Episode #7:
How to use strategy to boost creativity with Nahum Hendricks
In this episode of The Craft, Shorthand’s Rachel Westbury welcomes Nahum Hendricks, Creative Director and Production Manager at Seven West MINT.
Nahum shares how his agency embraced creative operations to produce high-quality campaigns in less time.
As Nahum says, “This concept of creative ops is a really exciting venture, for any industry. We're appreciating structure and its importance, but doing it in an intuitive way that doesn't stamp out creativity or make you seek to create uniformity per se — it seeks to create consistency and maximise creative potential.”
Listen as Nahum and Rachel talk about strategy as a creative act, the importance of leading upwards, and how to use creative operations to manage teams — without micromanaging them.
How to listen:
This episode’s guest
Name: Nahum Hendricks
What he does: He's the Creative Director and Production Manager at Seven West MINT.
Company: Seven West MINT
Noteworthy: Nahum leads the team responsible for the creative production of branded content for Seven West Media WA's commercial partners. He handles everything — from pitch to publication, and ideas to invoices.
Where to find Nahum: LinkedIn
Links from this episode
- Epic WA final campaign story — produced by Seven West MINT
More immersive campaigns produced by Seven West MINT:
- The hills are alive
- 32 things to do in Perth this summer
- Coast, Crays and Communities
- Summer Sommelier with Erin Larkin
- State of Wander
Social video campaigns produced by Seven West MINT:
- Wine matching the Akoya with Erin Larkin
- Honest Suburb Review: Freo
- Ronny Dahl’s barbecued western rock lobster
- The mysterious green eggs appearing across WA
Social carousels produced by Seven West MINT:
- The New Age Bride
- 3 Benefits of a custom, made-to-measure suit
- The Summer Shoe Edit with Megan French
- The Self-care Summer Gift Guide with Maya Anderson
Other links from this episode
Episode highlights
Use creative ops to balance strategy with creativity
“I find my creative journey has been very left and right brain, or arts and science, coming together. This culminated in a new role I was able to secure and hire for last year — a creative operations manager.
“Creative ops is more than project management, it's more than just operations… It's a frame of thinking that understands technical detail and complexity workflows, but that’s embedded within creativity.
“I was able to look at structure, and how to use that to focus your creativity, to automate it so you are free to play and dabble in the creative space. I've embedded that in the team since day one, which has been so valuable to creating our end products, creating consistency across the team, and opening up accountability. [...] It’s about leading the creatives, and giving them more head space to focus on the creative job at hand.”
Brand boards encourage consistency
“What we do is we create brand boards, which is somewhere between a mood board and a style guide. They're very helpful, specifically for our Shorthand projects.
“I would ask ‘What’s the overall narrative of this piece?’ Then we'd get our designer or art director to sit with us. Then we'd nut it out and visually present that idea.
“And then attached to that we include all the selection of fonts, colours … So that when we send that brand board off to the client, not only do they see the concept, they visually experience it.
“Once that's approved … we've got this library of content that we use, so everything aligns. We're not having to re-brief everything, every time — it's all sitting there in a document. And not only can they see it, but it's a branded experience so they can intuitively feel it too. It's actually two things: it's brought creativity together, but it's also streamlined the execution process.
“The challenge is how do we manage a team without micromanaging them? This is an ongoing grapple that all creative directors have, but for me, this was a solution that worked. You set the tone of the creative, and then people are more empowered to know what they need to do. And also they've got a reference point to come back and ask questions on.”
Don’t be afraid to lead upward
“Don't be afraid to lead upward, especially if you know you've got leadership potential, which I think many people, if not everyone, does. Going back to when I was first given that advice, I started to think about what leading upward looks like — even if it's just giving your manager confidence that you're onto something, or that you're thinking about something a little bit outside of what you're doing.
“Now, as a manager and as a creative director, it's so valuable when someone comes to you. Obviously, they need to raise the issues with you, but it's so valuable when they come to you with options and solutions. Then I feel like I'm being led and that they're respecting me by sharing this information, so I can help them with any insights.”
