I was reading the latest issue of Computer Arts (September 2008) and I came across an article/interview with Alan Aldridge. I couldn’t help but wonder, by the end of it, if your innermost creative passions can form your career or whether it’s just what you’re good at (be it something at the other end of the scale and not necessarily your most enjoyable past-time) that gets you ahead?

Alan is well known for making his name as an underground artist with his penguin book covers, record sleeves for the 60’s cream such as The Beattles and The Rolling Stones, and now runs ‘Ink Studios’, producing artwork for bands such as US band Incubus.

I couldn’t help but feel in awe of such a well established artist who, ironically, says he never wanted to be an artist. His dream was to be a poet! His career has snowballed (in a great way) and yet to think he isn’t living out his life long passion seems almost laughable. I wince at the thought of being in a role that ok, maybe I am good at, but at the end of the day leaves me longing for something else.

Does this mean that for all those people doing jobs that they have acquired, by fortunate circumstances, that giving 100%, it can materialise into a fabulous career? Im a little doubtful that someone can give 100% of themselves in a ‘day job’ and it can transpire like that. I would like to believe that deep down, somewhere in the depths of Alan’s darkest creative cogs there was always a desire to paint, to illustrate and to visualise.  Coming from a childhood where graphics was always labelled as ‘colouring in’, I truly want to believe that what we do is special, if anything to believe that art & design cannot be done by anyone who picks up a pencil but is saved for those who have the drive for creation.