On the value of centering
A former creative director explores the role of strategy through the pottery making process.
Last week, this article by Ed Tsue: “Why Your Creative Briefs Suck” made the rounds at Current Forward HQ. There was a lot we agreed with, and a couple of things we were left unconvinced about. But one thing we thought could use more examining was the roles that various relationships play in the creative process.
To best explain the process, our Head of Creative used a creative metaphor. (And you don’t need to be an expert in pottery to understand it.)
The clay = your client.
There are different kinds. Porcelain is soft, delicate and difficult to work with. Balcones Dark is stiff, gritty and forgiving … much easier to work with.
Wedging = the relationship.
It’s how you set up the project for success. You establish how the clay feels, you do your best to prep it for going on the wheel and getting it to defy gravity. How well you wedge sets the tone for your endeavor.
Centering = the strategy.
Centering is the hardest, but most crucial thing to learn how to do. It literally affects every aspect of the form you’re about to try to make on the wheel. You can likely get the form up and running if things are a little off center, but there’s potential to fuck it up in so many ways if it’s not centered. Nearly all issues with all other aspects of forming the shape can be traced back to how well the clay is centered. And it’s pretty black and white with little margin for error, because it’s centered or it’s not.
Everything else = the creative.
Is it a bowl? A plate? A cylinder? Are you adding a handle? Are you painting it wet on the wheel? After it dries? After the first fire? After the second fire? Not at all? All of the above? Some combination not mentioned? How are you going to trim it? Is it too wet to trim? Too dry? Should you have covered it with two pieces of newspaper and plastic or just a single piece of that softer plastic? Are you carving it? Adding to it? Glazing it? How much silicon is in your glaze? How much copper? How much iron? Is the glaze food safe? How do the glazes mix? How hot should the kiln be? Hotter on first fire? Hotter on second fire? The glaze looks different at cone 6 than it does at cone 10 and what if it explodes? You get it … so many things.
You can do all these things to a vessel whether it was centered or whether it wasn’t, but every one of the decisions made in how it comes to life and how the world sees it is a distinct and public choice. And in the client world, every word and pixel is scrutinized by a huge group of people — your peers, your boss, your boss’s 2+ bosses, the client, the client’s 10+ bosses … and then the frankenmonster you’re responsible for is then scrutinized by everyone in the industry and then general public. And at the end of the day, your parents still won’t understand what you do all day at work AND it won’t have sold enough widgets and someone will say, “it shouldn’t have been a blue mug with a smooth handle, if everyone had listened to me, it would’ve been a green mug with a braided handle and it would’ve worked goddammit.”
But the truth is that no matter what color it was or what kind of handle got put on it, it’s a little off center and a little misshapen and so it will never go in a museum where it’s on a pedestal and people wander around just so they can walk by and admire it one more time. But yeah, if it were green, which is the CMO’s daughter’s neighbor’s dog’s favorite color, then it would have saved the company.
All that to say, we agree with Ed Tsue. All hands on deck! Take the time to learn how to center the clay and then make sure you center it every. single. time. Simply poking your fingers in the clay just adds more time and eye rolls to the process instead of value. It’s not the life or death of a human, but it can mean the life or death of products, careers and companies.
And at the end of the day, everyone can still blame the creative.
Ashley Lapin is the Co-Founder and Head of Creative at Current Forward. In her spare time she is an amateur ceramicist and an expert on the healing properties of crystals.
