Gerry Farrell, former Creative Director at the Leith agency in Edinburgh and founder of Gerry Farrell INK spoke at CreativeMornings Edinburgh last month on the topic of ‘Ugly’. During his talk, Gerry shared some of the highs and lows of his creative career and challenged us to used his F.L.I.P philosophy when faced with a difficult situation. Feeling Less Immediately Pessimistic (F.L.I.P) is about understanding that every crises has different outcomes and consciously deciding “not to turn things ugly”.

Gerry believes that not being pessimistic can be a solution to creative problem solving and supports his theory with examples from his career in advertising. His talk was full of great advice for anyone working in the creative industries – from dealing with feedback, difficult briefs or unhappy clients – the decision is ours whether things going to work out or not. It’s easy to be cynical and work with the first idea that comes to our head but we need to study what’s out there and challenge it in order to produce better creative work.

Photos by: Eoin Carey
Video by: Future Positive Studio