After delving furthur into the topics I'd come up with, I admitted to myself that none of them excited me. Not enough to work on them for 3 months. I know that after 3 months I'll be sick of any project, but I might as well love it for as long as I can. I was becoming utterly depressed and anxious about finding 'the perfect topic'. My problem was that I kept focusing on what the problem I would solve was. I found myself in a rut, unable to come up with anything worthy of my time and energy. I shifted my focus to myself, and my interests. I asked myself, 'if you could do anything (design project wise), what would you do?' What project have I been dying to work on, but haven't had the time to start?
My discoveries have led me to understand a few things:
My problem is me: I've hit a creative block in my life. I'm exhausted, brain dead and burnt out. I've run out of steam, out of creativity and energy, out of motivation and determination. I should stress that it is not this project that's pushed me over the edge, it's a number of things that have happened over the past year and a bit, both in my work life and personal life. This is an opportunity though, not a negative situation. I've found my problem! The first step to solving your problem is knowing what it is, and admitting that you have one.
At the risk of getting too personal and spilling my guts, I'll keep this concise by saying I'm at a time in my life where I've been doing a lot of personal reflection. I'm at a fork in the road, and the future is unclear to me right now. This is something that both excites me, and gives me great anxiety. I'm still discovering new things about myself, which sometimes makes me feel insecure, and sometimes boosts my confidence. As an offshoot of this, I am my own worst enemy. I'm hard on myself, and I doubt myself. I am a perfectionist and I beat myself up when I can't meet the unobtainable goals I create for myself. My design process is self destructive.
So, back to this project. I need to solve this problem of mine, I need to keep my mind challenged, I need to explore new grounds, I need to stimulate my creative brain, and I need to accomplish the project through a new process that doesn't include self destructive. Through this I also need to sort myself out, like a musician uses their music as therapy, I will use this project as mine. I will explore and challenge myself in new ways.
Project Breakdown:
Main Topic:
Designer's block.Design problem/opportunity:
-creativity is gone-no inspiration
-burnt out
-destructive creative process.
-focus too much on the end results being perfect
Audience:
-me-anyone who finds themselves in a creative block and has the tendency to be destructive like me may find this project interesting and helpful
-creatives stuck in a rut
Objectives & Criteria:
If this project is successful I will have completed a project through a new linear process. I will have explored new mediums and paths I have not explored before. I will have been organized and managed my time properly. I will have been creatively stimulated and excited throughout the whole project, and I will feel excited and satisfied with the final result. I will NOT have pulled 24/hour work days, no tears, no negative accusations of myself (from myself), no feelings of it never being good enough. I will learn to let go (without compensating the project - I should make it clear I'm not trying to complete a shitty project. It still needs to be successful and brilliant in it's own way).-Project must be something I've never done before;
-No books, no posters, no websites, no PSA's etc.
-It can be a combination of these things so long as they're combined in a way that I haven't done before.
-work in 3D world: I want to work with spaces, 3D objects, something that has a building component to it
Some ideas of what I could do:
-create my ideal space to work that is inspired by the things that inspire & stimulate me, and that function as a design workplace should (to my needs). Break the mold of how a studio functions, and base it on my needs as a designer/artist-create a number of objects (car, shoe store, airplane, t-shirt, running shoes, chair, purse, coffee mug, bathroom etc) that are inspired by a specific song. In other words, take two unrelated things and combine them. Take the importance of the song, or musician (or something - it doesn't have to be music necessarily, could be typographical), the fundamental basics of what makes that song that song, and apply it to this other object.
That's it for now. This is the beginning of my proposal/thesis. I still have to iron out some details and explore solutions for my problem/opportunity a bit more. Nothing is set in stone.
Thank you!
D
Have you heard of wabi sabi?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi
In regards to perfectionism, taking a pottery course was a real eye opener to me. Spending all this time creating a shape from clay, then glazing it, then throwing it in a kiln was nerve racking! Any one of those steps can 'ruin' the ideal you had in mind, but most of the time, what came out was still beautiful, perhaps not what you expected, but still a good piece. But disasters happened too, I think the process was equally as important as the end result.