The Art of Figuring It Out

By Emma Grace Henne

I grew up watching cartoons, as every kid did, but I slowly realized over time that I wasn’t growing out of them, nor was I losing my love for them. Cartoons were my introduction to really delving into animated media, film and graphic design, and, as I got older, I discovered the processes of media development, production, show marketing, story writing, and so many other processes that go into creating television and film.

Cartoons were my escape from reality, they were a place to feel inspired and excited when your favorite hero would finally defeat the bad guy, and they were an artistic medium I grew to admire through the versatility that is animation.

As I continued to learn more about what goes into animated shows, I entered the Media Production, Management, and Technology major, and my perspective was absolutely shifted.

I spent a long time thinking that my creative passions for art, design, production, storytelling and so much more were hobby skills with no practicality, and I only did them because I loved it; Whereas I was stuck in the idea that more logistical skills like organization, leadership, deadline management, strategy and real problem solving, were skills I’d never apply in a creative field.

The innovation academy was the first step towards changing that mindset.

The first in person classes I took for the Innovation academy were “Creativity and Design Thinking for Innovation” in Spring, and “Innovation in Action” in Summer. This is the starter innovation course and our catalyst course. I was still a Marketing major at this time, and the practical entrepreneurship skills we learned in relation to time management, pitching, attire, public speaking and more were familiar and great, but what really shocked me was how those classes tied in “Design thinking”, and encouraged creation, ideation and out-of-the-box brainstorming in order to come up with brand new ideas. I was so inspired by this combination of creativity and practicality, that I began to sit on an idea I hadn’t thought of yet:

Could I pursue my creative passions, and still work with practical skills?

I hadn’t considered the two were intertwined, after all I was often told all my life my cartoon interests were “childlike” and a future in cartooning wouldn’t be “successful”. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn’t want to be an artist, but I wanted to use my creative mind and logistical skills to produce all kinds of media!

So, after switching my major, I dove into involvement at UF, and every new opportunity proved further that you can approach a creative media career with both passion and practicality.

My dance coordinator role in the Filipino student Association connected the artistic love I have for choreography and dance, with the practical nature of scheduling, group communication, budget intake, group coordination and so much more. My time in the Atrium Magazine let me express my artistic design skills in a published piece, while balancing the importance of deadlines, software structure and leadership communication. My music video balanced story ideation and storyboarding with film scheduling, post-production and editing. Lastly, the Innovation Academy helped me come to that realization that creativity is not the opposite of practicality but instead serves to solve practical problems.

I’ve learned that creativity and practicality were never competing sides of who I am. The same mind that finds rhythm in choreography, a story from a single thought, and possibility in a blank canvas is the same one that solves problems, organizes schedules, pivots when plans fall apart, takes care of her team and turns ideas into something real.

Innovation doesn’t just ask us to choose between being imaginative and being capable, but instead, it asks us to combine these principals to create something new. It took me a long time to discover my passion and my logic could coexist, and it was an art to figure it out.