For many designers like me, we assume that the external brand mythology that creative agencies project to clients and competitors is a seamless reflection of their internal values and culture. Sometimes this is true, but often the perception and the reality could not be more different. In this article I try to uncover how and why we sometimes experience a disconnect between how a creative agency externally brands themselves and their work and how their internal values are actually made manifest by leadership, teams and individuals.

Finding out what’s behind the music

Like a great rock band, what we see as the shiny surface of the creative output of an agency and how they choose to brand themselves can be very different than the dynamic that happens behind the scenes.

Like most people, I love watching documentaries about how bands at the height of their fame crash and burn through dysfunction and infighting. Inevitably for brilliance to flourish things have to get messy.

Most creative agencies are far more tame — no trashed hotels rooms or Rolls Royce’s crashed into swimming pools—just the occasional late night at SXSW or a post holiday party hangover.

That said, there is plenty of industry drama. People get fired. People leave. Studios get acquired. Stuff happens. Like any company, creatively-driven agencies have internal cultural problems that sometimes run counter to the external brand perception many companies are tirelessly building.

Even more challenging is the fact that most creative firms that are charged with building brand systems intended to mitigate subjectivity and problems for clients, have their own set of internal challenges. This is just the nature of being human and running companies. We are always chasing perfection, optimization and consistency.

For a client or potential hire, uncovering the difference between the perception and the reality of how a creative agency really operates can only be achieved by talking to people that have been on the inside and have real experience with the agency, its partners and its team members.