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maltatoday, SUNDAY 29 APRIL 2018 IV Careers CHANGE. FAIL. LEAD. Welcome Change. Embrace Failure. Take the Lead. #whycatena catenamedia.com/careers Five sure-re ways to develop your creative career A common response when talking to someone who works in the creative in- dustry is how exciting the work must be. While it of course can be, it's also really easy to get stuck in a creative rut – taking on the same kind of commissions, spend- ing hours developing your design port- folio and having your creative freedom restricted by clients. But work doesn't have to be like that. Yes, change can be scary, but sometimes making a brave or bold move can make all the difference to the success of your career. Question is, are you willing to try? And if not, what's stopping you? Here are five successful creative folk with some brilliant tips on how to really push your creative career to new heights. 1. Quit your boring job For some, having a baby might be a good reason not to leave the finan- cial security of a full-time job. But for Sheffield-based illustrator and designer Lisa Maltby, it was actually the catalyst to do so. She'd been working at a design agency and things had been going well, she recalls. "But I'm a real ideas and creative person, and there wasn't a lot of opportu- nity to push ideas as much as I wanted to. I didn't feel as challenged as I did when I first began." After striking out on her own, she hasn't looked back since. "My creativity has always been part of my self-expression, as well as wanting it to be a career," she stresses. "So it was almost my way of survival: that I wasn't just knee-deep in nappies, that I had something else." 2. Build you reputation After five years working at design agen- cies across Yorkshire, people thought Amy Kilner was crazy to chuck in her job and go back to college. But the 24-year- old from Rotherham was adamant. "As I got older, I realised I needed to go back and finish it." She eventually did so, funding herself through a mix of student loans and freelancing. And as an unexpected by- product, she ended up selling a piece of her student work to superstar DJ Fatboy Slim. "It was a typography project for my course," Kilner explains. "The brief was to create a poster based on song lyrics, anything we wanted. I chose the words to Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat. When I'd com- pleted it, I posted it on Instagram, tagged it, and didn't think any more about it." A few days later, the star's manager emailed to ask if he could buy the il- lustration. Kilner agreed, and then the DJ himself emailed, requesting a signed copy to display in his home alongside artwork by Banksy, Chemical X and Jimmy Cauty. 3. Win a dream client Rose Waterson may have been a tal- ented illustrator, but she wasn't really aware of it. The fine art graduate and freelancer lacked confidence in her work, and didn't expect to attract clients out- side of her hometown of Brighton. So it was something of a surprise when she got a call from Nike. It all stemmed from a logo and poster she had designed for a group in Brighton called Girls Can't DJ. "They'd posted it on their Instagram account. And then later on, they'd done an interview with Nike about women in the music busi- ness," she says. When Nike saw Waterson's work on the group's Instagram, it was a case of good timing; the brand had just decided to collaborate with seven female artists to promote their new workout pants line, Nike pant Studio. So the company got in touch and commissioned her for the campaign. 4. Start a new side project In September 2016, Ariana deLuca, an art director based in New York, was looking for a photographer. "I wanted to reach out to someone new, so I put the word out," she recalls. "I didn't feel comfortable with anyone who responded. And I thought to myself: I'd really love to work with another female creative, who has similar goals and ambitions to me. But nothing like that existed. Then I thought: this should exist, why don't I just make it?" She got in contact with photographer and conceptual artist Heather Leigh Cul- lum and in February 2017, they launched a new group for women called The passionate project. Its mission is to help 'female creatives who want to collaborate on projects, strengthen their portfolios, and network.' DeLuca has done all of this outside her full-time agency job, but despite the hard work and long hours, she's loved every minute. 5. Find the ideal work-life balance Shanti Sparrow was working as a de- signer in a little boutique studio in Syd- ney. She enjoyed her job and found much of the work fulfilling. But something was missing, she just didn't know what. So she decided to take a year off travelling, in order to work out what it was. She used her savings to rent a flat in New York and stayed for six months. On her return to Australia, though, she still struggled for a time to work out why her career wasn't sitting right. Then, finally, it all fell into place, when she saw an ad for graphic design mentors at Shillington back in New York. "I'd always been the mother hen of eve- ry studio I'd been at, I was always training juniors," she explains. "And I loved the idea of still being in graphic design, but without the deadlines and clients." She's now found the perfect work bal- ance, combining a job as a lecturer for Shillington with design freelancing. And she thinks she'd never have got there without the perspective gained from travelling. Amy Kilner's Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat illustration was bought by DJ Fatboy Slim