As a designer I would like to have a holiday to celebrate creativity, all which celebrate an event or commemorates the memory of some national hero. Other holidays celebrate Dads, Moms, and even Administrative Assistants. We try to make something fun out of them by having family reunions, picnics, shopping,etc. . .but what about our creative side? Should we dedicate a holiday to celebrate how creative we are and creativity itself?
Hold on a second! There is a holiday that is dominated by creativity: Halloween!
It’s on Halloween that a lot of us take the time to be young at heart. Whether it be impersonating a noteworthy, or unnoteworthy character, carrying out elaborate pranks and being plain goofy, because on Halloween, the dearly departed childhood of ours comes back to life. Except now, we like Halloween for other reasons, more sophisticated reasons. For kids, Halloween is about trick-or-treating and eating a neverending supply of free candy, but we adults like Halloween for a different reason. Suddenly the unexplainable, taunting, bizarre ideas that have been floating around in your head for 6 months can finally emerge into the form of fabrics and wild colors. I firmly believe that adults love Halloween as much as kids, if not more, because we can actually implement creativity in every way possible. Also, given the economic times, you’re kind of forced into being more creative than orginally planned.
If you think about it, Halloween can be compared easily to graphic designers. The main connection being those bizarre ideas that have been floating in your mind get to come out once a year in your work, when you think that the design is worth arguing over and defending to the core. Serious designers, you know what I mean. Also, the endless amount of work that is put into developing concepts and aesthetic value, brainstorming is the most important process as it is in Halloween. Come on, think about it. Would you like Halloween as much if everyone wore pre-made costumes from Wal-Mart, and the only source of creativity laid in the hands of the corporate costume designers? No thank you, pass.
Among those who participate on this day you will find the “serious creatives.” These are the ones who wear hand-crafted costumes with interacted details and even act on the character they have created or have made their own version. Their designer counterpart are the designer who constantly use hand unique illustrations, original art, commissioned photography and custom fonts. Always pushing the envelope of what has been doe before. They are the stars of the Halloween party and on the design circuit as well.
You also find the “creative-cut-and-paste.” These are those who replicate a costume used or designed by someone else like TV and movie characters no matter how much they have to search or pay for every particular item. You can easily spot them because they look just like Darth Vader, Spock, or Captain Underpants. Their designer counterpart are the designer that constantly use influences and references in their work by following the latest trends and gathering resources from reputable vendors making sure their work looks like other awesome similar project. These people attract a lot of attention for being so well done as well as for being so familiar to everyone.
Another kind of participants are the “creative-wanabes.” They still want to look cool, but settle for buying a cheap ready-made costume from the grocery store. They are easily spotted because they don’t look good and often look bad. Just like designers who use free templates from popular websites. Nobody likes them, but lots of people tolerate them and give them credit for their effort as long as the keyword on the operations is CHEAP.
Lastly are the “creative-refugees.” They don’t dress up at all, only wear regular clothing and perhaps one item like a hat, funny glasses or a want just to show that they sympathize with the rest of the crowd and are just happy to be there. Their designer counterpart are all of the people who are around designers and often make our projects shine, people like accountants, account managers, sales reps, PBX operators, and many others. They don’t try to be a designer, but are happy to help on every little bit of a creative project.
In design like in a Halloween party there is room for everybody and the main goal is to have fun.
