The Creative: Types
2a. Introduction—What is your creative type?
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Please note: This is a living manuscript. It is rough around the edges and experimental. This is not an apology, but a warning that it is subject to change at any time. It will continue to shift and evolve until the creative process is complete. Please participate by leaving comments!
— Jason Theodor
For the last ten years, I have presented The Creative ________ material, in various nascent forms. Sometimes I shared with large crowds at conferences, published them on my blog and on SlideShare.com, or discussed them with friends and family. Thousands of people have been exposed to this material, and many have given me valuable feedback. I have continued to shape and reshape these ideas, to test them, to play with them, to hone them, always trying to get it just right. But as Brené Brown reminds me, “perfection is the enemy of done.” The time has come to share it all.
This is the section where it gets personal. You’re about to discover your Creative Type. Hopefully, you’ve read The Creative: Elements and have a basic understanding of them. If not, and you’re just here to take the Creative Type Test first, that’s fine. But you’ll get a much better understanding of your Type if you go back and read about the three Creative Elements. Every Creative Type is a combination of these elements — Action, Connection, and Exception — at different strengths.
Before you jump into this section, it is important to remember what I mentioned in the introduction to this book: this is a Creative Framework. It is designed to give you a frame of reference, a vantage point, a stake in the ground. These Creative Types are not based on scientific research using cute animals or fancy brain scans. These are not pop culture regurgitations of psychotherapy archetypes. These are not the inevitable conclusions of scientific data amassed from thousands of questionnaires thrust upon creative professionals. These are simply ideas that have been formed from a decade of reflection, investigation, and discovery, as well as my time served as a Creative Director for various global advertising agencies (but please don’t hold that against me). I sincerely hope this section gives you some personal, creative insight.
Creative Types
Think of a Creative Type as a default creative state. It doesn’t mean you cannot shift into other creative modes, or change the way you approach a project or use a tool. A Creative Type is not meant to be a restrictive label, but a starting point of self-awareness. Thinking about your creative approach and knowing your own strengths and challenges can help you choose the right tools to create more, better, and different work.
Strengths & Challenges
Using terms like strength and weakness has its drawbacks. It may come across as judgemental, which can make people feel defensive. Nobody likes to be told they are weak. The word challenged is used instead, which implies that action can be taken to overcome any deficiency. But it’s important to note that Action, Connection, and Exception have nothing to do with talent. Your Creative Type is your default approach to creativity.
Your Creative Type is your default approach to creativity.
Everyone has a style of running, for instance. You may have a strong tendency to place your weight on the ball of your foot, or a weak tendency to land on the heel. This doesn’t make you any worse or better at running. But it does mean that to change the way you run (if you want to run more, better, or different) you need to be made aware of your gait and then consciously alter it using various techniques.
Sometimes you need to turn off your ideas and just get something done. Sometimes you want to experiment with an existing idea because it doesn’t feel quite original enough. Sometime you want to integrate an idea by doing more research. All of these changes can be done easier and more effectively when you are aware of your creative strengths and challenges.
Think of it this way: being strong in a creative element means it is more innate, it comes naturally to you. Being challenged means that sometimes you need a little help. Over time, and with practice and determination, you can shift and evolve your default Creative Type in the manner you choose.
For example, if you are challenged in Action, like I am, you have a low Action tendencies. My default Creative Type is the Dreamer. Dreamers are not always good at getting things done, so I use my customized Creative Toolkit to shift into Producer mode: to stop thinking and start cranking things out. These shifts can be temporary boosts or permanently evolutions using exercises and practices from the Action Toolkit. (We’ll get into the Tools later. For now, let’s continue with Types.)
The three Creative Elements comes in a full spectrum of strengths, but for the purposes of useful generalization, they fall into two categories: low (small circle) and high (big circle). If you are low in Action you will have a different Creative Type than someone high in Action. The following test (see below) is meant to determine your strengths across all three elemental categories: action, connection, and exception. These elements, in combination with each other at various strengths, make up the eight basic Creative Types.
TK [Insert Revised Creative Types Image Here]
This might sound like the beginning of The Breakfast Club, but are you an Apprentice, Maker, Scholar, Rebel, Philosopher, Artist, Designer, or Creator? It’s time to find out.
