My Design Enemy: Myself

It’s almost like design has become stagnate to me. I look around and see all these talented designers, artists and I look at myself and feel that I am not growing. That everyone is swirling around with me with talent and knowledge yet I feel I know nothing. I start thinking to myself: when was the last time I really made something I loved? Not simply enjoying the design process, but also enjoyed the end result. I am my worst critic and I feel like I need to improve both in self esteem and have that urge to improve. For me it’s almost like seeing incredible talent stumps me. Instead of it making me feel more motivated, it makes me shrug back and think “I could never make that”. It’s a bad way of looking at things and I am working so hard to improve such a negative outlook. I fight with my inner self all the time. My mind is constantly at war with my heart. I know that I am a talented creative in my heart, but my mind chimes in and starts to discourage me. It’s almost as if my heart is the dreamer and my mind only thinks logically and cannot be creative. I am still young in my career and have so much room to grow. Yet I have seen myself grow so quickly since I’ve moved to SF. So I do know that I can make things happen. But sometimes I truly do struggle with myself. So what do I do about it?

I fight it. After moping around for a day or two, I get out of my slump and ask people I admire on how they create things. I am only going to get better with practice and by learning from the best.
I suck it up. Getting over myself and looking forward is so hard to do!
I think about my dreams. Focusing on the future and my ambitions gets me out of the pity party rut and keeps me moving forward.
I surround myself with people who encourage me. I hang out with people who encourage me. I avoid those people who try to bring me down on every little thing that I do. I spend my time with people who have the same dreams and ambitions as me and lead a healthy and beautiful life. Being surrounded by people like this makes me want to live a life like that and lead by example.
I start my own projects. I have one project in the works right now that I have been enjoying working on. It’s been slow moving but I hope to release it this summer. Fingers crossed! Hint: Fashion & iOS

I’m far from perfect. I make mistakes everyday. But life is about battling inner demons and learning to grow and get better at the challenges that I face. I love life and I love people. Conquering this inner enemy will pull me closer to the dreams and missions that I have in my life.

What do you struggle with when designing? Do you find yourself battling the inner negative voice that says what you can’t do? If so, how do you rise above it?

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It’s Good to Get Away

I just had to make something on my own tonight, something whimsical and fun. I didn’t focus too much on perfection, just on a fun concept! It’s good as designers to get away from everyday design and make something of our own. Something where we are able to create whatever we want, and just go with it. Not worrying or being too critical of the design at hand. Just having a great time in making what we love and what inspires us.

Inspiration in the Sky

When I fly, I get so excited because it’s a time for me that I have to unplug from the outside world. I feel for some reason that when I am in the sky I feel closer to my thoughts and that anything is possible. Maybe it’s because as humans we are not designed to fly, we were not born with wings. But we’ve been innovative to make our own. If you heard someone say that one day we’d fly in the sky in a silver tube, the person would probably just look at you odd. But because such technology now exists from such a foreign thought, I feel that when I am in the sky, I am able dream a lot clearer.

I’ve been stuck on a few projects of my own and during the flight I felt that I had ideas were a flood. A large part was just being inspired by the beauty below me and the ocean. The other side was just unplugging from my phone. Sometimes we feed off other people to be our inspiration, when really we just need to feed off our own minds. As creatives we have brilliant ideas going through each of us everyday. It just takes discipline to tap out of the digital world, unplug, and focus on what we ourselves see in our work.

One exercise that really helps when you are out of ideas, is to walk up to a white wall and just stare at it. Wait till you get extremely bored of it and have already found all the dirty spots. After awhile, imagine drawing anything on that white wall. Maybe it’s your project, design, or unicorns with sparkles. This really creates a great exercise for your brain, that allows you to pull out your creative side within yourself and not from anything or anyone else.

That’s all I have today, but even if you don’t know where to go, hop on a plane sometime. It’s amazing to get away.