Designer Boss
Designer Boss
creativity with a little "c"
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0:04
Welcome to the designer boss podcast, listen, learn, love and level up with the ultimate success guide for web and graphic designers.
0:17
My name is Anna Dower. I'm a cake lover and success-slaying graphic design mentor.
0:23
And I'm Emma Kate, your personal sensei for mastering the wonderful world of the Web.
0:30
Together, we'll show you how to harness our tried and tested experiences and hard-earned lessons while you soak up everything we know about building a successful design business.
0:48
Hello, welcome to the Designer Boss Podcast. It's Anna here and Emma. And today we're joined by another guest. Another lovely guest sitting next to us on the couch under a blanket. Samantha Murdoch, she's here on our little designer vacay with us. And we thought we would bring her into the studio, which is a theater room. Room and have a chat about creative blocks cuz it's hard being creative all the time. And that's pretty much what we get paid to do as designers. When the creativity dries up. It sucks. And that's why we're going to talk to Sam today, so I'll let him introduce herself and then we'll dive into it.
1:40
Hey guys, excited to be here hanging out with Emma & Anna with me on the couch covered in blanket. This is professionalism. This is how empires are built apparently. I am excited to see behind the veil. Luckily I found both of these women through the podcast so it’s a good sign for me to be on it now. My name is Sam , I run pretty-bird-creative, tiny little baby studio posting Bella beach . I came across Anna & Emma thru their podcast but it's been fantastic to become part of the community. I have an interesting background and that I have been a design teacher for a decade or so. So creativity and how we work as creatives, is something that I am deeply, fascinated, and interested by.
2:39
awesome. So creativity, Let's talk about that. I think, you know, growing up I kind of always had that creativity Gene and it was just in me, it was like, you know, when you're one of those kind of emo teens, you're just looking for an outlet and I feel like that was my outlet and it's kind of funny when you make that a job.
3:08
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Yeah, with your creative Outlet as as a young person, Are you making art that visual art? Or was it more like those emo poems? Because I was like, I was into the poetry and it was terrible. Like it was not good, but I needed to constantly find ways to like have creative Outlet in my life. Things Bret Stiles feely. Is that how you felt as well?
3:32
Yes, completely. What about you Emma?
3:36
Yeah, I definitely felt like I had creative Outlets like growing up. I would always like, you know, do your scrapbook Black. Make my own little magazines or even like draw my own little architectures sketches like I was always being sort of creative that way or writing and doing things like that. But then when you turn it into a job, it's awesome. Because like a lot of the times just like this is so much fun. Like I just get to do stuff that I want to do all the time and get paid for it. So that's really awesome. But then you come across the whole creative block thing where it's just like I can't find inspiration for this job, or you've Deadline. And it's actually going to come out of some way and it's like where am I going to pull this from? How am I going to deliver this job? When it's not just something that I'm doing on the weekends and just enjoying. So it's definitely something I've struggled with. So I'm looking forward to your tip Sam.
4:28
Yeah, well, it's one of the things all this kind of four things that can stop us from being creative and they are the big creative blockers and they are evaluation. So anytime we feel like we're going to be evaluated or judge, you can stop us from taking creative risk. Surveillance. So I know for myself, like if someone's over my shoulder watching me work, I'm a tend to not do a very good job. It tends to be. When you make mistakes particular technical ones, like you're somebody else is trying to tell you how to do something on a computer, you're often mess up completely or like find the wrong folder or whatever. So it's that kind of thing can stop us from being creative. Competition. If you feel like you're in competition with people around you, if you're constantly, comparing yourself to other creatives, it can be a huge, creative block, and pressure, and that pressure can come from outside when we're working with clients. If they're constantly be like, where's my work? that can often impacts how creative artwork is and the pressure can often come from internally as well. So they're kind of big for things and I I experienced some all the time, so I'm guessing that other people do too,to like, varying extents as well. Do you still feel like that in your work now, Anna?
5:53
I'm probably not as much as I used to. I think as you get older, you kind of learn to stay in your own lane. And I think when you start to veer out of your lane, that's when you start feeling all that, that stuff, that blocks your creativity, But I definitely do hit the wall sometimes. I mean it's just like a contradiction trying to have creativity on tap. It really is but I think um and I'm sure you'll probably talk about this Sam is like to be constantly feeling your creative cup, like just don't take that shit for granted at all because it'll dry up.
6:43
I was just feeling last week, I am in a creative Funk and nothing. I'm Doing feels like exciting or interesting and, you know, just coming away for these few days will be hugely beneficial to that, but you're not always able to do that. And we need to figure out ways that we can kind of, like, Shake ourselves out of a creative Funk. It's really important. One of the writers, I love, that talks about creativity all the time, her name's Eliza Muldoon, and she was a huge part of the crafter noon movement. Which is just about people making things and creating with no kind of pressure attached. And she says sometimes creativity is big and dazzling, and sometimes it's simple and small and both have value both can positively affect how we live and work. And I think it's a really good philosophy to take into our lives because we do that big creativity. Well, we're working as designers that it's got that Capital C Capital Arc. It's like this whole thing and we show it to the world and it goes out into clients hands and we share it with our communities but it's important to have this kind of private little creativity. That is just for us that has no pressure. No evaluation attached to it. Always something that is just just like a special secret thing that you're working on in. It doesn't have to be a big kind of project. It can just be like a daily art practice that includes a sketch today. Boring, some painting, collage, writing, and it can have nothing to do with visual design or visual creativity as well. If you're really into music, it can be that, it can be finding other like ways to express yourself that aren't necessarily like for the rest of the world.
8:36
It's funny when you are saying all of that. I thought, you know, I have these kind of craft Tunes with my girls and we just go Outside, sit on the back table and we just do art and like it's kind of silly. Like, I feel like it's silly, but it really is fun for me, like I even loved playing with Play-Doh coz it’s sensory and then it's zero pressure. We've gone through like a rock painting phase, where we like painting all these rocks with little sayings on them then we go for a walk in the park and we kind of hide them. And it's so cool because some of them our friends actually found the rocks and put it on Facebook and said, were these yours. And I just even that kind of lights up your creativity and just to not have pressure because we get paid for design. It gets really easy to fall into the Trap of. Well I'm going to spend time doing this.
9:43
How's it going to grow my reach? Grow my business. Make me well known as a designer. But its sometimes fun to just create for no particular reason at all. Recently I decided to design a poster that has that will make no sense to anybody else except for me, and three of my really good friends. And so I designed these posters and I got them printed and like there, I sent them down to them. It's just like a gift and it's just, yeah, I was just like a fun interesting thing and I was like I have these skills I can do it and it was just like a yeah. It literally like no one would buy them because it would make no sense and it was just like a fun little thing to do. Do you have things that you do in your day? Emma to like boost your kids creativity, a little C.
10:37
I used to do a little quite a bit of watercolor. I bought her like all the watercolor bits and pieces and used to do that. But I fell into that trap of like, oh, maybe I could Like sell these and like, you know, I like thinking that way. And I needed to stop myself because I was like that completely defeats the point of making these watercolors. The whole point is to just do this and not have any pressure and you know, it doesn't have to look be perfect or beautiful or anything like that. And if I thought about I could sell these and make them really good. Then that's just that's what I do in my day job, you know, is designing for money so I'd prefer not to have to do that. At in my spare time.
11:25
And one thing I love about watercolor is that it is so unpredictable and so imperfect and especially the way I do it cuz I'm not particularly cool with it. I don't have much control over anything, so I do love that. It just kind of takes on a mind of its own and does its own thing and takes it to a place that you just weren't even expecting, and I like that because I am such a perfectionist. I think a lot of us designers are and we can make things Pixel Perfect and we've got like 20 undos that we can go back and you can't. I remember when I first started doing it, I was like, like, I you go to go controls it but I cannot like, no, I don't want that. Where’s the eraser tool. Like no, you can't do that. And it was challenging to begin with but also really, really rewarding being able to do that and just sort of releasing that control over it. So, talking about this now makes me go, I need to do this more often because I haven't done it in a while. While. And I really, I really do enjoy doing it so I should do that. Yeah.
12:20
Good reminder. Yeah.
12:25
But I do feel that in my job. Now I don't have the creative blocks so much because the bulk of what I do in my day to day is designing for myself which is so much more fun. And this is like the dream that I wanted to do for so long. It's not designed for clients and much and just design pretty things for myself and like in the pink colors that I want. Aunt and all of that stuff. So I find that that's really fun and I probably like I definitely waste too much time. Designing a social media post or something because I really enjoy it. It is a creative outlet for me at the same time.
13:05
Well that kind of like ties it all back to where creative. We’re beings we're being paid to be creative, right? But be authentic with your creativity. Like when you're being authentic with it.
It is so much easier for it to flow. As in, you know, only do the kind of creativity that flows for you. So don't be the designer who does all the things, all the Styles. Be the designer who is authentic in your style and I feel like you'll be less likely to hit that creative block.
13:44
Yeah, absolutely. There's this concept in like positive psychology called flow and we talk about it as being like in the zone and you like you find that moment we like everything is like going so well and everything just kind of lines up magically and opens up a new forget time, space and it's such a magical thing to be in and as artists and creatives, it's like the goal to let her get in those zones. But there are things you can actually do to get into that. And one of them the really important one is make sure that you are matched to the task that you're doing. If you feel like it's like not at your skill level like too low or too high or it's not matched to you or feeling aligned for you. In terms of the type of work that you're doing, you're going to find it even more difficult to like, get into that flow Zone and it sounds so kind of like serious, I can match your tasks to your skill level and you'll find creativity works better but it actually is like such a good trick to like get into that safe Zone moment. And there's other ways to do it. Of course, like making sure that you are stepping away from the computer, avoiding interactions, turning up for notifications, all that kind of thing. But it's an important one to remember that if you feel like you're stuck and you can't get anywhere with it, there's probably a reason.
15:14
Yes
15:15
There’s probably a reason why you Can't find your like way into that project or you're not getting into the flow of that. So it's good to like step back and think about it. Like do I need another skill here to make this easier for me? Or is this work? Just not aligned with me as a person, as a creative at all?
15:35
Yeah, and it's important to pause because often we kind of just get dragged Along by what comes in our Direction. Where we kind of like, well, I can't turn back work, it's money. They want to pay me to do this, so I'll do it and often, like we just get into that cycle of, like, taking whatever comes our way. And then slowly just, you know, takes away from our authentic, creative flow and that's when we end up just being resentful and like not even giving a shit about what you design, you just like, that'll do and that's like the opposite reason why you wanted to become a creative professional.
16:25
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, we didn't get into this so that we could do work that we don't feel it. Excited or interested in. We Got into it because we want to be creative in our day jobs. Yeah. The other thing is just to remember that, we are imperfect beings, we make mistakes all the time . we screw up and sometimes it has been consequences and like that can be scary as a creative person, who is like working in the world. When you make mistakes as a designer, it can be Be costly and see. but try and remember that it shouldn't stop you from like taking those risks because it's yeah it can often lead to the best work possible completely. What does Ken Robinson say? he says if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.
17:25
And if you've read big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, she talks a lot About not being attached to the outcome. Like when you're really focused on the end point when you're at the beginning, it kind of just like totally screws up your head and it's kind of just important to let go of the outcome. I think and maybe the fact that it could fail and it's if it does fail, this isn't life or death stuff and it's not a tattoo. You know, it's going to.. Yeah. Right. So there needs to be some perspective there too.
18:10
Yeah, absolutely. One thing I just thought of is that it doesn't have to be perfect and be willing to make mistakes and earlier you were talking about how one of the biggest creative blocks is surveillance like feeling like you're being watched and the number of times, I've had clients want it. I'll just come sit down with you and you and watch you as you design and stuff and I'm like Like some designers do that and I have no idea how they do it. Like, there's no way I could do that. I don't want client seeing my workspace, but being illustrator, like it is. There are like, 10 terrible designs until I get to a good one like this, like trying different things and seeing what works, like trying a bajillion different fonts like Arial, and it's just you try that. Not, that's not going away from try that. No, that's not going to work and I would it would really freak me out if someone was watching that black and so So, not having that ability to make those mistakes were just really be a huge creative block, like, not only being able to do that. feeling like you're being watched and yeah, so I think you just experimenting and trying different things. I know for me, personally, that's just how I am as a designer until I've sort of nail. Once this sort of brandings nailed and I know then it's like, it, bang, bang, bang, you can put it all together really quickly, but when especially when you're coming up with a new brand, or A New Concept for a website or something, it's like, You need to make those mistakes and era. Make a hundred,
19:42
we make a hundred mistakes along the way is like, reaching the final outcome and our clients would be horrified. Are you a designer? That’s like trash. We send them the best possible work and they love it but yeah the process is messy and the whole thing Anna is saying about embracing the process over outcome is just, yes, so important. We've got to enjoy it along the way because we aren't just a machine, where a person, like a living, our lives in the world. We happen to do this as a job because we love it. Well, hope so you know we loved it, but if we're not enjoying it along the way, there's really kind of no point because you know, there's machines that can actually design things now, I mean it's scary. AI & Everything. But you know, we're like got to enjoy our lives along the way.
20:40
So what else can we do when we're sitting in front of the screen? And we got nothin like where do we look for inspiration? Yeah, it's an interesting one and everybody's got their own kind of tricks. For me, it's like step away and something different to do. Get out into nature, listen to music film TV, I find really inspiring as well. Art is a big part of my kind of process as well, because like, I have a degree in art history and Theory, which is kind of unique maybe and it's something that I'm totally like fascinated by an interested in. So I have got that knowledge to kind of fall back on as well. So yeah, looking at like the history of our Art and if there's a particular like period, which is like speaking to me, and that's cool place to look for inspiration, but getting out, having a walk on the beach. I'm lucky that I live like five minutes from the border and I can get out and enjoy nature. And it often, like, is a perfect way to like clear my head, find new ideas. One of the things I was talking about recently is that the best way to like for me find a solution to a problem is to start telling somebody else about it. If I was having like to say that. Yeah if I have a design problem. As soon as I try and explain the brief to somebody else and it could be just like, you know, Joe blow down the road. Doesn't have to know anything about the job or had be a designer but they, the simple Act of like talking it through your actually go. Ah! That's actually a way I could like solve that issue or like that's your like entry Into like the project.
22:34
Like gives the idea oxygen like to breathe and then you have room to move, then. it's so weird but it works.
22:42
Exactly. And I find as well like particularly likely presenting ideas and presenting work. As soon as I start kind of doing that, I don't follow any kind of script if I'm doing like public speaking or recording our Loom to send to a client and things will just say come to me. And I guess, you know, not everybody might find that but the simple actors, like, talking out loud. It's just, you know, it gives gives things like room to breathe Like Oxygen. Like he said.
23:14
as you were saying that, I was thinking, I think I just talk out loud to myself all the time to solve my problems and I haven't really realized it. But yes, sometimes I get really stuck on something whether it's creative or just some other thing in my life, sometimes talking it out, running through that scenario and like, you know, how could I do this or that? Yeah. Yeah, I think I just, I think I just talked to myself and not even joke, lay down the road, but sometimes it can be like your other designers or even just like my mom or my Gardener or something can just be a real Handy way of I guess just having a sounding board just having someone you can sort of say it to and and then you end up solving your own problems.
23:56
Yeah. And on the subject of like looking for inspiration and not necessarily in the normal places. I know that Alex Crawling from High Moon studio her she talks about not being influenced by Design Trends, but for her a big inspiration is fashion. So that's what inspires her art. So you need to find the thing that inspires your own. For mem,I was like really into when they used to be CDs , CDR work. Yeah. Music posters music magazines like that was my inspiration. So just like find that thing that maybe you are a passionate about back whenever and look for inspiration there because things like Pinterest and Instagram like social media in general they have a place in the creative process, but I find that if we're all going to be looking to the same thing like I was watching. A video YouTubers that I watch she's a designer and she was putting together a mood board and I was like, I literally have those like saying things just on a mood board because we're all getting served really similar things that are on Trend and we don't want to be this like every chamber this like homogeneous style. You want to really kind of stand out from the crowd and if we're only getting our inspiration from places on the internet, Pinterest, it's great.
1:25 PM
But it shouldn't be the only place that we are getting our inspiration and is something I'm really conscious of I try and avoid those places first and just come to them for like, you know, a bit of a scroll bit of a brows. I've got a lot of boards on there, but they've often include things that aren't other people's graphic design work.
25:56
Yes. Unless it's like touch on looking at your competitors for inspiration. I feel like that could turn into like So messy, I think it's okay to like brows like surface level, but don't go down that rabbit hole, like you're going to end up feeling like crap. Basically, that's how you start comparing yourself. Which is, we've already said. Yeah, huge creative block. Yeah, mmm. You feel like this competition or you're comparing yourself. It's going to actually block your own creativity and your own ideas coming out into the world. So don't look that. Yeah, don't look and You know, it's hard thing not to do because we're so surrounded by it. Now, everybody's like posting. Everybody has a website. Everyone has an Instagram and it's yeah, I think it's important to remember that you are your own individual person and you don't have to copy. What's that saying like copying is the highest form of flattery. Yeah. Mmm. And it's probably true, but at the same time, like do you want to do that? Do you want to look like the person next to you?because you've got to be a little bit different. You got to put your stamp on things and you know, there's only so many ways that our website can kind of look really. Like, it's like a flow to it but like I'm building my own like website at the moment and I'm like, I don't want it to look like everybody else's but you can't help. Like, you know, he's gone and looked at like other bits of inspiration and things but it's really Tricky to avoid that track.
27:36
Yeah, one thing I actually actively do is try not to follow people that I like. Direct competitors because I don't even want to I just don't want to be influenced by them. I kind of want to be out to just do my own thing again, not feeling that that comparison I don't want to be comparing myself to them because it can just make you feel like shit sometimes. Yeah but also I don't want to accidentally steal an idea, like and that's going to happen because They're going to have great ideas, might be like ah I want to do that and even if it's a subconscious thing so I try not to follow particular people that, you know, I'm not trying to stall them. I'm actually trying to like do the opposite and be like, you're awesome but I'm going to like ignore you because yeah, just to try to keep it separate and do my own thing. And I think that's really important because What makes you unique is what's going to attract people to you. If you're going to be exactly like your competitors then What's going to stop them going to you rather than them, you know? So maybe being different, being very genuinely yourself in your own style is going to attract the right people to you.
28:48
Well, lots of food for thought. Any other tips before we go. So.
28:53
check out in Robinson rates, talk about creative thinking. I love listening to him and any other work from ELiza Muldoon. She's awesome. Excellent.That’s my tips.
29:11
Thanks for sure. It was so good.
29:16
You've been listening to the Designer Boss Podcast with Anna Dower and Emma Kate. If you'd like to learn more about us and our upcoming digital summit for graphic and web designers, head to our website designerboss.co