Creativity used to mean storytelling, visuals, and big ideas. Today, it means all that and knowing how to make those ideas scalable, smart, and system-ready. The line between creative and technical isn’t just blurred — it’s gone.In a world where experiences are digital, campaigns are code-backed, and speed-to-market is everything, the most transformative creative teams aren’t just hiring designers and copywriters. They’re embedding technologists.
The Strategic Shift: Creativity Is Now a Systems Challenge
We’ve entered a new creative era, one where ideas don’t just need to be bold, they need to be buildable. That shift has major implications for how we staff, structure, and lead our teams.
Once siloed off in IT or brought in late to “make it work,” technologists are now critical players in early concepting, prototyping, and platform decisions. They help navigate constraints, write custom code for a wild hair idea, and quickly turn the creative’s ideas into working realities.
This isn’t a future problem for entertainment, games, retail, and tech brands. It’s a problem right now. Creative timelines are compressing. Platforms are multiplying. Expectations are higher than ever. And the teams that can’t match concept with execution? They’re getting left behind. And I haven’t even started with the adoption and integration of the avalanche of new AI-powered toolsets.
The Role: What a Creative Technologist Actually Does
The titles vary: Creative Technologist, Technical Artist, Creative Engineer, but the role is the same: someone who speaks both design and dev, both brand and build.
They might write code, prototype in real-time, or help choose a tech stack that enables long-term flexibility. More importantly, they translate creative ambition into functional execution. Think of them as the bridge between vision and viability.
They’re not replacing creatives but expanding what’s possible for them.
The Leadership Imperative: It Starts at the Top
Hiring a creative technologist isn’t a staffing tactic. It’s a strategic shift that requires buy-in at the highest levels. If you’re a VP of Creative, ECD, or CCO, it’s on you to champion this evolution.
You have to fight for hybrid talent. You have to build teams where ideas and execution sit at the same table from day one. And you have to let go of outdated org charts that separate the thinkers from the builders. It used to be that an idea was developed in a vacuum, and people were then assigned to make it happen.
In the new now, the most successful solutions are developed with a thorough knowledge of the technology that makes them possible.
Reimagining the Creative Department
What does this look like in practice? Our team is pretty nimble, with a small core that scales to demand. We decided early on that our core team needed a technologist. Their role with us was as a Technical Artist who could do everything from spec and build hardware to create custom shaders and materials for 3D and had their hands in all kinds of new and developing software and platforms. Individuals may wear these different hats in a larger team.
In one recent project, we brought our technical artist into the project during the development stage. We explained the vision and the goal, and they analyzed it and determined which platform it was best suited for. They then went to work writing custom code that created the look of the 3D scenes we were building. Rather than having one of the graphic designers try to create style frames through AI, Photoshop, or illustration work, our Technical Artist went to work building a look under the creative team’s direction. Cutting out a useless step that would have ultimately hindered the creative process not only sped up the process but also made our scenes inherently better.
The power of a technologist on your creative team is not just in making things work but also in helping you imagine new things worth making.
Final Thought: Don’t Just Hire for Today — Build for What’s Next
Disciplines won’t define the creative departments of the future. Flexibility will define them. Collaboration will define them. The ability to move from spark to scale without losing the soul of the idea will define them.
If you’re building or leading a creative team right now, ask yourself: Who on your team helps ideas become real before they hit production?
If you don’t have an answer, it might be time to rethink who’s at your table.
Creativity used to mean storytelling, visuals, and big ideas. Today, it means all that and knowing how to make those ideas scalable, smart, and system-ready. The line between creative and technical isn’t just blurred — it’s gone.In a world where experiences are digital, campaigns are code-backed, and speed-to-market is everything, the most transformative creative teams aren’t just hiring designers and copywriters. They’re embedding technologists.
The Strategic Shift: Creativity Is Now a Systems Challenge
We’ve entered a new creative era, one where ideas don’t just need to be bold, they need to be buildable. That shift has major implications for how we staff, structure, and lead our teams.
Once siloed off in IT or brought in late to “make it work,” technologists are now critical players in early concepting, prototyping, and platform decisions. They help navigate constraints, write custom code for a wild hair idea, and quickly turn the creative’s ideas into working realities.
This isn’t a future problem for entertainment, games, retail, and tech brands. It’s a problem right now. Creative timelines are compressing. Platforms are multiplying. Expectations are higher than ever. And the teams that can’t match concept with execution? They’re getting left behind. And I haven’t even started with the adoption and integration of the avalanche of new AI-powered toolsets.
The Role: What a Creative Technologist Actually Does
The titles vary: Creative Technologist, Technical Artist, Creative Engineer, but the role is the same: someone who speaks both design and dev, both brand and build.
They might write code, prototype in real-time, or help choose a tech stack that enables long-term flexibility. More importantly, they translate creative ambition into functional execution. Think of them as the bridge between vision and viability.
They’re not replacing creatives but expanding what’s possible for them.
The Leadership Imperative: It Starts at the Top
Hiring a creative technologist isn’t a staffing tactic. It’s a strategic shift that requires buy-in at the highest levels. If you’re a VP of Creative, ECD, or CCO, it’s on you to champion this evolution.
You have to fight for hybrid talent. You have to build teams where ideas and execution sit at the same table from day one. And you have to let go of outdated org charts that separate the thinkers from the builders. It used to be that an idea was developed in a vacuum, and people were then assigned to make it happen.
In the new now, the most successful solutions are developed with a thorough knowledge of the technology that makes them possible.
Reimagining the Creative Department
What does this look like in practice? Our team is pretty nimble, with a small core that scales to demand. We decided early on that our core team needed a technologist. Their role with us was as a Technical Artist who could do everything from spec and build hardware to create custom shaders and materials for 3D and had their hands in all kinds of new and developing software and platforms. Individuals may wear these different hats in a larger team.
In one recent project, we brought our technical artist into the project during the development stage. We explained the vision and the goal, and they analyzed it and determined which platform it was best suited for. They then went to work writing custom code that created the look of the 3D scenes we were building. Rather than having one of the graphic designers try to create style frames through AI, Photoshop, or illustration work, our Technical Artist went to work building a look under the creative team’s direction. Cutting out a useless step that would have ultimately hindered the creative process not only sped up the process but also made our scenes inherently better.
The power of a technologist on your creative team is not just in making things work but also in helping you imagine new things worth making.
Final Thought: Don’t Just Hire for Today — Build for What’s Next
Disciplines won’t define the creative departments of the future. Flexibility will define them. Collaboration will define them. The ability to move from spark to scale without losing the soul of the idea will define them.
If you’re building or leading a creative team right now, ask yourself: Who on your team helps ideas become real before they hit production?
If you don’t have an answer, it might be time to rethink who’s at your table.
Bobby Hougham is an Executive Creative Director, Founding Partner, and CCO of The New Blank. When he isn’t crafting brilliant prose, you can guess he is neck deep in learning new software or researching some new tech and infinitely grateful for the experts surrounding him.
Bobby Hougham is an Executive Creative Director, Founding Partner, and CCO of The New Blank. When he isn’t crafting brilliant prose, you can guess he is neck deep in learning new software or researching some new tech and infinitely grateful for the experts surrounding him.
