Wednesday, September 26, 2012

What's in YOUR drawers?



Last week, I wrote about an element of consistency in design methodology. Y-A-W-N! While that may be interesting to some, it's mostly a designer-thing and no one else really gives a crap how you do what you do. Right? I mean do I care how the plumber fixes my toilet? No...I do not. I just trust that it will be fixed and I pray not see the trademark butt-crack during the process.

So, I thought it might be a good idea if I wrote about something a little less technical and a bit more off the wall.

As humans, I believe we are all creative in our own ways. After all, didn't we all start out as children with imaginations? How awesome to be a creative child! As an adult, we are expected to reign that in to a respectable level so others won't think we're nuts. Not that there's anything wrong with being nuts. I also believe we all need a touch of that! Are we humans or are we walking, talking Walmart stores...with identical shelves of identical thoughts and ideas waiting either be recognized or expire sitting there collecting quantum dust particles? I prefer to be human and embrace the quirks!

I thought about this a lot last week after writing the Quantum Graphite Lady blog post. It occurred to me that it was all too similar to other boring posts about design methodology...GAG! How desert-dry! My apologies!

Creativity+Inspiration+Individuality.
As a creative professional, one must pull out this magic formula on a daily basis. We strive to avoid at all costs- designing the same thing in the same way every day of the week. UHG! It does get tiring and it does get challenging. So upon noticing how boring the last blog was, I became suddenly freaked out that some plain vanilla had ventured into my creativity...and I cannot let that stand. SO, I took immediate action.

Now, to backtrack for a moment; it's no secret that my office is in my home. Exciting, right? Who doesn't want to work from home? Admittedly, I love the arrangement; but it does present some challenges; like remembering what time it is; Oh; it's midnight? Who knew? After awhile, this kind of nose to the grindstone work ethic tends to gradually smooth out some of those right-sided wrinkles, required for right-brain creativity. One of the biggest challenges for a creative professional is to prevent getting burned out or losing inspiration momentum. It must be tended to and nurtured.

So getting down to how I reminded myself to always seek out inspiration and embrace being different... consciously. I shoved both hands into my sock drawer and found my two favorite pair of socks...then wore one of each. The transformation was instant! I laughed at the simple genius of having two completely different, but comfortable sensations--one on each foot. The knowledge that anyone watching would no doubt think I was a little nuts (or at least fairly eccentric) by doing this intentionally, was amazingly uplifting and inspiring. For the entire day, I wore the two socks and the constant reminder that I was different...I was creative. The awareness of "different" was tangible and quirky. Just what this creative person needed to put a few wrinkles back where they belonged.

My advice is this: if you're starting to feel like you're becoming that professional human clone, which is so very mundane and normal, making it nearly impossible to identify the creative YOU; change your socks...or change just one sock. Wear an undergarment inside-out on purpose; let the freakin' tags show on your t-shirt...stop being like everyone else for one day...have a great laugh and celebrate that you're NOT a Walmart; you're a human! Make it known, especially to yourself, that your mental or creative 'shelves' are not waiting on someone else to 'choose' something from them; and best of all, there's no expiration date to worry about. After all, even the largest store in the world closes to occasionally rearrange the insides. As creative, human, professionals...we are so much more than that. Personally, I'd like to see a global, Be Yourself Day! How wonderful would that be? Let's do it!

-T.

1 comment:

  1. YES!
    Thanks, I needed this! And I think a Be Yourself Day would be awesome.

    ReplyDelete