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Tips and advice for young creatives

Let’s take a pause and talk about creativity and careers. If you’re thinking about a career in something creative such as digital advertising, web, design, video or interactive media here is a list of some tips, advice, and resources to think about as you start to own more and more of your future. If you’re looking at a career in something hyper-specific like automotive design or gaming then this can also apply. Basically, these are some rules of the road for ensuring you are on the right track to stand out from the competition and get to where you want to go. In no particular order, here are some “pro tips” for aspiring designers, marketers, filmmakers, communicators, and creatives:

Try Everything: Get experience in all different kinds of art forms and media. Don’t get locked into one particular form like making logos, doing video or designing one thing. Try everything and get experience. You can tighten your focus later in your career.

Get Connected: Participate in forums and networks where you can share your work, get advice, have your work evaluated and get inspired. Make sure you take advantage of programs and offerings within your school system as well as extra-curricular activities.

Get Mentored: Find someone who’s doing what you want to do one day. Talk to them, see where they work, how they do things. A little hands-on experience and job shadowing can go a long, long way.

Be Diverse: Start collecting your best work in all different kinds of art forms and media. Put together a portfolio that shows you are diverse and able to appreciate and work in many different types of design. Make sure you have a digital presence online and a simple way to point people to your online portfolio.

Save Your Work: Get organized and make sure you are saving all your work. Get in the habit of self-critiquing your work, constantly asking, “How could this be even better?” If you give away work to a friend or relative make sure you take good pictures of it before you give it away. Document all your work and keep a standing list of places your work has been used or displayed.

Take Some Risks: Opportunities come to those with initiative, not just people with talent. Just because you’re good doesn’t mean you’ll automatically succeed. You have to have a marketable skill set as well as the confidence and initiative to go chase down what you want and pursue your goals. Talent is not enough.

Be Artsy, Be Organized: You’ve got to constantly grow and develop your skills as a creative person, that’s a fact. But you also have to be a self-starter who is in control of your time and goals and able to organize your life, not just make amazing designs. There’s nothing more frustrating than a great designer who is difficult to work with, unorganized, and a poor communicator. Be responsive, on-time, and polite, and your designs will be going places before you even show anyone your work.

Show Off: Take advantage of any opportunity to show your work; In school shows, at the local mall or bookstore, in your house, in your relative’s houses, community centers, anywhere. All exposure is good but you have to be the one to initiate getting your work out there. Just go and ask.

Explore: Search for other artists and designers who are doing amazing work. Check out local shows and displays for inspiration. Get ideas and motivation from everywhere and everyone and always be analyzing and considering high-quality design work. Pick it apart. Reverse engineer it.

Summary: Get organized about your work and think about how you do what you do a little bit more.

Brain dump: Which of the above two tips really jumped out to you? How can you take a step toward applying them right now?