AWARD School tutors Loz Maneschi and Jimmy Williams on why not having a f*cking clue is more useful than you think

On the day after the AWARD School Graduation, Jimmy Williams and Loz Maneschi – Cocogun creatives and 2024 tutors – reflect on the power of approaching creativity with a beginner’s mindset.

Going into an experience, course or brief knowing nothing: we’ve all been there. It’s uncomfortable. It’s not a great feeling. But after tutoring AWARD School ’24, we think there might be a reason or two to run towards the fire without knowing how to wield a firehose.

Again and again, students asked us “what makes a good idea?”. We didn’t give them the answer. Well, at least not straight away. The case studies and advertising handbooks would come, but first, we thought it’d be more interesting to see what they thought a good idea meant. We wanted to see their unfiltered perspectives, free from the influence of past work or personal experience.

Our test group of unassuming students, most of them new to the advertising industry, rose to the challenge.

One student – Rhys Kenny – responded to a poster campaign brief for tattoo removal by drawing freshly cleaned skin hanging from a clothesline. Being presented with this unhinged, hilarious, insightful scamp was our course highlight.

(Rhys Kenny’s poster campaign submission for tattoo removal service Removery)

Rhys’ raw creativity came from going with his gut, without relying on tried and tested methods or previous ideas. There was certainly no self-auditing involved. His response was an exercise in honesty and originality, teaching us a valuable lesson that we will come back to again and again in our careers:

Sometimes knowing less can lead to more.

Of course, we have to do real life work outside the sanctuary of AWARD School, where many factors tailor our thinking, from budgets to client feedback. This can trap us in familiar patterns of what works and what doesn’t.

Dan Weiden famously said it best. “See, when you don’t know, you try desperately to find out. But the minute you think you know, the minute you go – oh, yeah, we’ve been here before, no sense reinventing the wheel – you stop learning, stop questioning, and start believing in your own wisdom, you’re dead. You’re not stupid anymore.”

While experience and knowledge are important, we’re going to be approaching projects as if we’re new to them from now on. Strip our (metaphorical) skin and hang it on the clothesline of fresh perspectives, if you will.