Make and Design with Carina Gardner
Carina Gardner, Ph.D. unravels the everyday joys and dilemmas of design, making, and business. This inside scoop into fabric design, paper design, die cut design, and crafting will help bring more creativity and joy in your life. Carina Gardner is the founder and CEO of the University of Arts & Design. She was the Creative Director of Cartabella Paper Co. and MiniLou. She has designed everything from dishware, sewing patterns to bracelets under her brand. She currently designs fabric for Riley Blake Designs and die cutting files for Silhouette while teaching other designers how to create meaningful businesses with their design work.
Make and Design with Carina Gardner
Episode 550 Attention is Limited
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Designers often think they need more talent, better tools, or the perfect strategy. But what if the real issue is attention?
In this episode, we explore why attention is one of your most limited creative resources and how splitting it between fear, comparison, and pressure quietly sabotages your work. Drawing from psychology and neuroscience, we talk about why mindset gets in the way of clarity, why overthinking blocks creative flow, and how focused making changes what you see and what you believe is possible.
This conversation is for designers who feel capable but scattered, creative but stuck, and who sense they are missing something they cannot quite name. Paying attention is not just a productivity skill. It is a creative advantage.
Get Carina’s new bookThe Intentional Design Year here:
Paperback: https://amzn.to/43XTRLG
Hardback: https://amzn.to/4isrefm
Prompt Journal Paperback: https://amzn.to/4osha7J
Prompt Journal Hardback: https://amzn.to/4rvrG0u
Links to help new designers:
What’s New: https://www.carinagardner.com
Design Bootcamp: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp
University of Arts & Design: http://uad.education
Get my free gift to you here: https://www.designsuitecourses.com/intentional