Defining Yourself As A Creative

At the time of writing I will soon begin actively looking for work, and that always brings with it new challenges in terms of how to define yourself and your value. I’ve been thinking abut that a lot lately; it’s handy to write your thoughts down whilst they’re fresh. So that’s what I hope to do.

Dan the digital designer

That’s how I’ve typically described myself. It’s a handy term which can encompass a variety of skill sets and specific applications. Sometimes I don’t like this term as it feels very generic.

I’ve had a role that encompassed user-interface and user-experience skill sets and another role that put emphasis on web design across different devices and the creation of creative concepts and campaigns. I feel I’m a well rounded designer but I don’t dig too deep in any one speciality.

But does “digital designer” really give someone an understanding of exactly what I can do as a designer or who I am as a creative? I don’t think it does. Terms like digital designer and mid weight designer fit the bill;  it’s what people are looking for but those terms only scratch the surface.

I encountered the idea describing what you do in a short sentence or a set number of words. This is something a lot of agencies and studios do; “We craft ground-breaking digital experiences” and so on. I think a 7 word description was also part of an interview format in a show, and one guest responded with "Seven words do not yet define me". That was a pretty neat response (by a lady called Joan Dideon). I once tried to come up with a great one-sentence description but none of them felt right so I never settled on one. I must have written about three-dozen and they all sucked.

More and more I think of myself as a “designer & illustrator” which certainly helps to complicate the message of defining yourself, especially when I feel like what I/we/everybody are is always in motion.

Lately I try and think in terms of values, ethos and habits. Trying to scratch under the service of what I do, to find why I do it, why I enjoy it and why I hope to continue.

Creativity should be fun

When I was working at UNiDAYS I came to the realisation that one of the things that was very important was that creativity should be fun. Meetings should be enjoyable and contributing fear-free. Brainstorms should be energetic and silly. Presentations should be fun performances that everyone can input in and feel apart of. At UNiDAYS I put that ethos into practice.

If it’s not fun how can you expect people to bring their best ideas, or risk sharing a bad one? If you’re in a creative role you should be able to have fun, being able to laugh and enjoy the act of working with others. Who wants to bring their best selves to anything they think is draining and dull. (no one).

Make cool shit.

I’d been thinking about an ethos and what mine might be for a while, and it seems that ‘make cool shit’ works for me. It sounds right. I enjoy creating, I love to try things out and I love to learn. I previously wrote on my CV (years ago) that I was designer looking to “learn, grow and excel”, that was true but it didn’t feel like my tone, whereas make cool shit does sound like me. Sure it's not the most polite way to describe it; I might instead say "make cool stuff". Ultimately an ethos should reflect who you are, and I love to make cool shit. I don't mind what it is or who its for; but if I can work with a great team, put in hard work and create some cool shit I am happy. 

When you find an ethos or mantra that fits you can tell right away, because very few things will align with your tone or personality perfectly. When it fits, it fits. 

Frequency is key.

I believe pretty damn strongly that frequent time carved out to create is the best way to get better. Creative habits are key to improving, that’s been my personal experience. Challenges like my 365 day design challenge, my two month animation challenge and past writing challenges illustrate that well to me. Even the bits that don't work well teach me something. When creating becomes a habit, you take the guesswork out of when something will happen, and the fear of creating something bad eases as well.

I’ve been creating daily for about 295 days now, and that’s probably only 350-400 hours as a result of the project. Yet I can see how much I’ve developed within that time. It’s exciting to see the body of work, and the changes in technique over that time. The act of creating is worth as much if not more than the product of creating. And I would have been hard pushed to dedicated hundreds of ours to creative practice any other way.

Incremental gains and perfectionism

I don’t think of myself as a perfectionist. Perhaps I’m the opposite thinking its better to ship something rather than nothing. I do care very deeply about doing a good job. There have been times in the past where I have had to stay very late at work, several days a week for months on end. I resented the circumstances that lead to that (our design team was in a period of crunch), but I wouldn't allow that to affect the quality of my work or delivery. I didn’t want anyone to be able to legitimately point and say “Dan did a bad job there”.

Is that quality stubbornness? Either way it’s definitely a boon and a burden. I understand a creative’s desire to protect their reputation but that can also come at a great personal cost.

I’m not a perfectionist, I just don’t want to do a bad job. I think perfectionism can get in the way of doing. I’m focused on the doing, not waiting for the perfect time to do. I’ve noticed this appreciation of incremental gains, specifically in my 365-day project. If I’m about to upload an illustration and I notice a tiny error, sometimes I would choose not to correct it (if its midnight and I’m about to upload). Like all designers what I make isn’t perfect first time, I don’t need to pretend that it is; sometimes I simply prefer to see a flaw as a lesson for the future and ship what I’ve created. Am I trying to fool anyone else into thinking I don't make mistakes? Hell no. 

After all, when I think “I’m going to design for the next 287/175/121/78 days” it becomes really easy to understand that not everything must be perfect. If I'm doing it every damn day then I can apply what I've learnt in the future. 

So what have I got so far?

I’m a designer and illustrator who believes that creativity should always be fun. I aim to‘Make Cool Shit’, whatever I'm making I want to make it well; I love to create frequently and set challenges to develop my skill set and software knowledge. I'm working hard to become the best designer and illustrator I can be, and take every chance to connect and support other designers and drag them into my fun, silly creative schemes. 

How I define myself is a work in progress and it always will be. At this moment in time however I feel that what I have is a fairly accurate understanding of what I have to offer. When trying to figure out how I define myself I thought about why I did things, because that is the clue to what my values are, my ethos and the habits I employ. All those things add into the why, so I just had to work backwards. 

I personally believe that focusing on why you do things as a creative is the key to defining yourself accurately. As soon as you start to sound like a generic sales pitch (crafting digital experiences anybody?) then you're losing the bits that make you unique.

I hope this has been some help or an interesting perspective; we can learn from others as much as ourselves. Maybe one of you guys will nail your 7 word/ 1 line summary and maybe I'll finally figure it out in 10 years. 

Have a great week.
Dan

Originally penned in early 2017, edited in late 2020