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Our chief cre­ative offi­cer on the lessons “Project Run­way” holds for cre­ative directors. 

Watch­ing Project Run­way won’t make you the next Diane Von Fursten­berg, but it could put you on the path to becom­ing the next Dan Wieden. Tune-in any Thurs­day night at ten o’clock and in one hour you’ll observe many of the dos and don’ts of being a cre­ative director.

Let’s start with the dos, as demon­strated by Tim Gunn. While Tim is best known for his catch­phrases, he’s also the con­sum­mate cre­ative direc­tor. (Not coin­ci­den­tally, Gunn is the chief cre­ative offi­cer for Liz Clai­borne.) Here’s why:

He never imposes his own taste on the con­tes­tants. Rather, he tends to cel­e­brate sen­si­bil­i­ties that are dif­fer­ent than his own. In essence, he doesn’t ask, “Do I like this?” but instead focuses on what really mat­ters: will the tar­get audi­ence like it. As a result, he’s uniquely skilled at main­tain­ing objectivity.

He doesn’t dic­tate solu­tions. Gunn doesn’t say, “Make this red, make this longer and make this fuller”; he says, “I’m not sure this color is right, we’re see­ing an awful lot of skin here and I’m con­cerned there may not be enough vol­ume in this area.” Fol­low­ing up with his trade­mark “Make it work” is sim­ply his way of say­ing, “it’s up to you to find solu­tions you’re com­fort­able with.”

He’s always hon­est, never prej­u­diced. Tim isn’t afraid to speak his mind. As a result, design­ers know where they stand with him. And he eval­u­ates the work based on its mer­its with­out being influ­enced by a designer’s prior suc­cesses or failures.

He main­tains his com­po­sure. Emo­tions are con­ta­gious in a cre­ative envi­ron­ment. When the leader appears con­fi­dent, every­one is con­fi­dent; when the leader appears pan­icked, every­one pan­ics. Whether deliv­er­ing glow­ing praise or harsh crit­i­cism, Tim never loses his cool.

On the con­trary, fash­ion designer (and Project Run­way judge) Michael Kors con­stantly demon­strates what not to do as a cre­ative director.

He’s lazy. Kors dons the same t-shirt and blazer on every show. He claims it’s because he spent so many years wor­ry­ing about his attire that he’s earned the right to stop try­ing. But mak­ing excuses for being unin­spired is, itself, uninspiring.

He rests on his rep­u­ta­tion. Like many cre­ative direc­tors, Kors seems to be think­ing, “I’ve accom­plished a lot in my career, so even if I say some­thing mean­ing­less peo­ple will think it’s bril­liant.” He fails to rec­og­nize that hav­ing achieved suc­cess doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily qual­ify him to help oth­ers do the same.

He’s destruc­tive, not con­struc­tive. It’s easy to say, “that dress looks like a garbage bag,” or “those pants look like they’re from an M.C. Ham­mer video.” It’s much more difficult—and much more valuable—to explain where a designer went wrong and what he or she could have done dif­fer­ently to achieve a bet­ter result.

The Project Run­way finale is quickly approach­ing, but I’ve already picked my win­ner. Tim Gunn, you’re in. Michael Kors, you’re out. Auf Wiedersehen.