The term creative arts can be used to describe many different types of art. Some people’s idea of art may not be someone else’s so a lot of this comes down to opinion. The majority would agree that the following come under the category of creative art.
? Performing art
? Publishing
? Galleries/Museums
? Dance
? Animation
? Design (graphic, web….)
With the term creative art covering so many sub categories it is not surprising to learn that the creative art sector employs 700,000 people at this time. This contributes 24.8 billion to our economy every year. The highest concentration of these workers is found in London. The largest area of creative art is design and this is closely followed by music.
The London 2012 Olympics is creating many more opportunities within the design field. Creative arts exist to help broaden, strengthen and encourage creative skill and vision.
Companies have to embrace an element of creativity to be noticed. It is not just art or design based companies that need to be seen as creative, it is all companies. You want your product or advertising campaign to appeal to people from all walks of life and perception. Finding the balance between being creative and still making sure people have the hard facts can be difficult. Without making room for creativity in your company you could be seen as too corporate, this would probably put some groups of people off instantly even if you have something to offer them. The job role of ‘creative director’ is a very high profile role, although not all companies have one these they are becoming more common. Being creative within your company does not mean putting together a campaign that has every color of the rainbow in it or has vocals that will blow you away. It does not have to be overwhelming at all. The creativity in your company could be a simple sketch, done properly this could become an iconic symbol of your company. This is what companies strive for, the presence and recognition brought about by the correct use of creativity.
Design is there within our lives every day. In fact, without it there would most certainly be an element of chaos surrounding us. When we walk into our office we see our desk, why is there and not somewhere else? Somebody at some point designed the office and the desk plan. It did not just happen, somebody made decisions to arrange the desks in that way. The design of the office was probably based on health and safety regulations, making sure departments were seated together and IT requirements. I talk about this because it is important to remember design within business is not just about funky vibrant images being poured out of magazines or huge billboard adverts. Design occurs absolutely everywhere, design goes hand in hand with organization. We would not design something of a messy appearance; it would (probably) not be very appealing.
For companies deciding how to allocate there resources between creative output and investing in knowledge would be difficult. To answer this I suppose you would have to decide what was more important. Some feel without knowledge there are limits on how creative you can be.
There are some stereotypical views out there about creativity and who is capable of it. Some feel you are born creative and some people are of a more academic nature. I feel the vast majority of people would say there is not much creative about working in a finance department. It certainly is not as creative as working in a research and development department but there is room for creativity in any department. Take the finance department, if the credit controller devices a new idea to boost cash flow, is this not creative? It may not be a striking image but that credit controller took a process that was not really working and adapted it to become an efficient process. They re-designed it.
My point is there is creativity everywhere, in every business and every department. Creativity is also not just something we can use to rectify problems we can use it to avoid a problem occurring in the first place.
There is always time and opportunity to be creative even if you do not consider yourself creative at all. Remember, just sitting in a group and having a brainstorming session with fellow work mates is being creative. Throwing your ideas out there is the first step. A misconception about creativity is that it is always very difficult. To be fair some stages of creativity can be frustrating, not being able to distinguish the next step of a process can by trying but it is not difficult if you stick at it. Sometimes just taking a break from your idea can be hugely beneficial, go back to it in a little while and your next step may be a lot clearer.
Something I found to be more apparent in the work place now is the CEO requesting more feedback from the departments in their companies about how they think they are performing. This is a step away from being told how you are performing based on figures and graphs (although the figures will always be used at some point). This is a nod to thinking in a more creative way. Often, once you have stated how you are performing you would be asked to list some objectives and state how you intend to get there. Again this is creativity, designing a process by which you intend to get to a designated goal.
It is important to remember that design and creativity do not just belong in the art or research department. It is applicable to every walk of life and every individual in every company. Acknowledging what we do as being creative (when it is) is a vital first step in understanding there is a designer inside all of us.
If creativity and design is something you really are interested in but you cannot seem to take that first step you could enlist the help of a creativity coach. Similar to a lifestyle coach these specialists can help you push through any creative blocks that appear to be standing your way. A lot of the time the problem people have is anxiety and a creative coach can assist in putting these blocks to one side to let the ideas flow. Creative coaches can also inspire writers/artists/performers to think outside of their comfort zone and reach new heights. Sometimes a creative process could be enormous it could be something that potentially could a year or many years to complete. Often when this is the case feelings of being overwhelmed are natural, a creative coach can help an assist with breaking the huge task down into manageable stages and let the whole process be something to utterly enjoy every step of the way. Design and creativity is there for all of us if we take the time to embrace it.
