Copywriter meets web 2.0

I sometimes daydream about seriously changing my vocation. From copywriter to art director. I seem to feel that art directors have more fun. Sure, they work long hours crafting, but look at the end result. A beautiful, concise layout; tension on a page that passersby can’t help but notice. It may mean starting at a lower rung of the agency ladder. But if I’m going to morph myself into a digital creative, or at least have the skills of one, I find art direction an avenue that will make me more hire-able anywhere in the world. How did I become a copywriter in the first place? By default, as I didn’t possess a formal art education. But year-in-year-out in agencies, I have picked up the thinking of art directors. What I lack is the experience of actually doing art and training in graphic software — which, as perfect as it seems, is what I’m busy with now at uni.

Behind closed doors, men and women with pen and paper do nothing all day but dream of new ways to tell you why you’d love something very much.

Creativity is unusual stuff: It frightens. It deranges. It’s subversive. It mistrusts what it sees, what it hears. It dares to doubt. It acts even if it errs. It infiltrates preconceived notions. It rattles established certitudes. It incessantly invents new ways, new vocabularies. It provokes and changes points of view.

– Fabrica 

Can my world get any narrower? Can it squeeze any more sanity out of me? Can work be any more predictable, can it be more processed than it is already? Can clients give us any less respect than they do now? Can we better our selves, our skills, so that we would be worthy of respect?

Someone said that creativity is the art of keeping the butt on the seat. I think learning is, too. I want to absorb Dreamweaver. I have the textbook. I have the application. But not enough energy on weeknights to read more than two pages. And ants in my pants.