Creativity Squared: Roving for Inspiration with Fanny Josefsson

[I would describe my personality as] astute, funny, obsessive, creative, reserved until I’ve assessed you. My partner would agree on most, and probably add insane. 

 

I think creativity is 100% both something innate and something you learn. I was the kind of kid who loved to draw, write, dance, record my own songs on endless tapes (yes I’m an elder millennial). I always had that drive to express myself creatively. But working in a creative field takes a lot of discipline and many, many hours of honing your craft. That adage about how it isn’t work when you do something you love – just not true. On the flipside, I think the ad industry needs to open up to people in fields that are not traditionally seen as creative. I find it super inspiring to talk to innovators in other fields, who use their creativity for different purposes. 

As an inherently disorganised person, routine is necessary. I cling to it like a shipwrecked sailor to flotsam. I guess part of why I feel routine is so important is that having one allows me to temporarily abandon it without feeling like I am completely losing it.

 

For example, I don’t have a desk at home, but build one from scratch every morning from other items I have at home… 

I pull inspiration from everything, everywhere! Less so from ads (excluding the odd piece of content that makes me barf with envy) more so from books, TikToks, illustrators, weird old content I find on YouTube… I need to roam to find what I need, then drag that piece of content back to the advertising enclosure. 

 

How do I assess whether an idea or a piece of work is truly creative? 

Are we amused? Have we seen it before? Does it give you that aha moment? Does it solve a problem? Does it expand your thinking? Would we enjoy making this piece of content? Could we involve a partner we’re excited about?

 

I see/read ideas much in the same way now as I’ve always done, but my awareness on why/how/when has grown drastically.

  

My work for the NFL sits at the top for me. I’ve since made things that probably beat it, but the NFL was the first piece of work that made me feel truly accomplished. Attached a pic of me smiling like a lunatic by an infinity pool in the hills of LA. Awkward Swedish person did a 180 about there, somewhere. Plus, as a Swede, I had to get a real crash course in American football courtesy of my then-partner. It was interesting… I led our fantasy football league for six weeks before the trades and injuries got to me. But it ended up being some of the most fun shoots I’ve been on. Imagine yourself suddenly in a Malibu basement teaching DeAndre Hopkins yoga poses with a ventriloquist dummy ogling from the home gym. 

My other favourite project must be the Smirnoff ‘Infamous since 1864’ brand spot I shot at 72andSunny. We worked with some incredible people, the best at their craft really, and I learned so much over the course of the project. 

 

Investigating the brief is number one. Your strategy partner is worth their weight in gold, that partnership is everything. Even so, most briefs benefit from a creative once-over before they reach the teams’ eyes. So, pressure testing the brief always comes first. Then, reading reading reading. Doing research, open discussion. Then, gathering thoughts, ideally on a whiteboard so you never have to spend too much time with the bad ideas you had to get out of your system. 

The problem? You rarely have time for this process to run its proper course…  

ChatGPT is super interesting. It can help you set a baseline – sometimes help you decide what NOT to do as it’s by definition derivative. It can spark thoughts! BUT I am wary of using it much, really, I’m somewhat a luddite. 

Partnership is everything. It’s not just running things past them but a constant collaboration. I’ve been blessed with some real good ones, too, currently Sho Matsuzaki. And as a creative director, I find it’s more productive if you treat 50% of creative reviews as brainstorms. The other 50 – pretty top down.

Sleep. 99% effective [when it comes to getting past the tricky bits of a project].

 

Advertising was never the plan, but a happy accident. I grew up always craving that creative outlet, but it conflicted with what I saw as a ‘proper’ job. No one around me worked in advertising, it was just never on the table. Instead, I went to school for architecture (which was fun for a year before AutoCAD kicked in) and moved to Berlin (fun but not very productive). My best friend decided to try her hand at advertising, and after her first semester at Miami Ad School Berlin, I decided I wanted in. I never really looked back from that. 

I grew up in Stockholm, Sweden with fewer TV channels and smaller cars. I was big on books, always reading and always drawing, obsessing over old school cartoonists like Carl Barks and Don Rosa. Mostly, I think, I was obsessed with humans and stories. The unexpected, the weird, the Greek and Roman myths of it all. I read my history books from cover to cover. I was transfixed by medieval stories and thought about becoming a nun (lol) a la Hildegard af Bingen. 

I did Miami Ad School Germany (now Miami Idea School) which was incredibly helpful as a base – they’re super strong on conceptual thinking and that really helped me build my book and get my footing. But there are so many parts about advertising you won’t learn until you start working. That for me was working with Sam Shepherd and Frank Cartagena at Deutsch NY. 

Ah, stress. Don’t we all have a complicated relationship with stress? For me, bursts of stress help kickstart my creativity, but the problem with the whole industry (or life?) is it doesn’t give you enough breathing room to catch up with yourself. 

I thrive on a certain amount of stress, clutter, being a little hungry (literally) helps when ideating – like having a tiny rock in your shoe, being a little uncomfortable, on edge helps when you’re venturing into the unknown. It spurs me to elevate and expand the way I think about problems/solutions. 

Inspiration. I get mine from the most diverse places, artists like David Shrigley and Han Holbein, IG accounts like @Publicdomainrev, illustrators like @benkalt, comedians like @gertiebird. Photographers like Sam Youkilis. Writers like Naomi Fry. I started making clothes during the pandemic as a secondary creative outlet and that really helped me. Sculpting in clay. Roving for inspiration and letting whatever expression that wants out, out is my philosophy. It doesn’t stop in the Ogilvy lobby – but I also don’t put any pressure on my creativity outside work. 

Platforms like TikTok help us stay nimble in our thinking, but obviously it challenges old ways of thinking about production etc.