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Do Creatives need Money or Mainly Acknowledgement?

Tom dinning

Registrant*
We've all got to die of something, Ash. And at some time.

He sounds like a reject from Ad Men.

He'd be called a looser in some circles.

Not saying Ad Men aren't creative in there own way, but they do so to sell. Now if that isn't to make money for someone, then what the **** is it for?

Creative people need to eat. First rule of teaching kids. Feed them first. Everything else follows. How much money does one need to eat?
The average earning for an artist in Australia is around $35000 Au a year. That's close to the poverty line but survivable.
Treating people like a production line isn't going to work for any outcome, let alone new ideas.
And people who are so called creative aren't like that all the time. They don't walk around looking for new ideas all the time. There lives are filled with **** just like yours and mine.
Not all creative ideas make money. Sometimes it just makes life easy for someone, often the creator, or brightens up the day or occupies the mind or is just fun.
We all have the capacity to create, even the criminal element among us. Not suggesting AdMen are criminals. On second thought, I'll retract that and consider it said.

Our capitalist society has shifted the goal posts on creativity, that's for sure. So has Hollywood, commercial enterprise, the shifting of our values and the level of expectation if one considers the self creative.

If I think back at the creative people I have personally known they include my physics teacher at school, my old man, my mother, my great grand daughter, mrs Green, my mate Davo, ..... I could go on.
The point is they were just ordinary people going about their business in a creative way. None have a stack of money and usually got it otherwise.
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
My mother and sister were both creative professionals at various agencies for more than 20 years each. My mother was the creative director of a major agency when she retired from the advertisement world. They have both received many awards during their careers, among others the best creative professional of the year title awarded by the industry itself. Having witnessed their way of working and knowing their personal and professional motivations, I can say that the article by Linds Redding hit the nail squarely on the head.

Yes, creative people need to eat. That was taken care of by their salary and the occasional bonuses. In return, they just had to sell their soul and body to the agency. Working 100 hour weeks, always trying to come up with the next idea and the next one after that. Having to present to the customer a full set of ideas by tomorrow, thereby having to forgo any sleep and food. Only to find out that the brief by the account exec wasn't that accurate and the customer had completely different ideas, etc. So were they criminals as Tom seems to be insinuating? No, they were just slaves to the system. If there is somebody/something to blame, it is the free market economy imo.

One thing is sure, they are indeed ordinary people. And I am proud of them.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
My mother and sister were both creative professionals at various agencies for more than 20 years each. My mother was the creative director of a major agency when she retired from the advertisement world. They have both received many awards during their careers, among others the best creative professional of the year title awarded by the industry itself. Having witnessed their way of working and knowing their personal and professional motivations, I can say that the article by Linds Redding hit the nail squarely on the head.

Yes, creative people need to eat. That was taken care of by their salary and the occasional bonuses. In return, they just had to sell their soul and body to the agency. Working 100 hour weeks, always trying to come up with the next idea and the next one after that. Having to present to the customer a full set of ideas by tomorrow, thereby having to forgo any sleep and food. Only to find out that the brief by the account exec wasn't that accurate and the customer had completely different ideas, etc. So were they criminals as Tom seems to be insinuating? No, they were just slaves to the system. If there is somebody/something to blame, it is the free market economy imo.

One thing is sure, they are indeed ordinary people. And I am proud of them.

Thanks Cem for sharing your experience and insight. Creative people without marketing skill might not get very far up the public recognition, fame and reward systems in our society. Most often they become exploited serfs in service of others.

Asher
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Thanks Cem for sharing your experience and insight. Creative people without marketing skill might not get very far up the public recognition, fame and reward systems in our society. Most often they become exploited serfs in service of others. Interesting that one as great as Salavador Dali had a partnership with a psych warfare officer from the British Armed Forces who ran all his Publicity and stunts!

Asher
Asher i just want to clarify that not all creative people are (independent) artists such as Dali. Creative professionals such as copy writers and art directors within the advertising world do not normally get public recognition or fame but their end products might become very famous.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Cem,

You were fast responding! I had meanwhile removed my reference to Dali as being too simplistic for his importance, exceptional skills and ingenuity. But, of course, your comments stand and are correct!

Asher
 
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