5 Reasons Why Creatives Love Their Jobs

I’ve worked some terrible jobs in my 26 years of life. I’ve been knee-deep in sloppy mud building a gazebo in the middle of the North Georgia wilderness; I’ve arrived sleepily at 6:00am in the Home Depot parking lot preparing for a long day of being the low man on the totem pole of a paint crew, and I’ve been run ragged by several hungry, impatient guests at a well-known steakhouse. It was these jobs that helped me to greatly appreciate how awesome it is to have a fun, creative job as a web designer working on exciting projects for enthusiastic clients.

Although it’s been extremely over-quoted, there’s one adage that always rings true as my web design career develops. Confucius said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” But what is it about being a creative that makes waking up in the morning so enjoyable? Here are my top 5 reasons:

1. Creative, collaborative environments are incredibly fun places to work.

The typical creative agency usually has some combination of the following: a well-stocked beer fridge, some sort of table-based sport, fun music, a communal dining area, and an office dog. Blue Ion happens to have all of the above. But why is this awesome (as if I have to explain…)? All of these elements nurture collaboration and are conducive to creativity. If I’ve been staring at my computer screen for two hours trying to come up with some logo ideas, chances are someone else is in a similar situation and could use a distraction. It’s amazing what five minutes at a ping pong table can inspire.

The Blue Ion office always has music playing over the house speakers eliminating the need to fill the silence with headphones. This means Nic can turn to Woody and ask, “Hey, which of these font choices doesn’t suck?” It’s this kind of collaboration that makes a creative’s job awesome.

2. Working through creative media beats manual labor any day of the week.

I’ve carried what seemed like hundreds of 20lb cinder blocks up and down a hill for 100+ yards and I’ve loaded several five-gallon paint buckets in and out of a work van and up flights of stairs. It was days like those that really help me to appreciate my cushioned office chair in an air-conditioned office. Not only that, but the fact that my job entails sketching, playing with color theory, researching fun creative logos, designing web layouts and graphic, coding responsive sites, and loading up my camera gear to shoot photos for magazine ads and websites, there’s always something fun and creative going on throughout the day. Sure, creativity can sometimes involve hours of exhaustively brainstorming through terrible ideas and forcing something out of nothing, but it sure beats carrying blocks and five-gallon paint buckets.

3. There’s no such thing as a terrible idea.

One of my favorite parts of the day is when a few of the Blue Ion team members are sitting around the conference room/ping pong table brainstorming ideas for an upcoming site. There are so many “that would cool ifs…” and “how awesome would it be if this page did this.” There are some pretty wild ideas that are thrown out but it’s usually through this creative session that we crank out some interesting elements that really set the site apart from the sea of others on the web.

4. What’s a dress code?

Okay true story, as I’m writing this, I’m wearing jeans, Chuck Taylors, a graphic tee, and I haven’t shaved in a few days. The guy diagonally to my left is wearing skinny jeans, a v-neck tee, and leather oxfords. Our creative director is wearing a synthetic workout tee and gym shorts, and our development director is wearing a trucker hat and a graphic tee. I’ve worked in restaurants where you’d get sent home for a 5:00 shadow or a spot of food on your shirt and I’ve worked in corporate marketing departments where khakis and collared shirts were expected. I’m glad to be in a creative environment where I can literally wear whatever is comfortable and somewhat work appropriate.

5. We get to work with highly enthusiastic clients on fun projects where they want our creativity to run wild.

I am pumped to wake up in the morning because there really is no telling what kind of exciting project I’ll be working on that day. Our clients come to us for photography, web design, development, print design, and creative content strategies, it’s incredibly exhilarating to have a hand in some, if not all, of those projects using the tool that I enjoy using most: my creativity.

So it’s easy to see why we “creatives” love our jobs. Even though everyday isn’t sunshine and rainbows, we ultimately love what we do and for this, we never work a day in our creative lives.