We met with Gregg Palazzolo at his Design Studio the week before universities went on spring break. It was a great ‘middle of the road’ meeting; we walked away with great advice, and a renewed energy for our current and new clients.
Gregg Palazzolo is well known in the West Michigan area, currently celebrating 30 years of business. You may recognize one of his most notable pieces: the Meijer Gardens logo. Did you know it was inspired by the B-Tree sculpture?
Inspiration can be found anywhere. Keep your eyes open, always be thinking. Gregg talked about getting advice from books, art, writing, Google image searches…anywhere really. But why is this ‘getting inspired’ so important? Most non advertising people think making creative is easy. We know it’s not, but what we need to know is how important being different is.
Safe is risky, says Seth Goden in Purple Cow. It’s a theme Gregg and Frank touched on in the session. They talked about how we (consumers) are ‘wired to skip’ the usual; but we remember the unusual, we remember what’s different.
Finding out how to identify the core idea behind the brand you’re working on and translate it into a creative concept that’s fresh and unusual is how you made good creative.
So put all the usual on paper, then move on, and on, and on..until finally you find what’s different. There it is on paper, the idea you’ve been looking for.
Because Gregg did research to understand the concept of the B-Tree, he was able to sell his idea and his art. His knowledge helped drive his creative, and it’s something that he recommends to young creatives. Knowing the concept inside and out will help you find what’s different and unusual.
Check out Gregg’s work here.
Post contributed by: Andrew J. Rushmore
