So I’m a creative. So what. That’s one of those broadstroke, high-altitude descriptors that boarders on the pejorative. Use creative as a noun, and you’ve conjured up the image of some ratty-jeaned dilettante who spends all his discretionary income on Red Bull and salon haircuts. (Hey, I just described myself).

Sure, we get to write/film/design for a living, but I’ve always maintained that, professionally, what we do is more craft than art. We’re tradespeople, like carpenters or electricians or steamfitters. Yeah, the ideas we have and the solutions we recommend can have beautifully artistic components, but form always follows function.

So, if some black-turtlenecked type with lozenge-shaped glasses tells you your communications strategy should “emote a genuine resonance” or “bespeak the segment-centric zeitgeist” or some such malarky, run screaming in the opposite direction.

Creative we may be, but there are ways to keep us in line (and ways we keep ourselves in line while we’re at it). Tug McTighe over at American Copywriter offers up a smattering of suggestions that do just that. The lesson is that when creatives (cough, cough) and clients work together, the results are bee-yoo-ti-ful.

Example thus:

Too often, we create concepts out of thin air based on poorly written briefs or for ill-conceived projects. So start with research, do benefit testing, interview consumers of the product, watch them at home, whatever . . . Respect each other enough to try to do it right the first time versus wasting two weeks concepting a project without the proper insights or account planning.