Creative jobs

[craftsensations]

I keep thinking to myself, I really should do a more creative job. I'm not brave enough/too fed up with how my company is going to do that full time but deffo need to change my other job....

Anyone got any ideas??????????

I have ben thinking of annimation but I don't know how you'd get into that..and gaming as it's more creative than you think but as you know, I'm a technical thickie so hmmm.....

Aaaggghhhh!

[indri]

How about a model maker for Nick Park? That'd be fun making little plasticine models I'm sure. The most creative thing I do in my job is making solutions of random chemicals... I do think for gaming you need to be a computer nerd, unless you are going to do board games?

[woodtattoos]

All I know is (from my experience knowing some people who work for a well-known animation/model-making company) is that a lot of the staff are on temporary contracts and seem to get laid off at the drop of a hat... they seem to keep a small core of staff as a main team and recruit others when demand dictates.

Si.

[janetdc]

The gaming industry is crying out for people. I was lucky enough to be invited to an open day run by a local gaming company called Blitz, at which everybody in the company gave talks about their particular job. My eleven year old thinks thats what he wants to do when he leaves school so they made an exception to let me bring him along and we were fascinated. I think you could have some fun and use your creative talents in that field.

[craftsensations]

Oooo I think I've heard of Blitz! Did they give any advice about how to get into the industry at all? The problem is that there seems to be a sort of non technical side to gaming but I don't know how you even get into that without having a technical background...if that makes sense!!

Thanks si as well for the info - I don't mind contract work, doing Project Management I'm used to it. Do you know how your friends got into the industry? I imagine it's hard and not sure if you need like a qualification in that field....don't think my Classics degree would really count!

Thanks guys!

[indri]

Here is the most creative and artistic looking thing I've come up with at work:



It's a scorpion claw under a scanning electron microscope. Must be a bit arty, as an art student did part of their degree project with microscope pictures...

[woodtattoos]

Thanks si as well for the info - I don't mind contract work, doing Project Management I'm used to it. Do you know how your friends got into the industry? I imagine it's hard and not sure if you need like a qualification in that field....don't think my Classics degree would really count!

All the people I know who got into that field went to work for one particular company. They all did the same 3-D Design degree that I did, so they had a lot of skill in model-making and other similar skills. One of them had managed to get work experience there during the degree course and got a job as a result of impressing them with his work. A few others got in shortly after graduating. Some of them managed to establish themself and remain fulltime, where some others seemed to be getting made redundant and then asked to come back at a later date quite frequently, which doesn't seem the easiest or most reliable way to make a living with the economic climate these days...

Si.

[kerryw]

Hi,
I work in design and marketing, which is a creative job, but as my employers are not willing to experiment or take risks with anything, we keep putting out the same old boring stuff. I think you can only truly be creative when you work for yourself. It looks like it might not be too far in the future for me (since my job is far from mentally stimulating), so I suggest focusing your creativity on yourself rather than others if this is something you might want for the future, otherwise it might take it out of your craft work.

[Seahorse]

If you can draw how about designing pictures for greeting cards or wrapping paper.I think theres a company that buys drawing for those things, it has phoenix in its name.

[elzi]

Hello,

First a little word of warning if you're thinking of going creative - creative jobs are almost always VERY badly paid. I think this is often because people do the jobs because they want to be there and also there is always a queue of people wanting to do the job that you are doing. (I'm not wishing to put you off i'm just warning you that you might be heading for a pay cut!)

There isn't always a defined way into creative industries as talent is generally recognised as more important than qualifications. However If you aren't worried about paying the mortgage you could try doing work for free or very cheap for a while to gain experience and contacts.

I spent over 5 years in the games industry and mostly really enjoyed my job, I worked for a small company where I had a lot of creative freedom able to design characters, landscapes creating and animating and even eventually was even able to make suggestions with gameplay. It's a hard industry to get into with bad pay and long hours (also there are literally NO women in games!). Only about half the guys I worked with had a formal qualification - the lead artist didn't and he was always willing to look at a portfolio and interview someone if he thought their work looked promising. It's generally understood that you can teach anyone to use animation software but much harder to teach creative talent.

I have a qualification in animation and a background in 3d design. A lot of folks I trained with went on to animate for film and tv (I sometimes see their names in the credits of blockbuster movies!). Animation is a fantastic thing to get into as good animators are always in demand! Maybe take a look around at some courses, and just do a short course and see if you like it?

Good luck!

[Seahorse]

Ive just become an embroiderers assitant which is miles better than any office job and a bit creative,the pay is good too, well for me anyway.

[Buffy]

Hmm great question and thread!

I am a Mechanical Engineer by trade, as a workshop technician, I enjoyed my job as I made all one offs from drawings, for science technology and medicine, uni students, projects, and proffessors research, so it was rarely dull (till you get a 100 off job!)

Tea breaks and lunches I could use the workshops to my disposal so it was easy to make things creative for myself that I couldn't do now!

I always fancied going over to a TV channel workshop where they make the robotic puppets and things like Dr Who and well I suppose they call it special effects! lol

But it was a way to earn a living and exercise my creativity.

[purplemac]

The most creative job I've ever had was being a crystal repairer for Swarovski. When people dropped their crystal animals, we repaired them! Sounds fab but about half an hour in to the job, realised how boring it was, it was like 'sticking' for adults! I had to use a blowtorch, scalpels and UV lights and glue - although I was good at the repairing, I'm seriously clumsy! I lost my fringe and a lot of skin to the blowtorch (burning skin - urghh, bad smell!!) and had a box of plasters all to myself!

Good luck in your quest!
Debbie

[Seahorse]

The most creative job I've ever had was being a crystal repairer for Swarovski. When people dropped their crystal animals, we repaired them! Sounds fab but about half an hour in to the job, realised how boring it was, it was like 'sticking' for adults! I had to use a blowtorch, scalpels and UV lights and glue - although I was good at the repairing, I'm seriously clumsy! I lost my fringe and a lot of skin to the blowtorch (burning skin - urghh, bad smell!!) and had a box of plasters all to myself!

Good luck in your quest!
Debbie

Blimey, i had no idea such a thing existed.You would have come in handy when my brother and his friend were playing football in the livig room when they were young and his friend decided to kick the ball straight into my mums collection of swarovski figures!!

[purplemac]

Ohhh, I bet she was pleased!!! If she still needs them repaired, the address to send them to should be in the leaflet inside the box. They've moved since I left.

Debbie