creativity in the digital world

Advertising has always been a magnet for the creative mind. And in the old days, you'd often find an art director paired with a copy writer to dream up the next big thing. But a recent NYT article describes a much more integrated approach for the world of digital media. A new program at the University of Colorado, Boulder addresses the need for the next gen "creatives" who must possess technical, business and creative skills.

The pace of digital media work is much faster as technology and formats continue to evolve. So Boulder Digital Works has designed a flexible project-based approach to match the ever changing digitocracy. I'll let them speak for themselves:

There are only a few dedicated digital programs in the US and they tend to focus on individual specialties, such as advertising, business, design, or technology. In real life — at leading advertising and digital agencies, start-ups, and software companies — business, creative, and technology people work in an integrated setting and are expected to be multi-disciplinary thinkers and problem solvers.

I really like that concept. So many people who work in the creative milieu are only really comfortable within their limited skill set. Which puts them at a disadvantage. To be a good editor, you need to think like a producer. To be a good producer, you need to think like a good writer. And so on. To become successful collaborators and do our best work, we need to understand our client's needs, what they're trying to accomplish and why. That gets translated to the project's goals and underpinnings...what are we doing and why are we doing it. The big picture. Everything flows from that.

It took some serious mentoring on my own professional journey to help me understand all that. So I'm happy to see that world view being taught to the next gen. I guess that's what progress is all about, right?