Creative Engineering?

Is there such a thing as a creative process engineer? Is there any venue in our occupation to express original ideas? To do something that can be most identifiably "us" or "me" or "you"?

Sometimes, it feels like we're just following procedures, SOPs... we're doing things the way it's been done for 10..15...20 years now. How many different ways can you size a vessel? How can you put more personality into optimizing that column? Or think about adding some flair or some weird twist to your hydraulic calculations?

I'm very much aware that I'm an engineer, and this is what engineers do... solve problems. This is the job I chose. I'm no painter nor singer. What am I doing thinking about creativity?

But still sometimes I crave for it. A little touch of myself in my job... a little spin to my P&IDs... a brilliant idea that I can just put out there on the table... an aha! moment. But then sometimes I get to thinking maybe I'm just not smart enough to be innovative in the type of job I'm in. But that's a bad way of thinking.

Maybe I _can_ be creative. Maybe I _can_ be unique. Maybe I _am_ full of good ideas. I don't know. Starting tomorrow maybe I can start finding out.