Like many artists, I am constantly trying to define myself. The world around us demands that we do this. How else can we be packaged and sold. I wrote about this process back on October 9, 2010 and I suspect I will constantly return to this question.
It's almost freeing to define myself as a visual creative type rather than an artist. This definition encompasses all of the creative challenges I take on. I can include graphic designer within this broader definition. Graphic design is not just something I do because it is similar to art and I can get paid for it, I enjoy doing graphic design.
Here is a recent example:
The Unity is in the Process
Design is a graphic or visual solution to a communication problem. A client tells me about the message they want to convey, and I create something visual (and sometimes verbal) to resolve the challenge. The difference between graphic design and art for me is that when creating art, I am the client.
I have an idea. Usually an idea eats at me for a long time–sometimes years. Then I decide how to best express that idea in a visual manner, choosing different mediums or approaches. The measure of success becomes how well my final product has been able to capture my original thought or feeling. I sometime test it on friends and family, but I am really my hardest critic. Only I can tell if the work has lived up to the expectations.
But I do like and need the positive feedback I get from my friends and family and I LOVE the different views they have share about my work. In fact this subject is in need of a whole post of it's own.
So to summarize: Creativity = Challenge + Solution
I know this is broad. But true, Right?
No comments:
Post a Comment