Dogs and creativity

Our school puppies fighting

In the brochure of the Miami Ad School there´s an article about how owning a dog can make someone more creative. They also want to motivate people to bring their own dog. Some of them already did (see picture above). The biggest prove, according to the article, that dogs improve creativity is that the best creatives in advertising own a dog.

In my opinion, claiming that a dog influences creativity is just as bullshit as claiming that a cat has a character. Although I have to admit that the best creatives in Holland do own a dog. I think it's not the dog itself, but the responsibilities you have can help someone being creative.

Let me explain why. You have to let a dog out at least twice a day for at least 20 minutes. This forces you to get a rest at least twice a day. And resting proves to be vital for the creative process. The biggest inventors of the world didn't work 24 hours a day. They got their best ideas during rest. Thomas Edison, for example, liked to go fishing without a hook. This way neither fish nor man could bother him.

It's kind of a paradox. At the moment you need creativity the most, right before a deadline, your body makes adrenaline and tells you to panic. But what you really need is to calm down in stress situations.

The opposite of dogs (rest) is art-directors (stress). I'm working with two art-directors now and both of them have -let me put it really nicely- a different way of looking at planning. One of them came to school right before it got dark and we had to make a shooting in daylight. This way we had to hurry like hell to make the pictures. The other one is gone for a whole week and before friday he has to make about 10 executions. They both make excellent work and it will probably be fine, but if they just plan their work a little better, they wouldn't get on my nerves and I don't need to call them every time. Aaaarch!

Well, I guess I just need to calm down a little more. But I don't need a dog for that. I have my good old kickboxing classes.