs to be

Everything is expanding.

Everything is proliferating. Everything

is shifting. And we cannot be scared.

There are more sources of inspiration

than ever. There are more people

bringing ideas to market than ever.

More tools to help us do things better.

More platforms for our ideas to live.

This might feel

overwhelming but it

HAS to be understood as

empowering and enabling.

explored.
monument valley
A noble challenge:

Culturally relevant art that achieves a desired goal.

Potentially, the single most difficult thing to do today.

It’s not art for the sake of art. It’s art for the sake of

impact. If you fail, well, back to the drawing board.

If you succeed, it is truly fulfilling.

originality
finger print close up
Automation
gives us
time
to be original.

Finding better ways of making decisions —

automated ways of orchestrating our influence

around the organization — will define our

capacity to be creative.

Our success depends on the ability to

efficiently scale the production and

distribution of high-quality decisions.

We must tie together the micro

decisions of the creative process.

clock diagram
Without
automation, we
cannot foster
the space to be
magical.

Decentralized organizations sifting through the chaos of content,

iterations: all of this requires a

new way of working.

There will never be one tool that solves this but there can be a

unifying language that translates it — that can tame it, and

ultimately create that space.

infinite number of email statues lined up
infinite number of email statues lined up

“For us to be successful, we need to automate everything that can automated, in order to have the capacity to do the things we can’t. If you can create the capacity to be magical, then you might have a chance to do it.  How can we create space?”

— Andrew Robertson, CEO BBDO

skateboarder doing a trick in midair

I don’t recognize you

anymore.

That potentially beautiful idea,

no matter how big or small it

may have been, doesn’t look or

sound like it used to. Like it

originally intended to.

Stripped

horse pencil drawing

Butchered

close up of raw beef
the word, hollowed out
landscape photo with a hole burned out of the middle
an astronaut falling in space

Sloppy process, pulled in different conflicting directions without a

grounding centralizing force, takes our high-potential concepts (and our

human creative integrity) to the shed.

They don’t stand a chance.

Sloppy process, pulled in different conflicting directions without a

grounding centralizing force, takes our high-potential concepts (and our

human creative integrity) to the shed.

They don’t stand a chance.

Yes, these are our realities.

This future won't be created by the existing.

Orchestration is the future of creativity.

The need for speed, today, is real.

But managing speed is, mostly

poorly managed.

Bureaucracy is real. But,

bureaucrats can be managed. Managed

up. Managed down.

Uninformed opinions are real.

The helicoptering professional-

parent is a staple of the process

that needs to be understood and

considered.

Feedback loops are real… but

vicious. How do you keep it

constructive and committed to

progress?

Uncertainty is real. Is human

creativity on the brink of a new

dawn or Armageddon?

It used to be that making content

was hard. Now it’s making *sense

of it* that’s hard.

Yesterday’s systems just don’t

cut it.

circle with text lined along the circumference

Orchestration creates space.

We need a system of record for the creative process

We need something new.

Not just new tools, but a reframing

of the problem itself. We need to move

from thinking about how to organize

our creative assets to thinking about

how to orchestrate them.

This shift from organization to

orchestration is at the heart of a

new category: Creative Operations.

Creative Ops is the process, people,

and tooling that channels creative

assets into productive use. The tools

that enable orchestration will become

the new center of the creative

tools universe.

close up of blown up gray colored rubber balloons

If every company is a media company,

and media companies are creating more and
more content

and more and more content has to be
evaluated by creatives,

and creatives need this work to be original,

and creating original work requires space,

and space requires automation,

and automation is only possible through
orchestration…then

Creative Ops is a requirement for every company.

If every company is a media company,

and media companies are creating more and more content

and more and more content has to be evaluated by creatives,

and more and more content has to be evaluated by creatives,

and creatives need this work to be original,

and creating original work requires space,

and space requires automation,

and automation is only possible through orchestration… then

Creative Ops is a requirement for every company.
black and white close of up a membrane structure

Creativity is a deeply personal process. A process that is

claustrophobic and averse to encroaching forces that,

intentionally or unintentionally, kill momentum and potential.

These forces aren’t all external. Sometimes they lie within us.

Sometimes it is our own doubt and skepticism of our work that

needs a minute to sort itself out.

Creativity is a deeply personal process. A process that is

claustrophobic and averse to encroaching forces that,

intentionally or unintentionally, kill momentum and potential.

These forces aren’t all external. Sometimes they lie within us.

Sometimes it is our own doubt and skepticism of our work that

needs a minute to sort itself out.

woman looking at the sky through a camera
Humans
need
Because the creative
mind is claustrophobic.
the word, space
the word, space

Ideas need to breathe. They need to scream a bit.

they need to get stretched and twisted. They need to be added to.

Trimmed down. Stress tested. Hated on. Loved. They need a good

night’s sleep. Because maybe that small idea can be a huge idea.

Or maybe that one good idea, said differently, becomes

an iconic idea. The idea is only as good as our ability to put

it through a process. A fair process that is truly and honestly

aimed at helping it realize its potential.

Process that provides the space.

vertical stack of notebooks

Ideas need to breathe. They need to scream a bit.

they need to get stretched and twisted. They need to be added to.

Trimmed down. Stress tested. Hated on. Loved. They need a good

night’s sleep. Because maybe that small idea can be a huge idea.

Or maybe that one good idea, said differently, becomes

an iconic idea. The idea is only as good as our ability to put

it through a process. A fair process that is truly and honestly

aimed at helping it realize its potential.

Process that provides the space.

Ideas need
Because breathing room unlocks potential.
the word, space

All the thankless, manual parts of the creative process are

usually where it all breaks if not managed well.

It is where great feedback is lost.

Where bad feedback gets overvalued. And creative walks

the line between memorable and forgettable.

view of empire state building at dusk

All the thankless, manual parts of the creative process are

usually where it all breaks if not managed well.

It is where great feedback is lost.

Where bad feedback gets overvalued. And creative walks

the line between memorable and forgettable.

Process
that provides
The power of a grounding, centralizing force.
the word, space

Towards a system record.

We need something new.

Not just new tools, but a reframing of the problem itself. We need to move

from thinking about how to *organize* our creative assets to how to

*orchestrate* them.

This shift is the heart of a Creative Operations system: the process,

people, and tooling that put creative assets into productive use.

The objective of this system is to automate decision making so

that creatives can focus on high level work... or nothing at all.

abstract black and white line drawing

Creative Ops is a
system of record for the creative process:

an automated
orchestration tool.

asset creation diagramcreative operations diagramend use points diagram2 way sync arrows2 way sync arrows

Think about all the powerful automation that surrounds Salesforce.

Think about how much more productive sales teams are thanks to this automation.

As with sales, the creative process has common patterns.

But none of the existing tools have invested in data structures

that can really support them, instead settling for flimsy concepts

like “tags.” “Tags” might help you organize your content, but they’re

not nearly structured enough to enable process orchestration.

We need to standardize on much more robust concepts — Approvals,

Versions, Campaigns, Boards, and so on — before we can

automate key parts of the creative process.

Creative Ops solves the most pressing business problem of our time:
Originality
Creative Ops solves the most pressing business problem of our time:
Originality
a person's hand holding a glass or acrylic object that is the same size and shape of a smartphone

Today is the future of
Creative  Ops

In a world of endless content the only thing that matters is the real-time

understanding of how much content you’re building, where all it’s going,

who’s using it, and how it’s performing.

Creative Ops is not an idea, it’s a system, and it’s built for your ideas.

purple terrain topography mesh grid
Ideas need space.
Get Space to Breathe


Speak with someone from our team  and we will send you a beautiful, bound copy of this manifesto.
Get Space to Breathe


Speak with someone from our team  and we will send you a beautiful, bound copy of this manifesto.
Ideas need space.
Creatives need Air
view of the sky

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