Ken's Corner: Defining Creativity

This week in my PR and Marketing class, we started talking about what creativity looks like from a marketing perspective. Now, what does it mean to be creative? Honestly, I have no idea. I find myself racking my brain looking for inspiration most days and usually come up with nothing. As I talked about before, I struggle a lot with burn out. Lately I have been talking to other creatives about this feeling of impending doom that seems to follow artists around and it hit me. The minute I have to become creative for some sort of end goal like money or grades, I lose all creativity, which eventually leads to imposter syndrome. When I am alone however, and I am not bogged down with the weight of an end goal and I feel passionate about the work I create again.

I wonder if sometimes I picked the wrong field for this reason. I need to be able to pump out ideas quickly when I enter the job world. That, plus the rise of artificial intelligence raises questions that no one in the art/creative world ever thought about. It is hard to not feel as though you are replaceable or just another cog in a machine. I love the work I do, do not get me wrong. I love creating and seeing people interact with the work that I create. There is this sense of hopelessness however in not being sure of what the future is going to look like for your field though.

The same applies to my interest in the marketing world. I need to have a general idea on what the public that I am trying to appeal to enjoys. If I am trying to sell a product that is originally supposed to be for people who are a part of the older generation, it does not make sense for me to make internet meme references since it is likely they will not understand the reference. There is a little bit of pressure there in terms of creativity as I start to become older. That is because there is a bit of gatekeeping and disconnect when it comes to trends that are generation based. It is why many Gen Zers favor Instagram and Tik Tok while Generation X prefers platforms such as Facebook.

Overall if I tried to define creativity, I think I would be here all day. Creativity means so many things to different people. Creativity to me though is the art of expression. It means making something that will evoke emotion in other people. The nice thing about art is that not everyone has to get what your art means. Unfortunately, creativity in the marketing world does not work like that since you are usually trying to convey a certain message that falls within a company’s branding message. However, in the art world it forces people to think critically, and I think that distinction between these two types of creativity is really unique and important.