Congratulations to Media Inc. on your 30th anniversary! Looking back over the years, it goes without saying that a lot has changed in the creative field. In the early 1980s, creative professionals worked with typewriters and paste-up boards—and there was no such thing as the Internet. The first mobile phones were just appearing, and they were almost as bulky as cereal boxes. Personal computers were in their infancy, and no one had ever heard of a smartphone.

What a difference 30 years makes. Today’s professionals must be conversant with digital platforms, including mobile and social media. They need to be able to use and interpret Web analytics, perform search engine optimization and search engine marketing, and know how to build and maximize fully integrated interactive campaigns. In a world where the interaction between user and Web page or mobile device is paramount, user experience designers and information architects, as well as mobile apps developers and designers, are in strong demand.
Despite the seismic shifts that have turned the creative field upside down in the past three decades, the need for some skills hasn’t changed at all. Where would we be, for example, without compelling content? Whether you call it content or copywriting, the core messaging we create is the heart of all we attempt to package, explain, visualize and promote. Similarly, editing skills help to fine-tune and polish the presentation of each client’s unique value proposition.
Project management skills are timeless as well. It’s a rare project that can get off the ground—much less move to completion—without the support of people with solid
organizational skills.
Marketing acumen and attentive account management also are key benefits creatives offer clients—whether it’s 1981 or 2011. All the glossy brochures and dazzling Web sites in the world won’t accomplish their purpose unless they’re driven by well-thought-out strategies and a means of keeping them on track with client expectations.
And last, but most assuredly not least, there’s creativity. Technology may have offered us amazing new tools to work with over the past 30 years, but they would amount to little without the talent required to make them sing.
Despite advances, the creative field is first and foremost a people profession: People bringing products and services to life and making them relevant to other people. And that’s a connection even time can’t erase.

Maria Scheleen is the Seattle Division Director for The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service placing creative, advertising, marketing and Web professionals with a variety of firms. For more information, visit www.creativegroup.com or contact the company’s Seattle office at 206-749-9046.