For the past couple months I’ve had an idea for a book about creative people who make calculated compromises in their lives to achieve economic success on a personal level, but also to affect social change. The choice to do something creative as a part of one’s livelihood is rarely to simply make a buck.  To the artist, money is often only a fortunate byproduct of artistic success, provided by one’s own willingness to adapt to trends, or rebel in a way that makes a statement of value.  Many creative people will also continue their trajectory regardless of income, seeking personal fulfillment instead of riches, or in some cases, the sanity that comes from the actualization of what previously only existed in their minds, regardless of whether or not the commodity is later shared or kept private.  Historically the financially successful artist has been someone who does just that—makes art, be it in an academic setting, for governing bodies, or in a privileged bubble, where new money needn’t be an objective.  The artistic forms were limited to painting, sculpture, music, dance—ones that still define most art curricula to this day.  Individuals who defied those strict boundaries often found themselves broke and outcast, and recognized only in death, when the perceptual boundary had been lifted, and the new form accepted. Those who veered towards assembly-line type reproduction or ergonomic function were cast as craftsman or engineers.  These days the boundaries of the artists’ doing are less clear, the form less subject to outright rejection, because art movements—a previous setting for definitive criticism—no longer exist.  Economically, different fields from what we traditionally refer to as “the arts” are welcoming creative, even aesthetic input into the manifestation of forms previously untouchable by art.  This book is about the would-be artist, who thousands of years ago might have cut statues into marble or just as easily had to quit an esoteric passion to avoid starvation, but now finds themselves positioned in politics, working in a corporation, advancing the field of computational biology.  I’m out to prove the hypothesis that these artist didn’t get lost or distracted from their true path, but have in fact found a creative output mechanism that provides them with social influence, opportunities to apply their imagination to current phenomena, and potentially greater economic success as a result.  Furthermore the language of the text circumnavigates the age-old distinction of art versus design, to establish a comradely between the two.  Both have their place as functional objects in society.  Both can exist in gallery spaces.  Both can be programmed.  In summary, not art versus design, but creativity as a force of economy.