Choice precedes creativity, and that's what will count
If making things has become, in theory, easier and the tools more available, where does that leave creative companies in the new landscape? It leaves them as taste-makers, arbiters and visionaries, says Elliott Starr, Creative Partner at Belief Studio; because making something is often the last step in the process.
)
When everything is free, discernment becomes expensive. I'm having a lot of conversations with people in creative companies lately, and the mood is twitchy.
Abundance makes things feel worthless, and things have become infinitely 'makeable'. There’s a quiet, understandable collective panic: 'If anyone can make things, what are we for?'
There’s a quiet, understandable collective panic: 'If anyone can make things, what are we for?'
There's a fear (a valid one), that Gen AI and easy public access to it, is going to erode the value of what creative departments do, but I think it will do the opposite. Arguing you no longer need a creative department because you can just hit the 'make' button is like arguing you can make a feature film just by turning a camera on. Technically, you can, but you won't produce anything of any worth. Nothing remotely worthy of anyone's time, attention or memory.
Above: Just because you can hit the 'make' button, doesn't mean it will be good, and doesn't mean anyone will be interested in it.
There's a part to all this that's hard to say out loud, which is that some work will vanish. The work that's already soulless, generic and halfway to automation in its spirit, will be the first to go. The more a piece of work relies on assembly rather than judgement, the more exposed it is.
What AI really threatens is not great creativity, but low-conviction creativity. Work that sounds plausible, affects no one and changes nothing. That work is in real trouble. When that sort of work collapses, the question sharpens - what remains that is worth paying a human for?
If you want to make something that cuts through the clutter of culture, you need vision, strategy, idea, discipline and craft.
The value is in the parts that have always separated the exceptional from the average: seeing, believing, deciding, crafting and, only then, making. In the absence of the first four, ‘making’ is no more valuable than cooking Supernoodles. It’s technically a meal, but it’s never going to command a Michelin star premium. Judgement first, production second.
If you want to make something that cuts through the clutter of culture, you need vision, strategy, idea, discipline and craft. The last time I checked, there was a lot of that sitting in creative departments.
Above: "The harder it is to choose, the more valuable that choice becomes"
I'm excited about the future of creativity, even if we have to walk through a winter to get there, because the easier it becomes to create, the harder it is to choose, and the more valuable that choice becomes.
A lot of what many have been calling creativity for the last decade won’t survive this. If we’re honest, it probably shouldn’t.
It comes with a cost, of course. A lot of what many have been calling creativity for the last decade won’t survive this. If we’re honest, it probably shouldn’t. There will be fewer seats at the table, smaller teams and a higher bar for what makes it through. The middle will hollow out, and a lot of work that once paid the bills simply won’t exist anymore.
This won’t feel like progress for everyone. For many, it will feel like loss. But for those who can see clearly, decide confidently and hold their nerve when everyone else is stacking creative mediocrity high, the value of that judgement will only increase.
The future belongs to the people who can say, with unusual clarity and an enviable level of belief: 'Creativity is this’.
