Creative generalist
1. Someone with skills across lots of disciplines, who joins the dots between them to solve problems. Where a specialist goes deep on one thing, a creative generalist works across the boundaries and connects ideas nobody else thought to put together.
2. See Tiffany Maddox (fig. 1).
Origins
I grew up in small agencies with big clients. That meant taking on a lot of responsibility early and wearing a lot of hats, and I loved it. I got to be there for every stage of bringing an idea to life: digging into the strategy, coming up with the idea, pitching it, writing the script, directing and editing, planning the media and sometimes running the ads too.
It taught me that creative input at every stage makes the work better. It also taught me I wasn't attached to any one part of the process. I loved the whole thing.
Generalist vs specialist
There's an old belief that specialists always beat generalists. It's out of date. Generalists see the whole picture. They can step in at any point, roll up their sleeves and make the creative call that changes the outcome.
Most of all, they have taste and judgement. As AI takes on more of the specialist work, knowing what's good, and joining ideas up across different fields, is becoming the most valuable skill there is.
Hiring one
When you work with me, you get someone who sees the whole picture. You get ideas from outside the box, thinking that bends to fit the problem, and 15 years of experience, in one hire.
The Bodyform film was planned, written, shot and launched in seven days. It won a gold Cannes Lion.
References
1. The rise of the “Creative Generalists”, promp.td on Substack, March 2025. On why breadth, adaptability and joining up ideas across fields matter more, not less, as AI takes on routine and specialist work.
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