The “Personal Project” Project
It sounded funny at first but making a project out of multiple personal projects sounded like an amazing idea after I came across one of my peer’s doing the same with his personal projects. I immediately thought “I need to do this!” See, I have plenty of ambition — sadly I lack the discipline to start and complete my personal projects on a regular basis. I have a hard drive full of unfinished projects that will probably never make it to my portfolio.
I’ve tried the “everyday” thing. I’ve tried the #100DayProject. I just couldn’t get into them due to the fact that I get a thrill out of launching a full, complete project into the world. The last time I felt that way was when I launched my portfolio website back in January.
Maybe it’s undiagnosed Adult Attention Deficit Disorder that is keeping me from investing the time needed to become a better Art Director. Maybe it’s simply a lazy habit — or two, that need to be kicked to the curb. Whatever the cause, I see a possible solution right in front of me and I’ve decided that I am going to use it to my advantage.
The Goal
My long-term goal is to transition out of traditional Graphic Design (Print, Branding et al.) and into a full-time Art Director specializing in Style Frames and Motion Graphics for the Entertainment industry. Whether I do this as a freelancer or as an on-staff Art Director remains to be seen. I’ve based my goal on Sean McCabe’s “Show Up Everyday” method so I am giving myself 2 years to obtain this goal — this is obtainable even sooner however I want to give myself what I feel is ample time to learn the tools and techniques necessary to not just be in the style frame side of the business, but to thrive in it. I don’t want to be “good”, I want to be “really good”. I know that this will take a lot of hard work and dedication but nothing worth doing is easy.
Over the course of the 2 years I have multiple short-term goals that I feel will align with my long-term goal. They are as follows:
- Improve my idea generation / concept development
- Improve my skills in Cinema 4D
- Improve my general skills in After Effects
- Learn Octane Renderer
- Improve my ability to start a personal project and finish it
- Improve my drawing skills (this is already underway)
What I will be doing
Beginning August 1, 2015 and continuing every month I am going to do a personal project that aligns with my career goals. These projects will either be self-intitated or collaborations with other designers, animators or even copywriters. During the entire process I will share my sketches, my rough concepts, my test renders — everything up to the final deliverable.
The projects will be either self-assigned or decided on between myself and my collaborator(s). One month I may choose a title sequence for one of my favorite shows, the next may be a set of style frames for a convention or conference. As I go along, I plan on varying the assignments while not straying too far from subject matter that I am passionate about.
Thankfully, my schedule is fairly static (aside from having an awesome one year old Son who’s schedule seems to change week-to-week) so I will be posting work in progress every Sunday evening. At the end of the month I will post my final project along with a recap of how I feel about the end-result and the process as a whole.
How can you help?
I encourage anyone who follows this journey to please — leave me public feedback* on the work.If you are uncomfortable leaving public feedback, please shoot me a private message or email. Any feedback you give will be greatly appreciated.
So there it is. Starting August 1st, 2015, I will begin this “Personal Project Project” and will be posting here on a regular basis. I’m committing to this, so please give me a hard time if I start to slack or give up. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for a first project, please feel free to post here in the comments or shoot me a message. Thanks!
*I’m not asking for “Dribbble Praise”, what I am asking for is critiques to help me improve.
