The Power of Creative Technologists: Insights from Industry Experts

In this blog post, we will be exploring the role of creative technologists(CT) and the benefits they can bring to a project. To do this, I have gathered insights from six CT professionals who have a diverse range of skills and expertise.

We will start by defining what a creative technologist is and how they differ from other professionals in the tech industry, such as developers. Next, we will delve into the collaborative nature of the creative technologist field and how to approach problem-solving.

By featuring the perspectives of these six creative technologists, I hope to give you a well-rounded understanding of the diverse skills and expertise that professionals in this field bring to the table. We will also provide valuable insights on the best way to work with a creative technologist to ensure a successful project outcome.

What is a creative technologist?

What is a creative technologist? For me, it’s people, practitioners that find themselves sort of equally interested in art in tech, or creativity in tech and use emerging technologies to express themselves or create new ways of connecting, experiencing, and playing. For me, play is a huge part of creative technology. It’s about taking these materials that are often developed for commercial incentives and military and so on, and sort of yeah, hijacking them to play.

So for me, creative technologists are people who look at emerging technologies from a, yes, creative point of view, often expressive, playful, and so on.

There are also, I would say, experimentalists. So people who love learning new stuff, who love learning by doing and making, and yes, find joy in sort of that experimentation play testing, tinkering breaking making process. So rather than you could be a creative technologist and build a fully-fledged, very functional, user-friendly app. But in my experience, it’s more proof of concept prototyping toys. And that’s, I think, the difference with a developer.— Nadia Piet

Someone who explores the different ways in which technology can be applied in order to express or discover new concepts. This may be through combining different technologies or applying new techniques in the making process. — Kwan Suppaiboonsuk

A creative technologist is simultaneously a wearer and creator of many hats within the digital, physical and lateral. Someone who uses code to excite, whether that’s building an interactive website or creating a moving installation. — Dan Adeyemi

A Creative Technologist is someone that is curious. Curious about technology, curious about the different languages that make that technology work, curious about digital projects but is comfortable with a physical one. Basically, a Creative Technologist is a child that never grew up. — Arnaud Atchimon

“A Creative Technologist is someone who utilizes technology to create solutions and virtual products by being a bridge between ideas and execution and then creating exciting final products through new and innovative technology” — Kyle Tugwell

“A creative technologist is a role that merges different disciplines such as design, tech, and computing. It can often vary depending on the company or the project, however, I would say that the fundamentals of the role require an understanding of the creative process, along with technical skills such as writing code and working with creative software. It will often involve working on projects, generating ideas, and figuring out how they can best be executed using emerging technology.” — Harry Wakeling

What’s the difference between a creative technologist and a developer?

I think one is it could be a little bit of skillset. So I think developers are more often specialized. It doesn’t have to be, but more so specialized, there may be one area which could be front end, back end, they are whatever. Whereas creative technologists, most people I know, are really across many different technologies. Right. And again, it’s like that mindset of curiosity, of learning, of playing. Whereas developers, I think, are more motivated by solving technical problems and creating, smart, graceful, technical solutions to specific challenges. — Nadia Piet

I think a creative technologist is often more involved with ideas and concept development, which means the working process of a creative technologist often involves more prototyping, rather than functional implementation and optimization. Creative technologists often iterate to experiment and find different pathways to various prototypes. Developers often iterate to build on solutions and take them to fully functioning products. — Kwan Suppaiboonsuk

I guess a developer has more of a singular focus which is code and the strategy around the code. Where a creative technologist is a bit more spread out, there’s more of a design/art angle in creative technology. — Dan Adeyemi

For me, a developer is someone that is good at leading projects in his field using a specific language he has become an expert in. A Creative Technologist is someone that is comfortable quickly juggling through different coding languages, and artistic styles, and finding the right one depending on the project he’s working on. A Creative Technologist isn’t scared to fail.- Arnaud Atchimon

A developer will create, fix and maintain architectures within applications without primarily focusing on the creative and visual side. A Creative Technologist will usually either be a dev with a creative splash or vice versa and will generally be able to execute both aspects when creating something new. — Kyle Tugwell

If you are a developer that would imply you spend the bulk of your time writing code and improving software, however, the role of a creative technologist is more varied. In my job, an average day can vary from working on live briefs and sketching/idea generation to writing software and creating prototypes using programs such as Blender or Unity. Creative technologists can often come from a variety of backgrounds — I started my career primarily as an artist, however, I know other technologists that originally came from fields such as product design or software engineering.- Harry Wakeling

What is the best way to work with a creative technologist?

I think it’s asking more open-ended questions, starting from curiosity, not that you don’t always need to have a sort of super clear end in mind. It’s like, let’s see if we can do this, or, let’s try to do this, or, let’s check out this new thing, or, what if we could do such and such? So I think they’re more open-ended, more exploratory questions that get us going, that we get excited about. So I think starting from that place and also allowing the freedom, the space to then play Tinker and so on, not having a super rigid structure maybe would be best with, like, a playground. And then reflecting on what you did, I think is super important to get learning yet, to reflect and to share your learnings, I think, is a big part as well.

Not necessarily for everyone, but for me and a lot of the creative technologies I know, it’s also a way of engaging with technology in a creative way, in a critical way, building that literacy, hopefully democratizing that literacy right. And making things more, I don’t know, playful, visual, tangible, accessible. So for me, reflecting after is also an important part of the work. — Nadia Piet

I think this varies by person and by project, but as with working with creatives, it’s important to create a space that allows for ideas to grow collaboratively. Also, to realize that creative technologists often wear multiple hats and each person may have a different focus, different toolbox, and background; so the ways of working with each creative technologist may be very different.- Kwan Suppaiboonsuk

Give them resources and space to prototype and explore — Dan Adeyemi

Like everything, trust is an integral part of working with a Creative Technologist, You have to trust me to take the right decision and sometimes turn a project around six months into it, Technology changes and improves quickly and my role is to bring a project to success the best way possible. So trust and freedom to fail and make big decisions are essential. — Arnaud Atchimon

Personally, the best way to work with a Creative Technologist is to have ideas and a direction! We thrive with the ability to work with concepts and ideas that we can iterate through and creatively execute. As long as you have an idea with passion, we are sure to work great in a collaborative environment. — Kyle Tugwell

Understanding that the process of reworking code and developing content with software can be time-consuming and not an easy fix. It is also worth recognizing that the role of a creative technologist is varied, and often involves learning new technology on the fly — This is compared to a developer that may have in-depth knowledge of a particular framework or programming language. — Harry Wakeling

In conclusion, creative technologists are professionals who bring a unique blend of technical expertise and creative problem-solving skills to the table. They have the ability to bridge the gap between the artistic and technical aspects of a project and bring innovative ideas to life.

The insights shared by our six featured creative technologists have demonstrated the diverse range of skills and expertise that professionals in this field possess. From staying up-to-date on the latest technologies to effectively communicating with clients and collaborating with others, creative technologists have a wealth of knowledge and experience to offer.