7 Rules of great work

Logic builds products. Irrationality builds brands.

Portrait of Miks Bergmanis
By Miks Bergmanis Founder & Creative Director 13 years in creative agencies

  1. Rule 1: Irrationality is the rational choice

    You know the salad is better. You order the burger anyway. People don’t choose what’s right. They choose what feels right. So the most rational thing you can do is find the irrational thing that moves them.

  2. Rule 2: Strive for vanity

    Vanity gets a bad name. But no brand worth noticing ever wanted to go unnoticed. Modest brands get ignored.

  3. Rule 3: Great is messy

    Push everything through a process and you get timely work, not great work. Your brand deserves its own path to an idea made for your business alone.

  4. Rule 4: Meaning beats quantity

    When budgets are on the line, 250 slides on why it will work feel like a guarantee. Are they? No. The risk stays exactly where it was.

    Good ideas don’t need hundreds of slides. They just need to be good.

  5. Rule 5: Make room for no

    Good work comes with friction. Expect a few no’s. What you get in return is an idea that’s yours alone.

    If every idea you have gets an enthusiastic nod, be wary.

  6. Rule 6: Sow before reaping

    Every brand has two seasons: sowing and reaping. Sow interest and belonging now, and you’ll have something to reap later.

    Work & Vanity does the sowing so there’s something to reap.

  7. Rule 7: Choose good over convincing

    Machines can pump out 40 pages of convincing from a single prompt. But is any of it good?

    Work & Vanity knows the difference.

The ideas are messy. Working together shouldn’t be

  1. Introduction

    We talk through the problem your business needs to solve and agree on the scope.

    You get a clear brief.

  2. Workgroup

    Together we find the building blocks: who you’re talking to, what moves them and what your brand can genuinely give.

    You get a strategy the idea stands on.

  3. Proposal

    Ideas are presented, and the right one is chosen together. Two rounds of feedback are built in.

    You get a concept worth making.

  4. Development

    The idea gets made and launched while you focus on running your business. Then we see what it’s growing.

    You get work that’s worth launching.

Vanity

  • Gold in New use of media - ADCE
  • Gold in Creative use of Media - Adwards
  • Gold in Social good - Adwards
  • Gold in Creative excellence - Adwards
  • Silver in Creative excellence - Golden Drum
  • Bronze in Social good - Effies
  • Silver - Kyiv International advertising festival
  • Silver in Creative use of Media - Adwards
  • Silver in Creative use of Media - Adwards
  • Bronze in Outdoor advertising - Adwards

If these rules speak to you, let’s run.

run@workandvanity.com

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