Creative Types

One of the things I do for my job is creative. I design invitations.

It’s not rocket science, but I’m really good at it.

I often come up with the themes for parties, sometimes I just do the design work. I used to design newspaper ads, so I have a clue what I’m doing when it comes to white space, leading the eye through the ad, etc. My invitations look different. They are fun or sophisticated or whatever, reflecting the mood that the client is looking for.

When trying to come up with a theme or an invitation for a particularly tough client, sometimes I will walk around the office, asking people who don’t look busy what images they associate with the state of Georgia, for example.

The accounting/HR lady recently sniffed “You never like my ideas.”

And I said “Well, often people do come up with ideas that I can’t use because they don’t work well visually with what the client wants. But sometimes the conversation sparks other ideas,”

She said “It’s not my ideas. My ideas are fine.”

And I said, “If I tried to come up with accounting ideas, I probably would come up with some things that sounded good to me, but wouldn’t actually work with what the accountant who wanted an idea needed.”

“That’s different.”

“I don’t know why it would be,” I said, keeping my voice gentle.

“My Gone with the Wind idea would’ve looked really nice.”

I said, “Well, a Gone with the Wind invitation with the words written in script across gates or columns that suggest Tara is a possibility, but your specific idea of an invitation with Rhett and Scarlett on it is something we can’t really do. When people hear ‘Rhett and Scarlett;’ they think of Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh. Gable and Leigh’s images are copyright and we can’t use them. And two other people aren’t going to look like Rhett and Scarlett to most people.”

Besides, CC thought, it’s quite likely that actual Georgians don’t even like GWTW anymore and just put on a show for the Japanese Tourists and it is unlikely that a male congressman is going to want a theme that is so feminine.

Anyway, she was still being pissy and I let it go. I won’t bat around ideas with her again. But it is striking to me how people in non-Creative jobs often think creative work is easy and something that just anybody can do.

CC
who just did up something for a client who wanted a "more futuristic font."