Struggles of Creatives — The Dark Side of Design
“We’re hiring creative designers.” — Said every company ever.
Linguistically there’s nothing wrong with that. But, what is creativity in itself? Can anyone actually claim that “I’m a super creative person”. Probably not, so we know it’s something, but we never know if it exists in a person or not.
In this article, I’m going to explore what exactly creativity is and hopefully break some of the myths about it as well.
Fair warning: This article isn’t just for designers but also creatives as a whole.
What is creativity?
From a pure definition standpoint:
Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.
~ California State University, Northridge
But let’s break that down a bit.
The first thing a creative person need is an openness to new ideas. This also means when you give a creative person a problem they’ll start thinking about all the possible ways it can be solved. Those solutions might not necessarily be new ideas all the time
In one of my discussions on creativity, Raazia Nadeem, a colleague of mine mentioned:
For me it means connecting the dots in a way that normally people wont. ~ Raazia Nadeem, User Experience (UX) Designer at VentureDive
In fact, they think of ways to solve a problem in the best possible way. That could just as easily be through the stupidest possible way imaginable.
The second thing a creative person needs is the ability to actually follow through in some (not all) the ideas that come their way.
This one might seem pretty self-explanatory but there’s actually more to it. If you’ve got a brilliant idea but you don’t know if you should pursue it or not. The right answer is to do it.
Not because the idea itself is good or not. But how do you know if it's good or not? For all, you know it could be the single most dumbest or the most intelligent idea to ever exist.
Plus, when you make a habit of not acting on your ideas, even if you get a great idea. You’ll start to think that it’s perhaps the single most dumbest idea ever. All because you were never ready to risk failure in order to succeed.
This is exactly what creative people do as well. They risk failing to succeed.
Or in the simple words of Shuayb Khan:
Freedom of expression with no limits and bounds. Curiosity is the key which drives it. ~ Shuayb Khan, Head of Design at VentureDive
What’re creative people like?
Do they have antlers above their heads? Probably not.
But here are two ways to identify these majestic creatures in the wild.
Open to the world around them and within them
It would be helpful if they had a sign over their heads to indicate “I’m creative” but life’s not that easy.
As Jordan Peterson once said during his discussions with Marc Mayer, Director, and CEO of National Gallery of Canada.
“It’s very foolish to be creative. It’s creative people who lead the vanguard into the unknown” ~ Jordan Peterson
So if I were to translate that into words that someone as dumb as me could understand it would be something like the idea of bringing an idea to life is risky. And foolish people are stupid enough to try it despite the risk.
After all, the difference between stupidity and bravery is often the result, not the action itself.
So this tells us that a creative person has to be open to new ideas. Whether or not they walk with every idea they get is another debate. But they are open to trying new ideas and opportunities.
Jordan also talked about how we associate creativity with artists and in that light entrepreneurs and artists are very similar. Artists aim to use their art to represent ideas and thoughts. And Entrepreneurs use their strategies to bring new ventures into the light.
Both of them are risking their livelihood on the probability of success and being aware of the risk of failure.
Those guys are annoying but necessary
Creative people do not fit inside a bubble.
In fact, they’ll start questioning the existence of the bubble itself. Why is it there? Who uses it? How do they use it? What’s the context?
Stuff like that. Those guys question everything. Sometimes even themselves. Maybe that’s how we should live too. So much so that if you hire a creative person in your company, the probability of them having conflicting opinions about any given topic is much higher than anyone else.
All that makes them super annoying. But because they question things, they also have a higher probability of arriving at an answer that could make things better for themselves and others around them.
A primary example can be UX Designers. Those guys spend hours just thinking about stuff and questioning it.
Conclusion — Struggles of Creatives
Creative people are painted as these glamorous people who’re living a world of rainbows and sunshine and everything is going right all the time.
While that sounds fun, not gonna lie. But that’s not what being a creative person is. Creativity is being open to the opportunities that life gives you and having the courage to follow them through.
That might not necessarily mean every opportunity, but at least the ones you can do.
That’s also how you recognize them in the wild too. They question everything and they’re super annoying.
Well, that’s all I have for you today. If you wanna chat hit me up here.
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