Full Stack Creative

A Full Stack Creative is well versed in Adobe Creative Suite, open to all levels of complexity for any size design project, engaged in creative problem solving initiatives, and welcome to originality for all projects from print to interactive.

As a professional graphic designer and web developer, I have branched into many avenues of design that involved hand sketches to live deployments. This Full Stack Creative is exactly what companies need in their marketing department, to stay fresh and relevant with evolving communication technologies.

First, it begins with the roots of being creative. I fell in love with drawing as a child. I was good at it, so I would draw everyday. I still do to this day. Can you be a Full Stack Creative without the foundation of drawing at a young age? Sure, but that is like saying Jimmy Hendrix should have been a drummer. We do what we love, and Full Stack Creatives love what they do. It isn’t a job but a mission to create a vision. That is why it is important to trust the vision of those who direct. An engineer will not read the blueprints if the architect doesn’t know the proper math.

Moving on, my creative career path remains consistent to this early love of drawing. My education is in graphic design, but I am very good at all things digital, including fundraising. I am someone you can trust to make the right decisions for the greater good of the team. Another fundamental to add to the Full Stack Creative tool belt.

My roots started with drawing, but the print shop was the soil to grow. My career started in a small print shop where I was introduced to the back-end of the printing industry. The understanding of the high-quality precision needed for printing press operations, was a valuable skill to learn at an early age. This was a Full Stack Creative advantage while pursuing my degree. The experience of the print shop was an incubator for a successful design career. It was fun learning how to operate bindery equipment, printers, typesetting, and interacting with clients seeking creative needs.

While working in the print industry, I was also pursuing my graphic design degree. My college education gave me a wide variety of exposure to the professional creative desires companies are looking for from new talent. My degree focused mainly on the fine arts like drawing, painting, photography and graphic design. Meanwhile, I discovered our school’s computer lab with an open schedule to work on class projects. I quickly claimed a computer and camped out there for two years, engaged in art projects. The computer lab was this plethora of creative software, and I was allowed to access any program at any time. Many of these times spent, I sat pretending to work on a school project, with the sole purpose, to sit and listen in on a multimedia class instead. The love of learning all things creative helps define a Full Stack Creative’s love for art. A constant creation from vision to function, invisible to visible.

In the midst of fine tuning my graphic design skills, and learning the concepts “less is more” and “white space”, I was dabbling into the world of animation and interactive design, using tools like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, and AfterEffects.

As I sat in on multimedia classes outside my curriculum, I discovered the majority of the students pursuing web development were not visual artists, but more like programmers viewing art through the experience they create. An artform unto itself, but not the visual arts of my studies. I am assuming this explains the choice of programming classes, instead of charcoal drawing a nude statue. This idea of programming intrigued my interest. It took me down the path of research into the topic of web development. I wanted to learn how these websites were made. I wanted to understand the function, and see if I could make one, but apply my visual design perspective. I was amazed, still to this day, that there are many high profile companies with bad designs, or their websites are a basic template. I use templates and WordPress, so I am not judging. Sometimes function outweighs form and templates are a great starting point. As a Full Stack Creative, that is a statement most heard that balances the budget. I like to break the box that I am in sometimes.

To put into perspective, a graphic designer, or front-end designer, is not a programmer. This challenge requires direction between the two to ensure proper function. Full Stack Creatives lean on the graphic design side but are well balanced on producing and editing code. Although there are great tools these days that help graphic designers get their virtual hands dirty into the user experience, the false idea that they are now web developers is a common misconception. They have the skill to produce something that looks like a website, or update the graphics within a template, but that is all you get. Adobe XD is trying hard to bridge this gap from designer to programmer. As a Full Stack Creative, I can honestly tell you this is practically impossible by software alone. Graphic designer and programmer, the two need each other. One may produce a full product on their own with limitations. A Full Stack Creative has the knowledge for both, from concept to deployment. I haven’t even spoken about the woes of troubleshooting, security, hosting, databases, and other needs beyond the user experience side of things. The skills of a Webmaster do not necessarily translate to a programmer. This knowledge is different and adds another facet to the Full Stack Creative perspective.

Let us continue on about the relationship between a graphic designer and a programmer. Let this also point us to the conclusion that not all can be Full Stack Creatives because it requires time, experience, and the desire to learn what might not come naturally. For example, a programmer without design talent, can build an interactive solution that may have some cool backend structure with solid functionality, but the design will look like a generic template that everyone and their brother is using. Now how is that supposed to represent the uniqueness of a client? Again, a programmer adds solid functionality without the branded personality. A programmer needs a graphic designer for this reason to help establish the essence of the client’s brand while showcasing the beautiful function of the code. Flip the situation, and a graphic designer can design and showcase an interactive solution within brand guidelines, but does not have the ability to add the code functionality needed to perform with precision. On another note, I will save the phrase “content is king” for another day.

Finally, we reach the desired skill set of the Full Stack Creative. Imagine having the best of both worlds, artist and programmer, all under one salary. This does not mean that a Full Stack Creative is capable of producing work for two people. Instead, a Full Stack Creative can produce on both ends of a project with expertise. This helps bridge the gap between other designers and programmers. This opens the door to broader discussions beyond the scope of a project, and figuring out the best way to serve clients, and improve budgets. Yes, a Full Stack Creative like myself, has the capabilities to design and build from start to finish. And that is okay. Sometimes, that is required for a project or two or three. The cool thing is that I am a graphic designer who understands code. I know how it works and can apply my education of “white space” while adhering to strict brand style guides.

I am a Full Stack Creative.

Article posted on LinkedIn