Alright, this isn’t a post on Moby Dick - I haven’t actually read the book, unfortunately… No, these are simply the ravings of a mad woman who has had too much christmas grub and too little time outdoors recently (don’t take what I’m ranting about too seriously).

Having spent a good few weeks away from ‘creatives’, I’ve started to wonder about the word as a label.. And I realised, we cannot differentiate ourselves from other individuals outside of the ‘ad world’ by claiming the word as our own. No one seems to understand what you do when you tell them you want to be a creative at an advertising agency - it shouldn’t, but it bothers me slightly and I’ve never really cared for the label of ‘creative’ as a whole. Sure we are creative people - some of the most brilliant and artistic minds in the world arguably - but being a creative is more than being placed in a section of the agency office. After all, agencies are heading into a time where eventually there won’t be sections in the office, where creativity will be a requirement not just for one aspect of the agency but in all. And I’d like to think that even if someone is not part of the ad world - they’re still creatives. There is the potential to be creative in any line of work you find yourself in and you don’t really see them calling themselves ‘creatives’.

Creativity is an artform whether is it writing, painting, building something, developing a new drug, making a chart - indeed some things are more artistically seen as creative than others but all are relevant. I just think that yes, as ‘creatives’ we do do a variety of things rather than just focusing on something in particular like writing - but that does not mean that we own the word as a whole - you never seem to see a singer or actor or director or designer call themselves a ‘creative’. They’re creative people with one passion. We are creative people with many. Its almost as if our various passions for all things creative have left us in label limbo, nowhere land. And this for some reason or other troubles me.

We are labelled as such not because we lack passion or commitment to one genre of creativity but because we are passionate about so many we simply cannot choose one. But I feel as though, in a way - it belittles all the other areas which require a focus (it doesn’t but my mind works weirdly) and other industries which do not require an obvious form of creativity…

The writer will always know more than the creative about writing or else the creative would have been a writer. The painter knows more about the strokes of his brush than the creative will be able to portray when selling the painters art… and all that jazz. You get what I’m saying, right? If not - then thank you for the patience.

What is my point? Nothing, really. I’d just like to find a label (if any) that in a way allows someone outside the creative circle to go “Oooooh!” rather than “Huh?”, and that positions us somewhere definite. Yes, we have the art director and the copywriter, but what about those in between? Do we want to work as creatives? Or do we want to create something creative - in my head theres a difference. I think i’m over thinking.

In short… Calling ourselves creatives isn’t the most creative idea…

Til next time

H.G