Category: Links

Great quick read by Zeldman today that is getting the ol noggin’ moving on this slow Monday morning.

Zeldman brings up an interesting theory about the creative ARC. Basic theory = “young practitioners often argue passionately about theory while older practitioners tell stories and draw pictures.”

He asks at the end of the post where we are in our careers. Here is my response:

Like many of the folks that have already commented, I feel I’m falling in the middle of this “arc”.

I think I’m still finding my own personal style (do you ever really find it though?), so keeping up with the buzz and not falling behind is very important to me. At the same time I feel a lot of my design ideology comes from experience and just stuff that’s in my head.. this, I think is how i keep my designer soul intact. I feel I have to because it’s why I got into the business.. to be creative and solve problems.

I’m find it is also important to know what the hell you’re talking about and merely being creative doesn’t cut it in our business. You have to back up your understanding of UX to really be relevent. There needs to be reason behind a design and I don’t think that hinders your creativity, I work with some traditional creatives now and it’s been in interesting experience seeing the big differences in the two. I’ve also been tasked to help them understand more about how I work, and that is where being in the “middle of the arc” is coming in mega handy!

Where do you fall in the “creative arc”???