Method: Emma Barnett
She made one of the most-cited Nike films of the decade, and she walked us through how she actually works.
Emma Barnett is a Creative Director on Nike at Wieden+Kennedy Portland. She started as a designer at W+K and has spent most of her career there. Her work includes Nike’s Dream Crazier, the LeBron return-to-Cleveland film Together, the Jordan Unbannable film, and Kobe’s tribute Be Better.
We sat down with Emma at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, the same building where she has spent almost her whole career and made the work she is known for. We covered a lot of ground, trying to get at how Emma actually works, both as a creative and as a creative director.
Emma held nothing back, and the conversation went deep. Below are a few of the highlights. The full thing goes well beyond them, on the site as a single 34-minute breakdown.
As always, the clips above are only a slice of what we talked about. You can check out the whole conversation on METHOD’s site. The entire breakdown has Emma talking about the following topics:
• When the Brief Sounds Like a Headline
• On Learning How to Handle Anxiety
• Simple Enough to Seem Obvious
• Say It in One Sentence or Start Over
• Less Precious More Creative
• The Anxiety Changes but Never Leaves
• Maybe It Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect
• See What It Could Become Not What It Is
• Good Clients in a Way Are Good CDS
• Trust Comes from the Work You Do Together
• The Airport Test for Hiring
• Present Like You’re Talking to a Friend
• Happy Creatives Will Give You More Ideas
Related Breakdowns
If you liked what you heard from Emma, you will probably like some of the other conversations in the METHOD® archive. Here are a few clips from other breakdowns that expand on some of the threads Emma touched.
BIANCA GUIMARÃES (Partner / ECD at Mischief)
Emma likes briefs that sound almost dumb. Bianca Guimarães, who runs Mischief in New York, goes in a similar direction. She is always hunting for briefs that offer a simple one-liner she can start working from.
LEO & FELIPE (Founders / CDs at PORTO ROCHA)
When Emma hires, she looks past the portfolio for the human holding it. Felipe and Leo, who founded Porto Rocha, hire on much the same instinct: critical thinking, vibe, and realness over a perfect book.
About METHOD®
The whole point of METHOD is to bring clarity on how great creative work is actually made. We hope you walk away with at least one thing you can put to work in your own method.