Creative Planning: Skills Needed and Key Components
- Leia Emeera
- Jul 15, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 2
At its core, project management is based on structured planning to manage time, budget, and resources. For artists and creatives, this art planning could mean tracking each stage of progress or working on preliminary sketches.
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Several elements contribute to strong project management skills for a successful outcome. Since we’ve previously discussed time management in this article, now let’s turn to the next key skill: planning for artists and creatives.
Why is Planning Important for Creative Projects?
This may be a self-explanatory question, as the nature of project management is good art planning. But what exactly does this mean?
Good art planning should detail the steps and necessary resources to complete a creative project, including all information needed. This art plan needs to be made carefully and thoughtfully. Without a structured plan, it’s likelier for you to miss deadlines and go over budget—among other things.
The benefits of proper planning in creative project management include inspiring confidence, producing better quality output, and mitigating risks. So, what skills do you need to plan optimally?
Skills Needed for Better Creative Planning
Skill #1: Adaptability
You and your plans should be able to adapt to any sudden changes during the process. This may include leaving leeway or buffer time for tasks or simply being willing to change details. However, a good art plan doesn't automatically become adaptable—it typically requires ongoing reviews of your work and your creative environment. Flexibility to adjust plans relevantly is important, as not every plan will go exactly as intended.
How does this impact your creative growth? Stay ahead of the competition in an environment as competitive as the art and creative industry by observing the shifting trends and consumer preferences. Ultimately, this can help you, as an artist or creative, develop your adaptability skills. Venture to unfamiliar areas to learn and make mistakes—because trial and error is what makes creating art rewarding.
How do you start practising this adaptability skill?
Be proactive: Always monitor any external factors that could impact the production or reception of your project.
Be open: Embrace change and leave your comfort zone—which artists should be quite familiar with. Let go of any fears you may have and allow your creative energy to take course.
Skill #2: Attention to Detail
Attention to detail in your creative plans includes consistent checking for overlooked errors. Once you are able to limit possible errors, naturally productivity and efficiency will increase. This contributes to more accurate predictions of the time and resources needed.
Once an artist practices a detail-oriented work ethic, how would it start reflecting through their work? This practice requires time and patience; however, with consistency, you’ll grow to be dependable as an artist.
But try to keep a certain balance; don’t conflate “attention to detail” with "perfectionism." You’re human, and that’s a quality that makes art so charming. So, while it is good to be able to catch errors in your creative projects before they are made, it is just as important to know what to do with mistakes. If you get creative with your solutions, you’re practising your artistic skills.
How do you develop this attention to detail skill?
Limit distractions: It’s hard to exercise attention to detail if your space and mind are cluttered. Turn off your notifications, put on your earphones, and clean your office to get peace of mind.
Distance: Put time and physical distance from you and your project once in a while. You may be so absorbed, that you forget to look at the bigger picture. Take a breather, and then assess your progress.
Conscious attention: Start with what you're passionate about. Try setting a personal goal of practising creating art by paying extra attention to details from your reference’s environment or objects and reflecting them onto your art. As it becomes a habit to pay attention to objects, it will reflect across your working progress.
Skill #3: Data Analysis
Numbers and data tell stories, and this still applies in the art industry. While you shouldn’t let them dictate the art you create, it is important when it comes to plans within project management.
Analysing data in project management includes forecasting trends and habits that can influence decisions made. Or, it could involve analysing productivity rates or the performance of you and your team. In the end, it will help you with resource allocation planning and provide security and peace of mind in your projects.
So how exactly does data analysis pertain to you and your projects, as an artist? You can leverage data to build and strengthen your portfolio. If you can get a hold of this information, you can have a solid profile that would look good to future employers or clients.
Moreover, data can help you understand your own progress and track if you often fall behind timelines or if you go over budget. Observing this would help you take the initiative to communicate or reflect on challenges you may be facing.
With the Insights feature in TESSR project management software, you can access your performance data and better understand your potential. You can arrange discussions with your team leader or manager to identify challenges and even explore new opportunities to support your growth.
How can you start applying this?
Start tracking your work progress: Understanding your current performance helps you spot out if you are ready for new challenges or if there are unspoken issues you have not noticed. This will help you prepare for the next steps and revise your daily or future plan if needed.
Stay ahead of your team’s capacity: If you are a team leader or manager, leverage the data-oriented part of the project management app to gain insight into your team member’s completion rates and workload. This data can support both your current and future planning, which translates to the optimisation of your time and resource projection.
Main Components of a Creative Project Plan
Project Overview
Start by defining the project’s purpose and goals. In this first step, you need to prepare the creative vision, objectives, and target audience to establish a solid plan to start.
Project Scope and Deliverables
Once the project overview and goals are set, you need to outline the project scope, such as what is included and the final outputs or deliverables. You also need to clearly define the formats and required specifications to avoid misunderstanding later on.
Timeline and Milestones
Next, prepare the project timeline to estimate the start and completion dates. Additionally, the estimation date needed to have key milestones, e.g., when is the deadline for sketching, first draft, final revision, and publishing?
Only after all is settled can you break down the task and plan for each team member to complete the project based on goals, deliverables, and following the timeline. You also need to assign or act as a timekeeper to make sure that all tasks are done on time.
Budget and Resources
Working on a creative project doesn’t mean you can ignore planning for budget and resources. Start by planning a project budget that includes costs for materials, software, and marketing needed. Then, you can list down tools needed, such as software subscriptions, hardware (camera and tablet) rental, or external vendors. Only after that can you look for the project funding sources, be it from client payments, crowdfunding, or grants.
Team and Roles (If it’s a collaborative project)
When working on creative collaborative projects, you need to plan and allocate team members to the necessary roles, such as artists, designers, editors, and marketers. Additionally, it's important to assign specific tasks, from illustration, editing to project promotion, to prevent overlapping roles or missed assignments.
To streamline collaboration and track progress efficiently, project management software is a must. TESSR can give you an extra hand with the My Work feature to help you organise and manage tasks more effectively. You'll also get direct access to our two new features: Scene Hub, which helps manage scenes, and Insights, which allows you to track team members' task performance and enhance team collaboration.
Also read: Review & Collaborate with “TESSR Review”
Creative Process and Workflow
With the timeline, schedule, budget, and team settled, you can now move on to the creative process and workflow. First, gather your team to align and brainstorm creative concepts, ensuring everyone understands the project they’re working on. Only after that can the team begin sketching and drafting, creating the actual artwork based on the agreed direction, followed by editing and refining the deliverables.
Risk Management
Even with a solid plan, it's essential to identify potential risks such as missed deadlines, creative blocks, or software crashes. To mitigate these challenges and keep the project on track, develop backup strategies and alternative workflows.
Conclusion
Not every skill on this list may come to you naturally, but that does not mean you should give up on it. We’ve well established its importance, so you can practice and develop these skills for the greater good of your future creative endeavours.
Author Bio
From Malaysia, Leia Emeera is a writer at TESSR, and a published author. She has been putting pen to paper ever since she learned how to, and has an anthology to her name, titled 'Ten'. Leia loves music, games and her beloved labrador retriever, George. She aims to further her studies in English Literature and Creative Writing the moment her gap year ends. 'Till then, you will find her sitting behind a desk, writing with TESSR.
Connect with her on LinkedIn: Leia Emeera
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