“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” – Edwin Land, American inventor

When the Brilliant Ink team came together at our annual team offsite and begin rethinking our company values, one that we very quickly agreed on was CREATIVITY. In the previous version of our company values, we defined creativity this way: “We deliver the most creative work possible, within the confines of our clients’ and audiences’ needs and stated objectives.” But as we got deeper into discussion, it became clear that the way we feel about creativity runs a lot deeper than the awesome work of our Creative Director and other designers, and our ability to turn complex business ideas into compelling stories employees can understand and connect with.

What emerged was a shared desire for space to think – agency life is fast-paced, often bouncing between tasks, projects, clients and internal business activities. But we all agreed that in order to “think big” for our clients, we really need the time, space and freedom to take smart risks and offer creative solutions. We consistently block time on our calendars to think deeply about projects we’re working on and to nurture new ideas, and each week during our team meetings, we set time aside to discuss particular challenges and share creative solutions. Each quarter, as part of our Test Kitchen program, each of us pitches a new idea designed to strengthen our culture and make work more enjoyable. Together we choose a winning idea to explore in the quarter ahead, and beyond – ideas range from creating better methods for information sharing to new ways to increase our mindfulness. The Test Kitchen forces us to venture outside of our comfort zones to think of new ways to solve common workplace challenges, but it also creates a safe space to test out new ideas that might not yet be ready for prime time. And what’s more, we’re all encouraged to make use of our open vacation policy to take time away from work to reset, recharge and open our minds.

It’s our hope and belief that building a culture of acceptance and continuous improvement leads to an outstanding work product for our clients, as well as more fulfilling work for ourselves.

That’s why our new value is defined as Creative Expression: “Daring to dream enriches our clients and each other, which is why we foster an environment of risk-taking, discovery and continuous learning. We honor the creative process by giving ourselves space to think big.”