The Rise of Creative Mediocrity

And it's not a good thing...

If you’re a creative, that title should have induced a gut-punch reaction… No one wants to ever be called “Mediocre,” especially not us creatives.

And until this time in technology, I didn’t think “Creative Mediocrity” would ever be a thing. Sure, your skills to produce or share your Creativity with the world can be mediocre (and always improving), but creativity itself is so pure, so natural, so beautiful - until now.

AI is such a bittersweet technology. (How many of you guessed this is what I was leading up to? 😂) Mundane tasks are being handled with zero thought process, human error is reduced to minimal rates, and overall you’d think I’d be delighted by the progress in which AI has brought to the online space.

Except I’m not. I’m actually (for lack of a better term) grossed out by the place it’s taken in creativity. Do I believe it can be used for good and amazing new developments in artist’s lives? Absolutely. Do I believe that’s how most “artists” are using it? No.

Before you start reading me facts of how AI is making a postive impact in the Creative World, I want to clearly state I’m not arguing that fact. I believe that any tool that increases productivity, AI or otherwise, will push the concept of Creative Mediocrity because when things are made easier - people get lazier.

Some processes and tools that are coming out in the digital space are processes that obliterate the old way of doing things. Which, again - is great, but personally I feel like in the design world, going through these processes was a huge learning curve that upleveled my work because I learned to UNDERSTAND the basic fundamentals of WHY this was doing this, or WHY that needed to change to be more successful. In a world of templates, automatic color matching, generative design methods, etc. — what’s happened to the desire to learn the creative process?

When did time suddenly become more important than creating something from the heart, filled with emotion and trial and error? To me, these are things that make or break artwork, the imprint of human consciousness so to speak.

I believe this shift is happening for two reasons:

1.) Creative Mediocrity is not something you’ll find in true artistry. It’s something you’ll see in people, “artists,” who want to make a quick dollar and their main selling point will be a quick turnaround. If you’re looking for quality and a unique view on your project - this won’t cut it.

2.) The rise of solopreneurs, digital brands, and corporate worlds who want everything yesterday. Artists have had to adapt to to the *rush rush rush* concept to make their income, and when time isn’t available, neither is the creative process. So, we see Mediocre work that looks nice, but isn’t exactly creative. Creatives start to see how they can fast-track their process and push out more deliverables rather than improve their craft or put time into their evolution as an artist. (Speaking from experience here…)

Here in lies the Mediocre Creative.

So, Shawna - thanks for the update but how do we go against the grain here? I do have to pay bills you know?!

And maybe this is the start of the pushback to the corporate standards - something that artist’s are far too familiar with in the first place. I for one have limited my clients, focused less on income and more on craft - but it wasn’t an easy shift to make happen.

We train ourselves to believe that more money is better (and that’s not wrong by any means, I absolutely love making bank from my artwork) and any process or new tool that is able to bring more income is automatically good - but at what point are we willing to put money aside and focus on the things that bring us complete and utter joy?

The things that got me started as an artist were the freedom to dream, the power to be my own boss, the detail and process behind every piece of artwork, the days spent figuring out why something wasn’t working and having that genius moment of figuring it out… when all of this dissappeared and got replaced by dollar signs - was it really worth it anymore?

To me, no. I have to shift my business to be more fitting to my creativity. I do not want to end up as a Mediocre Creative - and I’m challenging you not to, either.