With less than the three years of experience and barely two years of financial comfort under my belt, I was laid off in May. Like a lot of folks here on PFTA, the time off allowed me to have some fun this summer. But unlike a few of the contributers, I want back in.
I still want to work on something big, win some awards, and learn more. I want to contribute to my 401k and buy a bunch of expensive things. I’m young, and I’m not over it yet.
As I scour for freelance, I have noticed an overabundance of web design, developer, programming, and flash gigs. Even most art director jobs these days require interactive experience with a knowledge of flash and html. To boot, the great interactive agencies are few, and in the long term I want to work on campaigns, not just websites.
The few site and banner designs I have done are below my own standards, so they don’t go in my book. Is it time to find a place for it on my website? Is this the part where I sell out? Are conceptual art directors still going to get hired? Are non-html/flash thinkers obsolete?
I have strategic, well thought out, way out there ideas, and I don’t want to make banners that animate just because they can. I can make things look cool. I have a ton of energy and I am hilarious. I was the social queen of my last office.
When New York’s summer ends, there won’t be as many fun things to distract me from the reality of unemployment. And when the industry kicks back in, I need to be ready. So do I change? In the future, will creatives be replaced by robots? When this industry bounces back, will I still fit in?
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Cristin Burton is a New York based Art Director. You can view her work at http://www.cristinburton.com
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Guest posters are saving my hide. Check out @ideservbigadgig’s post about how being creative might not be enough: http://bit.ly/VKwDE
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
I’m in a similiar boat myself, not too many years in, but I still want to stay in the biz. As a copywriter the shift isn’t as dramatic, but it’s still very real. It seems like interactive agencies are hiring more than regular ones. I can think digitally but can I write code? I wonder how much all these things will matter.
Well said Cristin. I agree with your post 100%.
And I hope there is still a place for talented art directors who are passionate about doing good work.
The times are changing, we must change with it.
Golublog, yes, as a copywriter, you should know how to at least write HTML code, so you can turn your copy over in a web ready format. As a copywriter I’ve been asked to do so from time to time since around 1996. It’s a simple skill that makes you more marketable.
It’s very likely the ad industry is not going to bounce back to the levels it was five / ten short years ago. There simply may not be the need for as many creative people in the field for many years coming. Are the newspaper or magazine industries ever really coming back? No. Many are folding. No one reads them anymore. Thus less places to put ads. Less need for creatives to make ads.
That being said, people who say they desire to continue working in advertising (like Cristin) must increase their skills and learn Flash or whatever it takes to make yourself more competitive in the job market. There will still be an ad or two to write for a mag, but the shift is to the internet. Shift with it.
C Burt Rocks. RT @ideservbigadgig My guest post on Please Feed the Animals – http://tinyurl.com/mb33nd thanks @eproulx !
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Cristin: thank God you want back in. This business needs people who are passionate about creating good, engaging stuff. It just hasn’t fully realized it yet.
You’re partially right. To succeed today, you need to be as passionate about creating a LinkedIn program as you are about getting a shot at TV. You never know where either idea will lead. Further, there’s no such thing as a “digital creative” or a “traditional creative.” Every piece of communication is digital now, from billboards to magazine ads. By that I mean: if your work isn’t leading to a digital on-ramp, it’s sitting there.
Not all traditional people can learn to think that way. But I’ve also observed that few digital thinkers can handle that equation from the other direction: just because they can come up with a cool flash animation, doesn’t mean they know how to bring people to its entrance. They don’t know how to get the attention of people who don’t want to be bothered.
Learn all the digital tools you can, by all means. Learn to integrate your thinking into the digital landscape. But never stop selling yourself as someone who comes up with the big ideas all the little ideas fall out of. That kind of thinking never goes out of style, and it transcends media.
Nice post, Cristin. Your enthusiasm and conceptual skills (I checked out your site) will inevitably keep you in the game.
But, if you’re seeing the tide change, why not take the time off you have and, say, take a Flash class? Or even just read some books and hit the web if the class is too much $$. If you don’t have banners you’re proud of, then just re-do your own portfolio site in a more elegant and functional manner. Show of your web skills THERE. (I think a lot of creatives fail to realize that today, you’re judged on the quality of your site, not just the work it showcases. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should reflect an affection for the digital space, be easy to navigate and give a good a sense of your work.)
But maybe the bigger question is: don’t you WANT to learn these skills? Do you view it as a hassle? If you aren’t excited to learn them, that’s fine, just aim your career in a direction that suits what you WANT to be doing. I’m a writer, and learned HTML back in 2000 just because I genuinely thought it was cool. A lot of people thought I was wasting my time on it, but I just really geeked out on it, regardless of what I would gain from it professionally. And yet, eventually, it really set me up for the latter half of my career.
Conceptual art director and interactive art director can be one in the same.
Cristin,
Idealism is wonderful. I’m filled with it myself. But yes… if you have interactive work, it should be in your book. Before I had interactive I loved, I had interactive I didn’t. That’s just the way it goes. I’ve now started my own shop, and as you can imagine get 100 emails a week from young creatives looking for work. I wish I could hire everyone, but the reality is… what my passionate desire is, and my business need is are different. And, my business NEED is the capability to work across all mediums, particularly interactive. Concept will never be dead. Ever. But the package it comes in has changed. I’m in my mid 30s, a copywriter by trade, and I am trying to learn HTML.
No matter what happens one thing is sure. We need great creative to stand out, get attention, be remembered. But forget about art direction of old. Be creative in the new spaces. I have no doubts, having seen all the changes over 30 years in this business that new media, new forms, digital, mobile and social will dominate and replace what’s been. But ideas and brilliant executions will always be in demand. Change. Change fast. Stay creative.
Personally, I’ve done a lot of interactive and social media work. Even technical stuff like SEO, reputation management, and Wikipedia. However, I am not so concerned with putting it in my portfolio, unless I think it represents my very best writing and ideas.
For sure, the best way to learn new media is by doing. But rather than a thought process of “We Gotta Make Banners,” our writing/art/concept mojo will always be the most important thing to improve on.
Sally Hogshead and others have truthfully pointed out that any kind of marketing technology or media is a tactic, not an idea. Any tactic, no matter how new and shiny it may be, still needs a great strategy and a great idea behind it. Tactics without ideas and strategy tend to fall flat. Example: Big-name brands leaping into social media without an idea behind it, resulting in a resounding thud.
Of course, we still need to push ourselves to learn the new tech, so we can apply our skills to it and help this business evolve.
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