Creative Collaboration
Thoughts on the creative collaboration process
This is something i have done a fair amount of over the years; in music production projects (such as for the Orzels Machine project, with Ady Connor); in education working with multiple agencies to deliver a course or project; and with live event production or recording sessions, where many skills are required to work in harmony and for the greater good. Collaboration can be amazing, and is an essential part of the way I work, but it does require a particular understanding for it to work well.
Keep it clear
While much of the collaborative process can be flexible one very important point is to keep it clear. At the start be clear about what each party is in this for, and what they want to get out of it. Sometimes project aims are very clear with each party knowing exactly what they need to do to achieve a successful outcome, and other times the relationship and interaction between those involved is softer and less prescribed, allowing for the necessary creative push and pull in order to test the water and get to the point where exciting things are happening.
I have found that being clear as to your hopes and aims as early in as is possible is very important, as discovering halfway into a project that the person you are working with is actually wanting something completely unaligned with your vision can mean either a lot of compromise, or abandonment of the project.
Communication
Of course, some degree of challenge between collaborators can be just the juice needed to make incredible things, so being open to this, while not always easy, can be the growth of ideas and creative directions that neither one of the collaborators alone would have envisaged. So an element of risk can be good, and how much risk is down to you to decide. If you really admire the work of someone but do not know what they are like as a person, or how they work, then open the conversation! We are all people after all and this is likely the most direct way in to discover whether you could actually work together.
I enjoy talking to new people, discovering new things and creating ideas and projects from this interaction. And while this can successfully happen with purely online / remote comms, to be able to speak face to face in person really helps to cement that creative bond.