A lot of people tend to interchange the words Creative and Design, as though they’re the same thing. I could’t disagree more!

As a Creative who’s core competency is design, I’ve been fighting for the last four years, not to get boxed into the role of designer. As digital marketers, creative is woven into everything we do, like strategy, copy, and UX. The design is the skin of how the strategy, copy, and UX are woven together, together they make up the “creative”.

Design tends to get thought of as creative, because design is where you get to see all the creative elements in one place at the same time and is ultimately what needs to be approved before moving to production. So because you’re approving the “design” and the “creative” at the same time, they get thought of as being the same thing.

Strategists are creatives. Copywriters are creatives. Information Architects are creatives. Front-end developers are creatives.

If you’re a designer who can’t work without a creative brief and a set of wireframes, then you’re not a creative.

How to Blend UX and Creative

- The debate of who should win between UX and Creative

- There is no debate because good Creative is a good User Experience and good UX enables good Creative

- There is a formula to blending

- UX is using proven formulas and pattern to comprise a familiar and comfortable layout

- Creative is adding a touch of the unexpected to surprise and delight the user

- Think of UX as the suit and Creative as the tie

- All suits have commonalities based on what has proven to work

- If all ties were the same then no one would be unique or interesting

- UX is the vision design is the details