stay different. stay real.

Confession: My Creative Process

August 13th, 2014

different with logosWith the launch and acclaim of Hotel Zed I’ve been asked a lot lately about my creative process and how I come up with these, well…” out there” ideas?! The same has been asked of Accent Inns’ Different in a Good Way campaign and philosophy. So here goes:

  1. Follow Passion

mandyMy business card says Bike Lover on it, so obviously I’m a little nut’s about riding any kind of bike. That being said it was super cool to apply my love of bikes to make Accent Inns one of the most bike friendly hotel chains in BC (maybe even the world!). Showing my passion allowed my team to show theirs and now we are probably the most Motorcycle Friendly hotel chain around!

The same goes with our pet friendliness, our rubber ducks and most importantly Accent Inns down-to-earth “real” (not scripted or fake) people with amazing customer service. It’s what we are passionate about.

  1. Journal

I cringe writing this down as a point because it sounds so Oprah-esque, but truth be told, I’m an avid Journal-ist. Ever sinceMandy writing in her journal grade 3 I’ve kept one on the go, except now I keep at least three handy: one at work for work ideas, inspirations and lessons learnt. Another at home to record the inanities of my children and family life. And then yet another one solely devoted to dreaming crazy fun ideas for any facet of my life: goals, party ideas, opportunities, bucket list, playlists, doodles and of course out-of-the-ordinary hotels. It’s this last journal that has no form, rules or structure that allows my most interesting ideas to start taking shape.

  1. Test the Waters

Once I latch hold of what I think is a good idea, I slowly start quizzing my husband, friends, and even my kids. I’ll take their feedback and tweak my concept playing with it in my free-form journal brainstorming, mapping it and turning the idea on its head. Once a rough concept starts emerging, I’ll bring it to the Accent team for them to tear it apart, add to it, expand, prune and manipulate it until we got the right recipe for success.

Mandy Farmer
Accent Inns / Hotel Zed
President & CEO

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