Creating boundaries

Michael Marijeanne, Creative Artworker at Bladonmore, explains the difference between his role and that of a designer.

Most of us broadly know what a designer does. They design. If you want to take that a step further – they interrogate a brief creatively, come up with design concepts, and provide some basic rules by which that design can be interpreted in a range of settings. They define the story.

Creative artworkers have a different role – but equally as important in great creative work. We take the thinking of the designer and then create a discipline that helps bring it to life. We impose the relevance of the product, service or experience upon the design, if you like. A designer is someone who conceives, plans, and creates a solution with a specific purpose or function in mind. The creative artworker will then produce a continuation of the designer’s initial concept to put it into practice.

Focus on detail

For this role, it is vital to have an eye for detail. Whether a brochure, a website, or any other type of print or digital media, it is important to make sure that the design is in sync across a range of materials – seeing the small details and understanding what needs to be adjusted or achieved. This means being able to identify the key elements of a design and bring them to life in a way that meets client expectations.

If you want your design to engage with your audience, you need to consider their needs and preferences. What kind of message do you want to communicate? What kind of feeling do you want to evoke? And then, how can you make your design stand out from the rest?

We also shoulder the responsibility of taking an initial concept from the designer and seeing it through to final production. This includes ensuring that the final product reflects the designer’s initial vision in terms of look and feel, as well as the continuation of any necessary styles and photography.

Grey area

Design is often about pushing boundaries and exploring new territory. With that comes a certain amount of risk and uncertainty. Sometimes, what you see on screen is not exactly what you’ll get as the result. There’s a grey area between the two, and it’s often up to the creative artworker to navigate that and find solutions to problems along the way.

As a creative artworker, it’s important to be aware of this grey area and to embrace it. It’s what makes design so unique and challenging and what can ultimately lead to the best results all around.

And remember… just because designers and creative artworkers both sit behind Macs… it doesn’t mean that we’re both doing the same job.

If you’d like to know more about Bladonmore’s design and creative artworking capabilities, please get in touch.