How the ‘Tinkerer’ Plans To Solve Your Creative Problems
FREDERICTON– When asked to define himself, Scott McAllister thinks of one word: “Tinkerer.”
“I’m a tinkerer, a person who finds something that’s broken or finds two weird things and puts them together to creatively and beautifully mend a broken thing,” he says. “I think that’s the best word I can find to define how I think and function.”
It’s his desire for “tinkering” that led him to create Fredericton Arts, a consultancy and design practice that blends his passions for art, technology and problem-solving.
Born and raised in Fredericton, McAllister’s educational background is in art. He studied at the Ontario College of Craft and Design, which started a seven-year stay in the province. After graduation, he landed a job at a design studio doing web design and web development, a skill he’s been honing since high school.
McAllister moved home to Fredericton in May to be close to family.
“It’s nice to be with folks you’ve always been with,” he says.
Fredericton Arts is McAllister’s response to creating a practice that would encompass all he could do.
“It came out of a necessity to combine a few of my different skills sets. I had found that none of the businesses I have worked for and none of the business that I’ve seen have had well-integrated art, design and technology,” he says. “Those are my three strengths . . . I wanted to use them and I couldn’t figure out why nobody has combined those in some way.”
Fredericton Arts offers services such as creative consulting, logo design, web design and development and ideation. McAlister’s approach is to bring creative processes and tools to problem-solving.
“I like to look for originality,” he says. “I don’t like to make things look like everything else.”
Though Fredericton Arts offers web-based design services, it also offers one on the opposite end of the spectrum: Letterpress. It’s a service McAllister says has been popular with clients wanting things like books, stationary, handbills and event invitations.
“It’s the type of instrument that has this historical importance. It’s a traditional method that I think by virtue of how it works, it’s always producing artworks,” he says. “It’s so beautiful. The machine is an artwork, so anything it makes derivatively is also an artwork.
“I thought it was important because I’m involved mostly with computers that this is the grounding wire to an older art form. Books and paper are important. We need to hold on to those things.”
Fredericton Arts doesn’t aim for any specific clients. Whether it’s an individual looking to self-publish a book, a bride looking for the perfect wedding invitation or a small business unsure of its identity and wants to stand out among its competitors, if you need creativity in any capacity, McAllister wants to help you.
“The point, of course, is that it’s problem-solving. Being able to assess the scenario and circumstances and actively generate novel, interesting solutions,” he says.
“What I’ve noticed about creative folks is they have visions in their head. They have some hazy idea of what they’re trying to make and what it will look like. I think I can help draw that out and can help extract that.”
For many young people in the Maritimes, a narrative is shoved upon them that things will be easier and better for them if they move away to the big city.
McAllister has seen it from both sides. For him, starting a business in New Brunswick is no more or less challenging than in a city like Toronto.
“It’s all about the people you have around you and I have lovely folks around me in Fredericton and New Brunswick who continue to encourage me,” he says. “I think that’s helpful for someone getting started with anything.”
He also prefers the pace of the Maritimes much better.
“It’s easier to take it slower here, and with how my brain works, I need that pace. I need to think through my ideas at length. With my lifestyle in Toronto, I found it difficult to find the depth of my thoughts — there was too much going on,” says McAllister. “In Fredericton, there is much more peace and silence. The slow pace here is actually our greatest asset.”
In the future, McAllister hopes to see Fredericton Arts take on bigger, more community-minded projects. Projects that include working with more than just one person, business or organization that require solving bigger creative problems.
“What I’m interested in outside the everyday work for business is the work for the community,” he says.