Creative Professional: A Nessesary Contradiction

It’s 2010, and 17-year-old me is being asked to make an unfair decision: What do you want to be?

Flipping through the brochure of the local university, every choice feels like sacrificing one part of myself for another. I like art, but I also like science. The only course that feels like I’m not abandoning a part of who I am is architecture—seemingly both an art and a science.

Fast forward to 2017, and this whole "profession" thing still confuses me. Now officially an “architect,” but there is much to explore beyond the creation of spaces alone. So, with a firm decision not to architect, I stumble opportunistically into the world of design, strategy and innovation.

Today I’m 30 something with the same questions (sigh). I’ve put in a good amount of effort into defining myself as a creative professional. But work has required me to be more the professional; me as creative left to explore in hobbies (last year I created an album!).

Here’s how I see the two identities:

Creative ____ Professional

I experience these identities as polarised- I am one or the other. But this compartmentalised experience of myself is sub-optimal. I need to exist as a full picture of myself!

It’s back to a question of identity: Art or Science? Creative or Professional?

But is it really such an and unfair request of a career to be both these things?

I think not! A superpower lies in the overlap of being both. Leonardo da Vinci was both an artist and an inventor. The Vitruvian Man (that famous human-in-a-circle drawing) came from the intersection of his artistic understanding of human form and his scientific understanding of mathematical proportion. It was his unique positioning in both of these worlds that gave him the perspective few others had.

So, Art AND Science! Choosing one over the other would be a disservice to what potential being both might bring. The magic happens in the overlap.

Creative > < Professional

All of us carry these dualities. And we all have power in our overlaps.

So, what’s the plan? Well, I left the fancy 'professional' job. I’m going to be all of myself—and lean fully into the superpower of the overlap. if you follow along, I’ll share more about the overlap and how to lean.

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