Excited that my article was published in Torque during WCSF. Read the excerpt below then follow the jump!

Be The Unicorn by Sara Cannon

What’s all this talk about Unicorns? Beautiful, sparkling, Golden Unicorns.

My beginnings in Web Design and Development surfaced out of a love for technology an art. I was an artist and print designer with a thirst for something more. Because I wanted to be relevant and engaged, I ended up diving head first into the fast moving waters of web design and development. To get things done, I hunkered down, studied, imitated, and learned. To be completely self-sustainable, you end up learning bits of everything. I strived to become a renaissance woman. I wanted to build and create, without needing to rely on others to achieve my goals.

A few years later, I was hired by a small agency that really needed a one woman show. They did not want to need to rely multiple departments and titles to get the job done.

They needed a Golden Unicorn

They wanted someone who could not only always solve the technical problems at hand, but had an eye for design and user experience. Someone who could say “yes that can happen” without hesitation and then google it right after making the promise. Since then, I decided to strive to be the unicorn.

In the industry now, there seems to be a long standing tension between designers and developers. This tension is manifested in the workplace, in social settings, but it is also within ourselves – with how we think. It is the longstanding battle of the left brain and right brain. The left side of the brain is known to be logical, analytical, and objective (hello technical directors!) while the right side is known to be intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective (creative thinkers). But the one thing both sides of our brains have in common is Problem Solving. Even though both sides are radically different, there is a common thread there. No one wants to be a code monkey or a pixel pusher. We want to solve problems, and do great work.

Check Out the rest of the Post on Torque