Well hi!
I’m hot off the heels of re-reading an article from Creative Boom which included some truly wild quotes from creative leaders as they pondered whether “the age of the specialist is over in creative agencies.” The answer is no—not in agencies nor elsewhere. This feels a bit silly to say, but it is still important for workers to have areas of expertise. However, to survive in this current shrinking economy dominated by companies that undercut human labor and pathologically push AI (slop) like a Reagan-era caricature of a drug dealer, it is wise to be nimble—even entrepreneurial. But that feels like a survival tactic for uncertain times, not the wholesale death of specialization at the hands of a new creative-generalist era.
To be fair, some of the creative leaders quoted in Creative Boom’s article seem aligned with that perspective, but the author uncritically quotes others who present the situation in a hilariously disingenuous manner. Take Simon Manchipp, founding partner at London-based agency SomeOne, who claims the following:
“In 2025, AI can do the doing. Faster. Cheaper. It is more consistent than Steve in the corner with his ‘niche mastery of kerning’. So, just being good at one thing? Not enough. But being useful across things? Very attractive.”
Not to be all Natasha Lyonne in Pokerface, but this whole statement is some bullshit. Kerning is not a specialization. Every graphic designer is expected to know how to kern letters. It would be like saying that applying a bandage is a specialization of nursing, that we hired nurse Steve in the corner to do nothing but apply bandages. What are you talking about?! What designer is only good at kerning, Simon? When has only doing one extremely specific task ever been more appealing than broadly knowing how to design across multiple applications? Never!
To be clear, specialization in the field of graphic design is something like brand design or packaging. Just because a designer focuses on branding doesn’t mean they can’t also design for a brochure, a website, a soda can. Additionally, having a sister-skill like animation, photography, coding, or illustration has always been encouraged of graphic designers. This is not new!
And to poke one more hole in his statement: AI systems are not exactly consistent, nor are they adequate or suited for every creative task. I’m sure many of you who have experimented with AI are very aware of this!
But perhaps even more abysmal is this explanation for why creative generalists are gaining such appeal:
“The driving forces behind this shift are multiple and converging. Budgets are tightening, forcing agencies to seek creatives who can ‘hop from task to task,’ as Barrington Reeves, creative director at Too Gallus, puts it.”
When budgets tighten, teams shrink. Thus, the work of 2 or more people often falls on the shoulders of a singular human who “hops from task to task” as they absorb the job of another person for the pay of one. But I guess we are rebranding overworking an employee as “the emergence of the creative generalist”? To be fair (and balanced), the author does call this an unfair expectation in the next sentence, though without further elaborating on that point of critique.
I suppose I bring this up because… wtf?! I feel compelled to defend the creative worker in the face of not just this article, but the broader conversation about our industry changing. For the record, you don’t have to abandon your expertise. You don’t have to embrace AI. Being overworked is not a feature of a new era, it’s a failure of management—perhaps even a symptom of a larger failing of capitalism (gasp!). And it’s ok to bravely point that out. We don’t have to accept being gaslit by people like Simon Manchipp, who are quick to misrepresent and devalue our labor. We are creatives: we are clever, we are innovative. We can pivot and stay true to our values. We are worth the money! Things are hard right now, but they won’t be like this forever.
And to be clear, Creative Boom is typically a lovely publication that covers often overlooked areas of our industry. They just missed the mark on this one for me. Perhaps this U.S. American gal can only take so much disingenuous bullshit from an uncritical media landscape before she explodes!
Shop Update: Clearance Sale
In other news, it’s time to update my shop. I’ve been both scoping out new products to design for and slowly amassing a mini-originals collection that will eventually see the world of online commerce. In the meantime, however, I’m clearing out the old to make way for the new with 40% off Art Prints and 50% off Greeting Cards for the foreseeable future. Art & Fable subscribers get an additional 10% discount on anything and everything in my shop with the code FableFriend10 (!!) Please consider supporting my lil’ shop!
And with that, I must bid you adieu for now. Truly I hope my little rant validated something for you, or at the very least was entertaining.
Also, if you have an online shop that you’d like me to consider adding to the shop small guide I am working on, please share it with me here!
As always, thank you for reading and supporting my work.
じゃあね!
-Liz :)