Tag Archives: creative

Link

Tips on success in the creative industry

absolumentmoderne:

Agree and disagree with these. Least favorite: “Be Yourself.” Most favorite: “Get dirty” and “Go small and stay home.” 

I also love the “Get dirty” advice:

“Sure, use your hands, get off the computer, etc., but I love anthropologist Mary Douglas’ idea of dirt being ‘matter out of place.’ I think ideas can be like this, too. Design is a vessel that holds other things, so explore other fields, and import their insights into your practice. Read a book on astronomy, look at conceptual art, appreciate the vernacular. Insight comes from the outside.”

– Frank Chimero

bookspaperscissors:

Felted animals by builtonbranches

NOW I WANT TO MAKE STUFF, STOP THIS AT ONCE TUMBLR, I HAVE MIDTERMS

gah, the adorable

Journal

I wish I had the time to do things like participate in ze’s missions and draw little comics, and edit photos and write amateur articles for tumblr. Make stamps and journal more and the rest of it. Things that just take little chunks of times and use creativity, and things that take more time like designing  tumblr theme and starting an etsy shop.

I recognize this wish and agree to put it mostly aside for the time being, because school is busy but worthwhile, and writing about stuff in the past can be as fun as the present, and I will always have more project ideas but that doesn’t mean I have to abandon the ones I have now. School is worth putting the time in to, and putting these projects aside for the time being, and I understand that and won’t punish myself for it.

And that doesn’t mean I can’t spend 5 minutes writing this, or doodling that, but my most precious projects may not get done, or very few may get done, and the things that do may just be because they flit through my mind at the right moment, and that’s okay for now.

Oh, and I like twitter so far…

bookspaperscissors:

The Decemberists Series
“My thesis was a collection of pieces based on songs by one of my favorite bands, The Decemberists. I chose pieces from throughout their catalog, spanning from their first album, Castaways and Cutouts, to their latest, The King is Dead. Their music is some of the most inspiring I have come across; each song tells a rich, nuanced story. The lyrics can be vague enough to be open to interpretation, but contain enough specificity to make a detail freak like me joyfully hunt down reference images of columbine flowers and mistlethrushes.” Caitlin Clarkson

I just realized

I really miss conferences.

A lot.

I mean school is a lot of work and I’ve been finding some time for artsy stuff lately since I was lacking that last semester, and well physical activity is still not even in the attempted pile, but there are other things I miss too.

I really like school (except this week) and I like the network of friends I’ve built in my residence, through my program, from frosh week, and St. Paul’s but I miss the type of collaboration and projects that resulted from being involved in YAC and CBT. I mean, I really love graphic facilitation, conflict resolution, public speaking, leadership training, and having a group of friends who are into that sort of thing.

My friendships here are mostly built on inside jokes, friendliness and nerdy-ness. Which is great because I have a lot in common in different areas with these friends, mostly things falling in the nerd related spectrum such as BBT and excitement over astrophysics and SEMs, but also occasionally feminism and music and slam poetry.

God I love slam poetry.

So it’s like 1:30 in the morning and I’m not sure if I was getting to a point other than that different types of relationships with different types of people have different types of value that aren’t necessarily comparable and can be equally amazing. Variety is nice. There’s a lot of things I want to do and figuring out priorities is tricky because right now I feel like writing a lot, and in general lately I’ve wanted to do creative things but exams have taken priority (and sleep is taking priority now.)

OH YEAH I DID HAVE A POINT. I think one of the reasons I’m so enthralled by the whole nerdfighter movement and community is because I would like more of those types of connections with people right now. The projects and decreasing world suck and doing things for the sake of awesome and working together + nerdiness ad social awareness and music. It’s just so many things I love and it makes me want to get more involved building bridges with people like that on the internet. I mean, it’s revolutionary and brilliant and so so positive.

Excuse this being unedited.

BED TIME

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through

Ira Glass (via Rabbit Write’s interview on Gala Darling)

This all sounds oddly familiar and comforting.