Any creative technologists in here? How’d you end up doing what you’re doing now? For some context: I’m always fussing around with tech, learning coding, and picking things as I go. I’m just trying to plan for a potential pivot and would love any tips or guidance.

I think creative technologist is a very broad title. Every agency I worked it meant a different thing. I worked with people that were developers and started having a more high level thinking role in the agency, ones that were more like a digital producers and currently I work with some guys that are basically digital media focused art directors one of them know more coding etc and the other is more a product developer designer but they all work on creating campaigns and platform ideas. That said. You have really important skills but watch out to not end in a position you have to do everything by yourself.

Oh, hello! I applied as a Jr. AD and my book (an art school design portfolio) had dev-related, but mostly conceptual, work. Agency said, “we think you’d be a good fit for as a creative technologist.” Stayed a few years and learned a lot on the job. While it came with solid opportunities early on, there unfortunately wasn’t a solid plan for utilizing the team and it was eventually phased out by the agency. Recently ended up going in house as a digital designer. You probably already have all the skills you need for a less developer-focused CT role TBH. However, from limited perspective, it won’t be much of a pivot from what you have now as an AD. In the end there was a fair bit of pressure for me to switch titles to something more traditional. I recommended continuing to expand your skillset as a CT, but your career path and job prospects will also probably be more stable as an AD who can develop.

I’ve thought about pursuing this role a million times, and I’ve basically decided the same as the above (it’s better to be an AD that can write code). Because in 5-10 years every new AD will be able to also. These skills are more unique now but they are being taught more and more in school.

Hi, CT here 👋🏼 For me, getting started was about having a mixture of experiments, freelance, and school projects where there was an opportunity for me to bring in tech as a prototype so we can show rather than tell during a pitch (and was able to show those opps on my portfolio). It was something I knew I wanted to do going right out of school so I went for it, knowing that jobs in CT aren’t easy to find and don’t appear all too often, and accepting that I might need to be flexible on location to find the right opportunity. Like those above have said, ask 10 different creative technologists at 10 different agencies and you’ll get 10 different answers on what they do. But as a whole, a creative technologist should bridge the gap between creative ideation and the “how can we make this real” mentality, ie thinker + maker. If making things with tech is more of a passion than something you’d like to do for your job, then being an AD who’s able to make prototypes would be perfect for companies that already do work in non-traditional interfaces and experiential. They’d consider it an asset that they don’t need to teach you about tech and how things work to get started, which is a great selling point in negotiations.

Creatives who give the development team their “code” are the reason my job is such a nightmare most days.