Creative Directions: Mastering the Transition from Talent to Leader

by Jason Sperling

Welcome to the Age of Creatives, where more and more makers, designers, writers, and artists are in demand. Learn how to succeed at managing other creatives … once you understand the new strategies and mindset that are required.

For creators, getting that promotion to management is exciting but can also be scary. The skills that made them so successful may not translate to the skill required to be a great manager, and this gets even more complicated when managing other creatives who often don’t thrive under traditional management procedures.

Creative Directions is a management masterclass in which readers attend lectures and seminars as they learn from some of the best in the business, including directors Ava DuVernay (When They See Us) and Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame); two-time Academy Award-winning editor Angus Wall (The Social Network); executive producers from hit TV shows like The Simpsons and GLOW; and creative directors and leaders at businesses like Amazon, Apple, Disney, TikTok, and more. All of these lessons are provided in an attractive, easily accessible format so that readers can open the book to any page and find some actionable or inspirational insight or strategy.

Readers will: 


Receive essential guidance on how to master the delicate balance required to successfully lead a creative team, like how to relinquish control while keeping the focus where it needs to be.
Learn from star creative leaders in the entertainment industry on essential lessons they learned on their path to success.
Gain insights on how to balance mastering the new skills you need as a leader with finding the time and energy to focus on the creative work you love.
Enjoy the snackable, easy-reference format that makes the lessons easy to implement and apply.

Genres: Design, Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Art Design, Art

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2021

Reviews

[Liudmyla Stelmakh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Неочікувано хороша книга!

[Viktor Lototskyi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about the transition from doing to leading, written for creative people, can be easily applied to IT.

I liked the structure with a few major subjects like Team, Clients, Career getting split into more granular 'chunks of wisdom'. Each of those has a 1-page essay from the author and then a couple of 1-few paragraphs comments from the sharks of the industry.

This is a good book for someone who's new to the subject, but might be a bit shallow if you already read a couple.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book I wish I had about ten years ago. But it's still a great read no matter how senior or junior you are in the industry. Sperling's a former agency guy (you know his work) who's now the global executive creative director at Facebook. He rounded up some amazingly talented creative people from top agencies as well as companies like Apple, Beats by Dre, and Amazon to talk about various aspects of creative directing. Each page is full of blurbs from people like Angus Wall, Jeff Goodby, and Lance Jensen talking about managing teams, managing clients, balancing doing the work vs. judging the work, etc. He even pulls in a few Hollywood names like Joe Russo and David Oyelowo to have them talk about the creative process and selling ideas. I underlined a lot of passages in my copy, and I'll revisit them frequently.

READ IT IF: You're in a business where you have to be creative and manage other creatives.

[Anya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I expected.
Very insightful and I liked the down to earth narrative. The summary of important points are helpful after each chapter. Some are more self- explanatory than others but important to remember nonetheless.
The quotes and illustrations throughout fit perfectly and I felt they would do great as mini posters or stickers in the office.
For me personally the only thing that got a bit tiresome was the many very short anecdotes and I found myself having to break up my reading. I'm a huge fan of inside information but I wished there would be fewer people talking about one point and paragraphs would be a bit longer.

Altogether I can recommend this to anyone in the creative industry that gas thought about a management position or is newly anointed and would like to read up on it.

Thanks netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creative Directions is a must-read for anyone navigating the perils of creative management. As an author assistant focused on helping authors achieve their publishing goals, I found the book particularly insightful and applicable to the world of writing and storytelling.

The book acknowledges the unique challenges faced by creatives transitioning into management roles.

One of the standout features is the emphasis on the delicate balance required to lead a creative team successfully. This resonates with my interest in helping authors not only produce great content but also manage the business aspects of their careers effectively. The practical guidance offered in the book provides actionable insights that authors can apply to their own journeys.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an arc. All opinions expressed are my own.

[Abdulwahab Abubakar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book for people who are transitioning into creative leadership. It eases you into the world of management where you don't have to feel guilty for feeling or holding on to the day to day of creating like you used to when you were a junior.

It also has insights from different creative leaders in film, advertising and writing. Highly recommended for everyone in the creative space.

Definitely worth a revisit.

[Anna M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall the book was full of good advice but it was not for me a I am not in a creative role with clients. Ultimately I think it would be great for the right audience. I have read other managerial books and it is easy for the chapters to turn preachy. I believe this book is different since it has so many interview responses from people in the field. It shows credibility and allows the slightly different perspectives to be shown. I ended up reading through it quickly and DNFing it.

[Daniel Wertz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very few books are written about the intersection of leadership and creativity. As someone who is relatively new to leading creatives, this book was very helpful from a leadership, content creation, and career-development standpoint. Content was solid and the person accounts from other Creative Directors was very insightful.

[Nadia L. Hohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn’t exactly the book I thought it would be. I thought it would be about creativity. Instead, this book contained a lot of information and quotes about the transition from creative to leadership.

[Xanthe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book. Really helpful with good tips.

[Vovka]

A friend wrote this book, so I won't give it a star rating. It's a nice book full of advice for leaders of marketing creatives.

[Andy]

DNF.

[Robin Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for creatives who have moved out of day to day design and are now leading other creatives.

[Greg Strommen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Highly recommend for anyone transitioning from “do-er” to manager. Short ish read/listen, really digestible, but a lot of good nuggets. Will be recommending for people at work.