Where left brain meets the right
Lizané Connoway is a creative director at Prezence, a digital agency. She tells Margaret Harris that the job requires her to come up with creative, out-of-the-box ideas one minute and work on a spreadsheet the next
WHAT does a creative director at a digital agency do?
Being a creative director is about being responsible for the creative output of the agency. To break it down, it involves everything from bringing great ideas to life and developing high-level concepts for design projects to ensuring the small details, such as a font size or colour, are correct and contributing to the larger vision. It also involves working with clients, pitching designs and understanding clients’ needs. I’m sometimes required to physically create designs. At other times, I’m responsible for recruiting and managing third-party service providers as well as internal design resources.
To sum it up, my department is responsible for the final front-end side — what users see and how they interact with our products — of whatever the agency develops and, in a wider view, solving business ideas creatively.
Creative directors are found in all sorts of marketing agencies, but the difference in a digital agency is that it also involves knowledge of the development technologies.
For instance, a major element of the products Prezence builds for our clients is the user experience, which is all about the journey the user follows and how they interact with a product. This also involves the front end of the product, so overseeing the user-experience team is also part of my job.
There’s a lot of creative work being done, but my job also involves managing team members and schedules and being involved in cost estimates, budgets and certain aspects of production.
What was your first job and how did you get from there to where you are now?
Like most people, I did my time waiting tables, but my first nudge into getting to where I am today came while I was working as a production assistant for a TV company about 13 years ago. For some reason I don’t remember, we desperately needed business cards at short notice. Not thinking much of it at the time, I volunteered to put something together using Microsoft Word, of all programs. It didn’t seem like much to me, but the overwhelmingly positive reaction from everyone in the company got me thinking that maybe there was a career in this.
Although I’d always been an “artistic” person, I’d never really considered building a career on that. From those business cards and a few courses later, the rest is history.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
I’ve always had a keen interest in art and creative expression, but growing up I definitely wanted to stay away from applying my creative mind in the context of work because I thought it would kill that side of me. So, coming from a family of doctors and showing something of an inclination for it in my grades at school, I always thought I’d be a doctor when I grew up.
What qualifications do you have and how do they help you to do your job?
I have an art school background, which is something I did when I still thought I’d never work in the creative industry. I also have a graphic design and web development diploma from the Vega school of advertising and an internet development specialist diploma. These qualifications have given me the grounding I need to work as a creative in the digital industry and provide me with the theoretical basis in creative work, and digital know-how.
What qualities do you need to have to be a creative director?
The most important quality is a left brain-right brain balance. Being a creative director means that one moment you’re liaising with your team, throwing in ideas and feedback on the creative work being done, and the next you’re sitting in front of a spreadsheet doing research and costings for clients.
Together with this left-right balance, you also need to have a bigger vision of projects while still keeping an eye for detail. You also obviously need to be creative, but you must also have a deep understanding of technology and development and what’s possible and not.
The most important qualities for a creative director are those that differentiate a creative director from a designer. Although you get to play in the creative field, as creative director you are also in an oversight position.
What would you do if you were not doing this job?
A couple of things, actually. Not too long ago I travelled to Cambodia, where I woke up every morning looking forward to shooting the incredible vistas and amazing people in that country — I’d love to have been a National Geographic photographer.
Another career I’d have loved to pursue is to be a sculptor, which is what my dad is.
Lastly, with it not being that dif- ferent from my current career but marrying another of my passions, I’d have loved to pursue a career in digital music production.
What is the best career advice you have ever received and how did it make a difference to your career?
A friend once told me: “Play is the currency of our destiny.” I see this as meaning that if there’s passion and enjoyment in what we do, we’ll not only enjoy and be proud of it, but it’ll also show in the work we produce.
Having worked in jobs where I had no passion for what I was doing, I can say that there’s honestly no point in spending nine to 10 hours a day doing something you don’t enjoy.
What would people find surprising about the work you do?
I think the idea most people have when it comes to being a creative director is that it involves spending all day producing unicorns and rainbows for clients. Although exercising my creative muscle is definitely part of the job, I think most people would be incredibly surprised by how much administration and management there is to this position.