Creativity Squared: Chris Ching on the Importance of Unlearning and Trusting Your Process

Chris Ching is an associate creative director working on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia.

His Chinese name is Wu Shin, which means ‘star of martial arts’. He doesn’t know any martial arts. Prior to advertising, he washed dishes, worked in investment banking, and produced a sports website, before discovering he could make a living using his words.

Since then, he’s used them for clients like KFC, CommBank, Coca-Cola, and Telstra, across agencies like Ogilvy, The Monkeys (now Droga5), M&C Saatchi, Cummins&Partners, and currently, The General Store.

Person -- What kind of creative person are you?

Chris> I’ve always loved words (my favourite word is “benign”, thanks for asking). I love playing with them, breaking them up, smashing them together. I love how the right combination, in the right context, can completely change someone’s perspective.

Despite this, I think I’ve struggled all my life to allow myself to be creative. It’s taken about 12 years in advertising to unlearn a lot of the black and white that had been programmed into me throughout school, university, and a short-lived finance career, and slowly start to see all the beautiful colour of creativity again. I’m busying myself learning all the ‘rules’ of advertising, so I know when and how best to break them. I’ve always loved that Picasso quote, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

I think this applies to creativity in general.

Product -- How do you judge the creativity of a piece of work?

Chris> At its core, I think that judging the creativity of a piece of work is pretty simple: it has to move you. Of course, there are lots of ways something can move you, so that’s where things get a little more complicated. But if you can move someone from how they currently think about something, to a new perspective, or how someone feels presently about something, to a new emotion, that is creativity. And, usually, the more you want to move someone, the more creative you need to be.

Another way I like to think about it is from the audience's perspective. What has it ‘created’ in them? Has it created an emotion, a new way of thinking, a space to hold for others? Sure, an artist creates a sculpture, but if that sculpture also creates a feeling of love, sadness, anger, or understanding in their audience, isn’t that what they’ve truly created? Deep, huh?

Process -- Tell us about how you like to make creative work

Chris> Words are my safe space, so I start with them. When I get a brief, I usually run hard and fast and as wide as possible with all the taglines, headlines and shitty puns that come to me. I’ve realised I need to get them out of my system. Only then have I cleared enough space to do some actual thinking.

I’m old school. 2B pencil and paper. I usually divide the page into a grid of boxes. Then I fill those boxes with words. These might be insights, taglines, ideas, you name it. Boxes help me keep my thinking singular; they help with proliferation — I try not to take a break until I fill the page; and they also help me see the forest from the trees.

Over the years, I’ve gotten much better at trusting my process. Knowing my tempo, when and where I work best, when I need to step away, when I need to lean on others (Answer: Often and Heavily). I think the competitive/needy part of me still wants to crack the idea all by myself.

But the wiser part of me knows that the most fulfilling projects are those where everyone takes ownership of the concept and feels like it’s theirs — clients especially. It might not be the purest form of creativity, but it’s definitely the most fun and rewarding way to work.

Press -- What external factors have shaped you?

Chris> My grandparents were born in China and Burma, my parents were born in Sri Lanka, and I was born in Australia. It’s been a wonderful mix of cultures to grow up in. My mum has also worked for airlines most of her life, so I’ve been lucky to have traveled a lot. I’d like to think all this has kept me open-minded about how people and the world work. These days, I’ve got three little girls, so it’s been great seeing the world again from scratch and rediscovering creativity through their eyes.

I’ve worked at a range of agencies, from multinationals to indies, under a range of creative leadership, from narcissistic to neurotic to nurturing, and every in-between

They’ve all been brilliant in their own ways, and the exposure has meant I can put on any of their hats in any given situation and ask the questions they’d ask (I believe experience is just knowing what questions to ask). It’s also helped me figure out what kind of creative leader I want to be.

It might seem obvious, but the people around you matter. I’ve found it helps to be in environments with push and pull forces: people who can push you to be better and pull you up when you need it. Support can come from anywhere, and I’m so grateful to have had these people around me throughout my career.

As for where the industry’s headed, I honestly don’t know, but I also believe it’s out of my control. As long as I get to make great work, with great people, and have some fun along the way, no words could express how lucky I feel to get to do what I do.