The Innovative Type

I used to think that the most important component of design and for any designer was to be creative, but I didn’t realize that there are many more components that are as equally important as being creative or a dreamer.

During one of the classes of Experience Design, we were asked to do a quiz that would allow us to understand and know more of our creative type. I remember taking this test a few years ago in a previous design company I used to work with. When I took this quiz, the result was that I was the Dreamer type. Now, a few years later, it says I’m the Innovator type.

Being the innovator type comes with a lot of responsibilities because they describe people in this category with the “ability to generate new ideas and innovative solutions” but that I have a potential that I have not explored to its fullest which is executing the ideas.

Innovators tend to see everything as a new possibility or as problem solvers. They feel that by using their intellectual and creative sides, they can solve problems. They have this ability because they are focusing on the world around them and trying to understand and learn what happens every day.

The problem comes when that initial spark of inspiration starts to fade and they feel the need to start a new thing, maybe too quickly. It is necessary for them to learn how to follow a schedule, a workflow, how to stick to the natural order of things. Not only focusing on the excitement of finding the answer to that problem or the happiness of reaching to the finishing line, but also learning how to love the process in between.

I do agree with this definition of my creative type, I do feel that those are my strengths and my weaknesses, but they also mention two other things which I do not seem to possess. One of them is that innovators are natural risk takers and the other is that they do not feel scared with changes.

In my case I do not consider myself a risk taker, it takes me a long time to decide, I must put everything into paper and consider the pros and cons of that decision before even thinking of doing something. I also feel very scared when changes start to appear in my life, I have the tendency of wanting to control every aspect of my life and when something changes, I feel that I do not have control of it anymore.

I do feel that working in the design industry has allowed me to feel less scared with changes and to take more risks than a few years ago, but not enough to feel completely related to the innovative type.

It is interesting to see how things change during the years, how your creative type varies depending on your life experiences. This only proves the importance of developing experience during the years, the importance of working and studying in different scenarios, with different people and in different countries (if you have the opportunity to do so). Especially in design, being able to encounter different experiences through life, allows the view and the mind of a designer to open and expand.

My biggest recommendation, after two years of living in Australia is go out there, study and work abroad. Open yourself to new cultures and new people, this will only make your mind bigger.