Ooh la la, it's only one week until a full year of weekly doodles passes us by. The best part of any anniversary is if it arrives along with good timing and motivation, which I'm happy to say this one seems to be on track for.
Something funny occurred to me today, which doesn't really relate to anything so maybe skip ahead. Anyway, I was away last week to have some time out and every time I've taken time off, I always come back to having work waiting. It's probably fairly normal for most people, but I tend to take some time out when I have nothing on my plate, so it's kind of weird that it always seems to correlate with new work coming in. Like I said, it's neither here nor there, but that's where we're at I suppose.
The time out is always welcomed though, which is another obvious thing to say. Although, it never ceases to amaze me at how rejuvenated and energetic I feel after a week alone and away from everything. I guess it goes along with what I was saying the other week about being an introvert. No surprise then that complete isolation and solitude for a prolonged period of time does a lot to fill the tank.
I don't have any major revelations or epiphanies to relate right now, other than the fact that I feel more centred than I have in a long while. The last few months have been a bit tough, emotionally speaking anyway. Far be it for me to complain though, as there are many people in this world experiencing actual hardship and suffering. My plights are always insignificant by comparison, so I don't want to sound too blinkered by my own fish bowl.
One of the key things to remember is that it's okay to be annoyed at something that happens in your life and to be concerned by important events. It doesn't matter if they're comparatively more or less valid than anyone else, as they are important to your own reality and existence. Just because I recognise that others have more valid reasons to be concerned (in the grand scheme of things), it doesn't change the fact that my personal concerns are important to me.
All of that is basically one way of trying to recognise the difference and offer some humility. So now that that's hopefully taken care of, we can move on without fear of judgement and reprisal.
Things in life (both work and personal) have been a bit turbulent lately, and I've had to make a lot of changes to the way that I think about things and approach situations. However, the plus side is that the whole experience has left a lot of space for growth and improvement. After all, we need room to move if we ever hope to get anywhere in life, so I'm pretty pleased to see some space appear after filtering out some unwanted elements.
What this means in real terms is that I've had a big think about working freelance, as it relies on a number of things that I've always struggled with. Most notably is that any sole trader needs to be able to promote themselves, or at least have enough cash to pay someone else to do it for them.
This is incredibly true in creative industries as work is somewhat limited, and there's a sea of competition. When I was researching my industry some years back, I was a bit bummed to realise that the market is saturated and continues to grow. Unfortunately, the suppliers (like me) are growing in number, not the consumers… so it's an uphill battle just to be seen.
I've always known that self-promotion and marketing isn't exactly my strong suit, as I pretty much detest advertising and anything that remotely smells like it. Kind of a handicap when your job is often closely related to marketing and promotion in itself. I guess that's the hardest thing about graphic design and illustration, as it's commercialised art and creativity.
There's nothing wrong with it, which is why I enjoy it immensely, but at the end of the day it's a commercial enterprise that has little to do with creativity or art. Just have a look around at any mid-level business and think about the amount of design and illustration they have in their branding. Chances are it will be something minimal, which is often a simple logo placed in a bunch of different places.
Again though, there's nothing wrong with that, as it's the limitations of medium to small businesses and the amount of money they have to spend on their image. There are exceptions to the rule, but it seems to only be the big corporations that are willing to assign a percentage of their budget to design related services.
That's probably a rant for another day, but it's a contributing factor to how my own freelance business performs. Not only do I find it difficult to promote myself, but it's also a highly competitive industry populated largely by small businesses who want more than they're willing to spend. Nobody's at fault or doing anything wrong, it's just the nature of the environment.
So I find myself having hard thinks about what to do with myself and the options open to me. As I mentioned, recent changes have opened up space for movement, which basically means that I have little to lose so it must be time to pivot.
I considered hanging up the Adobe subscription and calling it a day, but I enjoy myself far too much to ever break it off so cleanly. What I need to do is shift the shape of the beast and drag it into the future with a new hat and maybe a different pair of shoes.
Of course, I'm not going to get into business details here, as it really has little to do with creativity and process. I suppose the relevance is that shifting definitions of things in life tends to have an impact on adjacent things and externalities. For the most part, the immediate future should bring about more opportunity and general well-being, so I'm excited to think about what the creative future holds.
There's no way to know what's going to happen, but I always love the kind of change that you can feel as it knocks you around for a while. I get why it's scary sometimes, but I've always craved a big shift every now and then, and I think I'm about due for something major.
Cryptic as that may be, the real takeaway is the healing power of space, both inner and outer. Lately I was getting overwhelmed emotionally as that space filled with challenging situations, but having taken some time out, I feel like the past has been dealt with and the future looks good.
We never know what's coming, but having a full tank to start is a great way to move on. I think I got a bit too tangential there, so let me finish this week by saying that this is a moment of change and movement. It's time for the environment to be seen from a different angle and new pathways be discovered.
Creatively, this is basically the best place to be. It's exciting and liberating, as to shift from a full plate to something entirely empty and different is always a freeing experience. Like sharpening a fresh pencil after wearing down a broken led to the very end.
High fives all round. Make-outs to the left.