One interesting trend is the two extreme poles- Creative versus Practical.

On the Creative end, these people are defined by their unlimited amount of creative juices flowing between their ears. These people can churn up wonderful and unique ideas. They have the ability to come up with “WOW!” results and often is capable to sweep everyone off their feet with indigenious ideas. However, very creative people are often those who miss deadlines and usually don’t give a damn to submissions guidelines and clients expectations.

On the Practical extreme, these people are extremely logic oriented, task-driven and well planned. These people delivers on time, and within the expectations of the clients. They are very logical about the objectives and milestones they set, and tend to have a very realistic approach in everything they do. They ensure risks are well managed and if can, eliminated. However, don’t expect “WOW!” results from them. Their job is not to impress, their job is to deliver on time, everytime.

Well, to be pratical, no one is at any one of the extremes mentioned above. All of us are either skewed towards one end or the other. I am not sure which side gives a higher chance of client satisfaction and quality results, but I feel that each projects will need different treatments. You shouldn’t ask someone who’s very practical to work on a project that requires groundbreaking technology and to deliver cutting edge results. Or neither you should ask the artsy-fartsy designer to deliver results within a very tight time constraint.

Eventually, it all boils down to delivering the results within the given constraint. And it will be definitely up to us to tackle each projects either from the Creative perspective or using a more Practical approach. The rule of thumb here would be knowing when to cut off, knowing when is the last finishing touches and when it’s time to tell yourself “Enough!”.

A perfectionist might have a problem with that.

What are your views on this?