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Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

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Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#21

Post by msutherl »

Thanks for this! I'm among the new batch of students that are the subject of this article and currently looking for jobs in NY. I've been maintaining a similar list, but yours contains a number of additions for which I'm grateful.

Some advice: I've applied to a lot of these places and haven't gotten replies – it's my understanding that it's much better to approach through personal connections.

A few companies not on your list that that focus on creative coding:

– Moment Factory

– ESKI Inc.

– GSM Project

– United Visual Artists

– Light Surgeons

– Tangible Interaction

– Drawing and Manual

– Kimchi and Chips

– Jonpasang

– Hybe

– DinahMoe

A few more traditional agencies that appear to hire "creative coders":

– Sid Lee

– Rockwell Group

– Invisible Light Network

– Obscura Digital

– Razorfish

– Wieden + Kennedy

– Big Spaceship

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#22

Post by jankins »

I find this interesting because as a former artist, the reason I love programming is that it scratches the same creative itch.

I'm not sure if I fit in the 'Creative Coders' category, since though I was an aspiring artist prior to getting into development, I was never commercially successful at it, and I'm really not a good designer since I find commercial art pretty tedious.

Programming, however, is another thing altogether; within about a year of beginning from scratch, I got a job at one of the companies in this list (Mirada) leading development on an interactive storytelling app. One thing that I think gave me a good edge was some development experience in the entertainment realm -- I had made an iPhone app to help screenwriters organize their thoughts, and got a chance to make an app for a comic book trying to get off the ground.

I also know that we're currently looking for more iOS developers (especially with OpenGL experience) so the development side is only growing.

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#23

Post by callmevlad »

shrub wrote: post #5
callmevlad wrote: post #3

This is a very exciting trend, and I'm glad more designers are jumping into code. As an art school dropout who later finished a CS degree, the combination of skills is invaluable. I honestly believe that the most difficult work in creating something new/innovative is skewed to the design side, so I hope we see a corresponding trend as well: programmers becoming more interested in design. I like to think of 'creative…

> while a programmer who is not concerned with design is little more than a line cook following instructions. I disagree with this and am inclined to take offence. Programming is not at all like following a simple recipe. Perhaps if the chef specifies that the line cooks must raise special chickens to be slaughtered for the main dish, keeps a herb garden that the line cooks have to maintain, puts the line cooks in ch…

Sorry, I did not mean to offend. And I admit that in hindsight it is a weak analogy at best.

When I wrote that, I was thinking of consumer software specifically, and by a "programmer who is not concerned with design" I had in mind those that just care about implementation details, while not valuing the importance of end user experience. And I've met quite a few programmers like this, mostly in larger companies. You know you've found one when their sentences start with "Why doesn't the user just..."

In your expanded example, the fact that the line cook is concerned with the taste of the dish (e.g. after genetic modification) already implies that they care about the "design" of the dish. If, however, there is much more concern around how the cookware is organized in the kitchen, or which brand of vegetable oil should be bought, that has almost no tangible benefits to the person eating the meal.

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#24

Post by orangethirty »

msutherl wrote: post #21

Thanks for this! I'm among the new batch of students that are the subject of this article and currently looking for jobs in NY. I've been maintaining a similar list, but yours contains a number of additions for which I'm grateful. Some advice: I've applied to a lot of these places and haven't gotten replies – it's my understanding that it's much better to approach through personal connections. A few companies not on…

Please add Nuuton, though it is not an agency, but a startup.

Apply by sending me an email (on profile). Note: currently internships are available.

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#25

Post by kellishaver »

jankins wrote: post #22

I find this interesting because as a former artist, the reason I love programming is that it scratches the same creative itch. I'm not sure if I fit in the 'Creative Coders' category, since though I was an aspiring artist prior to getting into development, I was never commercially successful at it, and I'm really not a good designer since I find commercial art pretty tedious. Programming, however, is another thing al…

I feel similarly. I studied art in school-my degree is in fine art, with an area of focus on design. I spent a lot of time after I graduated working as a frustrated designer. My clients were happy, but nothing was ever "good enough" in the feels really satisfying sense.

Then I shifted my focus to development and I get a lot more satisfaction out of it. I find that it suits my particular brand of creativity and attention to technical details. I love the problem solving, and conjuring up working software out of nothing.

I still do some design work, and I still enjoy it, but I do it on my own terms, or I do things like interfaces - again, more technical in nature.

I quite like doing the occasional pencil or marker drawing, because it's good stress relief.

But it's programming that really satisfies my need to create.

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#26

Post by bhntr3 »

minimax wrote: post #8
dljsjr wrote: post #4

I agree with all of the sentiments in the article, but the one small thing that I do disagree with is the conflation of the word "creative" with what the author seems to indicate are artistic or graphical/visual disciplines. I believe that all programming, whether or not it's graphical or "artistic" in nature, is creative. Development is just as much a craft as it is a logical discipline. Learning algorithms, data st…

I think in this context he's using "creative" in the sense that it's used in the advertising industry. A creative is someone who actually works on developing an advertisement, rather than, say, someone buying up airtime. The companies on the list are almost all advertising agencies. It's just the industry nomenclature and I don't think he meant to say that programmers in the non-advertising world aren't creative.

The term "creative" is misleading though and its use should be discouraged. I worked at a consulting company that started doing agency work, hired designers, promoted creative directors, built a creative department, added a creative area with a creative room and so on and so forth. This was always a point of contention for the developers. It's especially silly when this article ostensibly promotes crossover coders who do both design and development. Why does it have to be the "creative" department and not the "design" department? And in an intelligent organization that encourages multi-talented people and "interdisciplinary" work, why are departments and labels like that even necessary?

The pedigree of the term creative makes sense in the advertising world. At first creatives did visual and textual work and there were no engineers. Then developers became a part of advertising agencies and became a different department from "creative." Now the walls are being broken down and we're evangelizing "creative coders" Instead of perpetuating this silly distinction, let's do away with it and stop implying that just because someone isn't A "creative" that they aren't creative.

Bad naming is bad naming.

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#27

Post by whatshisface »

callmevlad wrote: post #23
shrub wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while a programmer who is not concerned with design is little more than a line cook following instructions. I disagree with this and am inclined to take offence. Programming is not at all like following a simple recipe. Perhaps if the chef specifies that the line cooks must raise special chickens to be slaughtered for the main dish, keeps a herb garden that the line cooks have to maintain, puts the line cooks in ch…

Sorry, I did not mean to offend. And I admit that in hindsight it is a weak analogy at best. When I wrote that, I was thinking of consumer software specifically, and by a "programmer who is not concerned with design" I had in mind those that just care about implementation details, while not valuing the importance of end user experience. And I've met quite a few programmers like this, mostly in larger companies. You k…

>If, however, there is much more concern around how the cookware is organized in the kitchen, or which brand of vegetable oil should be bought, that has almost no tangible benefits to the person eating the meal.

I think you are only looking at one side of the multiplier effect. Yes, organizing cookware does not prepare food, but have you ever tried to cook when all your tools are in a drawer, piled together? Design leads implementation and implementation gives substance to design. Valuing one over the other is like saying a car's engine is more important than it's gas pedal.

So, why not have specialized workers? It makes sense to me that the people who don't understand the needs of the average user would be the perfect people to have slog through the mess of poorly designed APIs that pretty much every project ever will have to deal with at some point.

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#28

Post by lowboy »

jgv wrote: post #20
dljsjr wrote: post #4

I agree with all of the sentiments in the article, but the one small thing that I do disagree with is the conflation of the word "creative" with what the author seems to indicate are artistic or graphical/visual disciplines. I believe that all programming, whether or not it's graphical or "artistic" in nature, is creative. Development is just as much a craft as it is a logical discipline. Learning algorithms, data st…

this --> "I believe that all programming, whether or not it's graphical or "artistic" in nature, is creative. "

All programming? Hardly.

In pretty much every ecosystem I've seen, there are standard patterns for doing things because they've been proven. Even just taking your own experience, you probably have patterns you use to solve problems. Sometimes you can apply these patterns in different ways and that's where "creativity" comes in, but a lot of the time, there's a "best" way to do something to maximize source comprehension, maintainability, performance, etc.

There's often nothing creative about adding a jQuery plugin to a page, or setting up a table in a database, or adding a new route to an instance of an MVC framework.

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#29

Post by TeMPOraL »

dljsjr wrote: post #4

I agree with all of the sentiments in the article, but the one small thing that I do disagree with is the conflation of the word "creative" with what the author seems to indicate are artistic or graphical/visual disciplines. I believe that all programming, whether or not it's graphical or "artistic" in nature, is creative. Development is just as much a craft as it is a logical discipline. Learning algorithms, data st…

This naming may come from fact that some libraries for easing creation of programmed graphics and audiovisual displays are called "creative coding" / "creative programming" libs. It's a phrase that has been around for few years.

EDIT:

From the top of my head,

- http://libcinder.org/ - "Cinder is a community-developed, free and open source library for professional-quality creative coding in C++."

- http://www.openframeworks.cc/ - "openFrameworks is an open source C++ toolkit for creative coding."

Re: Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’

#30

Post by dljsjr »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #29
dljsjr wrote: post #4

I agree with all of the sentiments in the article, but the one small thing that I do disagree with is the conflation of the word "creative" with what the author seems to indicate are artistic or graphical/visual disciplines. I believe that all programming, whether or not it's graphical or "artistic" in nature, is creative. Development is just as much a craft as it is a logical discipline. Learning algorithms, data st…

This naming may come from fact that some libraries for easing creation of programmed graphics and audiovisual displays are called "creative coding" / "creative programming" libs. It's a phrase that has been around for few years. EDIT: From the top of my head, - http://libcinder.org/ - "Cinder is a community-developed, free and open source library for professional-quality creative coding in C++." - http://www.openfram…

And I would level the same criticisms at the people who named these libraries.
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