Yatta!

For those of you missing the point, I suggest to go here.

I told you I would do it… Weekly resolution, here ya go! Ahah! Portfolio online, at last.
It’s finally on the rails, even if it misses plenty of old works. On a side note, I would precise that this is a personal portfolio — none of my professional work are shown here, by respect for the agency I’m working with. These are mainly old projects I’ve been working on at school or on my free-time. I’ll upload some more in the days to come, and will try to get some brand new stuff ASAP.

Thanks for your patience,
See ya!
Zélia 

Too much white space to fill, and no inspiration.

Sometimes, it just won’t work. You get stuck in front of your computer, your paperboard, your painting or whatever… and nothing happens. Creativity is not a constant flow. Sometimes, you just can’t get a drip of it. Sometimes, it just seems that you’ve lost all of your artistic mojo. Sometimes, you feel that it won’t happen again for hours, days, or worst, months.

And that could be quite a problem, since you’re asked to be creative 8 hours/day, 5 days/week. 

There’s not a good and only solution to this problem. A thousand books have been written about this. You know, some kind of “training for the creative mind”, “How to be creative”, “How to be a bright genius”. So what? Does it makes your mind back to work, ready to produce brand new fantastic concepts?
It can help, but you’re probably as unable to produce something brilliant as a few minutes ago.

The mere idea is not to make you back on track in a second. It’s to set you in a better mood, that will probably help you to be a tad more concentrated, and maybe, a bit more creative.

1. Environment is important. Should it be materially speaking or emotionally. When surrounded by stress or by mess, you’re unable to focus on your project. So, maybe a little bit of cleaning may help. Isolate yourself from malevolent people and from malevolent 3 weeks-old pizza slices. Arrange your desk in a pleasant way. Clean your files, and get a brand new nice wallpaper for your desktop. But… don’t clean too much. You don’t want your space to feel impersonal. and don’t forget that something in your mess might trigger some inspiration.  
2. Music is a good way to enhance your creative mood. You should always take a great care of your musical inspiration. Whatever you like, it can have an influence on your creative choices. Setting up a “creative playlist”, respecting your different work phases might help you to overcome your concentration problems.
3. Drink a coffee. Not 12. Or your creativity problem will turn into an addiction problem.
4. Get some inspiration and feed your brain. Look at books, websites, portfolios, magazines, ads, fashion, exhibitions… Anything can trigger your creativity. Make it a way of life: a sharp eye is your first weapon.
5. Go for a walk. Not easy when working in an agency. But make you feel better. In case of real creative lack, go for a walk somewhere farther— foreign country if you can afford it, next town if not. Seeing new landscapes is good for you.
6. Take care of yourself. Designing for someone else can be an ungrateful job. So do yourself a treat and design something for you. Something that YOU like, and that doesn’t fit in the bounds of someone else. And don’t ask advices about it. If you like it, then, that’s good.
7. Enjoy yourself. If you feel that the doomed graphic-designer syndrome will be longer than expected, try to change your way of life. Eat better food, do some sport (yeah, basically, that’s just some kind of random tip) and have a lot of fun. Why? If you are happy and not mourning the decease of your creativity, it should come back within a week. 
8. Don’t let yourself overwhelmed. Just be proactive and do a lot of things. The more you do, the more you get done. It’s worth a try.
9. Share the pain. If you can, share it with the creative team. If you’re alone, then talk to someone you feel confident with. Talking is a good way to have a great weight off your mind. 
10. Listen to your inner voice. Trying too hard to fit in the mold of design trends can reduce your creative power to zero. Try to find your own voice and not to care too much about what others might think. Copying what have already been done might help you for a short period of time, but will probably get in your way at last. That is the most difficult part: Not being re-doing over and over again the same old stuff, but not being too much influenced by stupid trends. Being creative is being able to be yourself, in a sellable way. If your stuck with your designer’s block, it’s probably something deeper that goes wrong. And I am no psych-analyst, so I won’t help you on this point.

If your going trough this right now, good luck. If you’re not, and never have been, consider you lucky! Please share your tips for getting inspired, on a daily basis. Do you watch Tv, play tennis, or sing in the shower?

Or why school is the best place ever.

I don’t really know why we’re all unable to see this, while it’s right in front of us. School is really the best place ever. When you’re studying, whatever the school may be, you can’t stop moaning about how it sucks and how the teachers are boring and how you’d much prefer to do something else. FALSE! You’re just doing your lazy asshole. School don’t sucks. You just don’t know how to use it. 

• You’re paying for it, so get the most of it: Studying is expensive. Not everybody can study until they’re tired of it… Just remember that every penny you’ve spent to get in this school must be well spent. Go to the library on a regular basis, talk to the librarian, they know what’s good for you. You won’t be able to get all this books in your whole life — read as much as you can, and buy those that are really interesting.
• Teachers are not boring. You probably are…  Teachers are human beings. Sometimes older, weirder, or quite different. But they know things that you don’t, which is uber-valuable. For an unknown reason, older teachers are tired of talking to uninterested students, and are keeping all the knowledge inside, thinking it would be wasted anyway. Prove them wrong! Get interested, ask questions and talk after class. No one asks you to be best friends forever, but then, being polite and adult can teach you a lot more than just sitting there, waiting for the apocalypse to come.
• Working at home is not working: How tempting is it, to stay quietly at home, while you could be working in your school studio. Watching TV, drinking some coffee, and smoking cigarettes can’t do no harm. Yeah, it’s the best way to procrastinate. Working in a studio is a good way to work for real: building up a team spirit, using the school facilities instead of yours… It’s like going to work: annoying but useful in the last place.
• Being a student is a full-time job: the odds are, you spend most of your time doing anything but working. Student life is great, it will be the best years you’ll ever live (or at least, until you get rich and famous). Student life gives you plenty of time to work on your personal projects. Mounting a portfolio, creating a website, having some fun creating posters, experimenting with all the possible mediums… Where were you now that you’re looking for a job and that none of this is ready? Mhhh, smoking cigarettes, again…  
• Working full time is different: Working in an agency means that you’ll spent most of your time doing nothing but graphic design. No more time for crazy personal projects, for reading all day in the sun, or doing posters for friends. Get the most of you studies, because what happens next eats your free time like a hungry monster. ROARRRR.

Sunday night thoughts… 

A new week is about to start: it’s time to set up nice goals that I probably won’t achieve until next Sunday. But lists are great. Lists are a good way to pass the time. And list are pretty.  

• Buy a moleskine: yup, that’s an expensive take on the good old notebook. And yes, it’s somewhat a heyimafashionabledesignerdork statement. But I must admit that it’s a collectible item. And then, I’ve filled my Muji Notebook (also expensive and fashionable) = my soul is already lost to the trendy nerd devil.  
• Get my portfolio online: if I don’t do this next week, I never will. I don’t want to waste my all life complaining about how I don’t get any work… I want to complain about how my work sucks, that’s far more interesting!
• Blog everyday: this first week has been somewhat chaotic… Days are too short, and I really need some sleep. Please someone help me on how to conciliate web activities with work and social life? Should I rely on on a peculiar coffee brand that sells only at night, or what? Superstars bloggers must be a new human specie…
• Get some sleep: that might be a little difficult with the above resolutions, but combining 24km by bike/day + 8h at work and all kind of activities that require to stay up until 4 A.M seems to get on my energy level. I would like to avoid the nervous breakdown. Not that the idea of killing everyone I know with an AK47 bought on the russian black market annoys me, but I don’t know any arms dealer out there. 

What about your weekly resolutions? Are you going to do something special this week? Or keep the good’ol routine?

Then, on this last resolution, I’m going to try it out right now. Thanks to Ella Fitzgerald for her help in this last post. Have a good week, and have fun.

Zélia