Great creative careers are grown, not generated
Automating entry-level work may seem efficient, but in the process we risk dismantling the very system that has produced generations of creative talent, writes Saatchi & Saatchi CCO Franki Goodwin
I came to London from Scotland in 1999; a giant portfolio in one hand and an original aqua iMac in the other. I remember vividly getting off the train on a hot August night and feeling like I’d arrived. Like, actually fucking arrived.
Cut to an utterly clueless junior designer sitting next to experts in their craft who somehow had the time and the inclination to show me the key commands and help me with print templates. It wasn’t glamorous. And it wasn’t what the fantasy had looked like. But that’s the annoying thing about learning, it’s not always supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to make you into something.
That’s the part that troubles me now, when I look at where our industry is heading. Not the technology itself – I use it and think it will do genuinely useful things – but rather the worrying sub-narrative we’re seeing, suggesting that we can strip out the entry-level roles, automate the ‘grunt work’ and lose nothing. Because if we do this, we might just lose everything.
