Who Would be a Creative Professional?

Half way through a painting on an iPad

Being a professional creative can be both awesome and totally crap at the same time especially, if like me, you operate as a freelancer. I am pretty sure that almost everyone on this planet has enjoyed doing something creative, be it painting a beautiful scene right through to making something weird out of fallen branches and twigs. Many of us have made cards for loved ones, cooked an experimental meal or even had a go at painting a mural on the kids bedroom wall and almost all of us will have gained some sort of pleasure and sense of achievement from doing so. This is why being a creative professional is awesome.

From my standpoint it is also awesome that I can create stuff almost whenever and wherever I please when I am not working on deadlines. I work a heck of a lot in the middle of the night, I don't really know why, it's just something I have gotten in to the habit of doing, probably harking back to the days I played professionally in a band which meant many a late night was had! Having this freedom is very important, in fact to me it is much more important than loads of money. Of course I would like more money, who wouldn't, but so long as I can pay my bills and have a bit of fun I am happy.
So, what's crappy about being a creative professional? Funnily enough it's mainly money! Not knowing when the next pay cheque is coming can be bad for the blood pressure as can not knowing where the work is coming from next!

Artists and creatives of any kind are well aware that they are totally undervalued and seemingly have to just accept it if they want this kind of profession. Of course there are exceptions but they are not mainstream. Many people think that designing a logo, for instance, is a 30 minute job, and yes, some of the actual drawing of it may have taken just a short time but what about the time it takes to actually come up with the concepts and ideas, let alone the amount of revisions to it because the client does not know what they want, or have given the most unhelpful brief ever - you know who you are lol. I have had some people say to me "I could do it myself but I have not got the time" which always makes me laugh. No you could not do it yourself to a professional standard, you have a PC running Word and Corel Draw! I don't wish to sound condescending but if I can do something myself I do it myself but if I can't do it as well as a professional I will let them do it.

Perhaps one of the most annoying things about being a graphic artist is silly deadlines, usually due to the client forgetting about it until the last minute. I know of clients that have a deadline of months before an event and still leave everything until the last minute and expect us to magic something up overnight. People are funny at times! Having said that I will always do whatever I can to get the client out of trouble, even if that does mean I can not sleep or see my family for days on end.

Luckily for me, the awesome outweighs the crappy, although people not paying on time is my biggest irritation as I do have to eat and pay my own bills - graphic design studio equipment and software does not come cheap you know! Having more freedom and actually enjoying life is the most important thing to everyone in my opinion. I have been offered very lucrative employment in London in the past but do I really want to be getting up at 5am and returning home after 8pm just for more money? Do I want to spend restricted time with my family? Do I want to return to the pretentiousness of working in a top agency? Absolutely not - we are on this planet just once so you have to enjoy and embrace life as much as you can.

I love being creative, simple as that.

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