Today marks the first day of spring in the Northern hemisphere, and many will be thinking about having a good ol' spring clean.
But what if we need to spring clean our creative lives too? What if we're living among the clutter, with things we no longer need? Just as a good spring clean strips things back to what actually matters, the same discipline applies to marketing and brand strategy. Who knows, it may even help you create one of the best rebrands of the 2020s.
We spoke to three creatives to find out about their spring resets.
For Bethany Lesko, partner, design at Lippincott, AI has turned the creative process into a shortcut to perfection. "We can now conjure a hyper-realistic photograph in seconds, skipping right past the napkin sketch," she says.
"But in chasing that polish, we’ve lost the 'messy middle' – the beautiful, collaborative friction where ideas actually grow."
So Bethany has set a spring resolution. "This spring, I’m letting go of gloss. I’m returning to hand-drawn designs, heart-led writing, and the joy of creating alongside others. Spring is for rebirth; let’s celebrate our humanity by getting back to our shared roots."
Daniel Binns, global CEO at Elmwood, thinks we need to pay attention to change in the creative industries. "The pace of change in our industry is breathless. Technology disruption, endless consolidation, AI platforms democratising 'good enough' – it's a lot. And in all that noise, many agencies have accumulated habits, processes and propositions that quietly stopped serving them a long time ago.
"Spring is the right moment to ask the hard question: what are we actually holding onto, and why?
"The temptation is to chase speed and efficiency," says Daniel. "To optimise. To automate. To keep up. But that race has a dangerous destination – because if 'good enough' is now available to every brand at the click of a button, then competing on fast and cheap is a race to the bottom agencies simply cannot win."
A real spring clean is about going back to basics, says Daniel. "It means genuinely understanding what your clients need – not what they're asking for, but what will actually move the needle for their business. It means cutting through an overwhelming sea of information to surface the insights that truly matter. And it means channeling all of that into creative solutions crafted with real intention and skill – work that doesn't just perform, but leaves an indelible mark.
In a world where average is automated, the agencies that thrive won't be the fastest or the cheapest. They'll be the ones bold enough to ask not "is it good enough?" but "is it exceptional enough?"
Lucy Taylor, partner, business & brand at BigSmall believes a good spring clean is all about simplicity. "Work has a tendency to get weighed down by layers of process, overcomplicated storytelling and the belief that scale automatically creates impact. In an industry increasingly defined by speed, that often makes ideas harder to understand and less effective.
"A genuine spring clean means being more disciplined about what actually drives value. The strongest brands are built from the inside out, with a clear sense of direction that helps teams cut through complexity rather than add to it," she says.
"That means letting go of endless campaign versions and strategy language that obscures the real challenge. Simplicity remains one of the industry’s most powerful tools. When teams move with clarity and precision, creativity becomes more confident, more memorable and ultimately more impactful."
Are you going to have a creative spring clean? Let us know in the comments.
