Chasing Dreams and Keeping Sane in the Process
With every experience comes a lesson. Through our ideas, actions or more frequently our failures. We come to understand ourselves a little deeper to sharpen and improve the normal. The normal being the everyday — the surroundings, the moments, the people, the coffee… the everything.
In the last year we’ve been actively pushing what that normal is. Testing, squeezing, twisting, breaking. All to see how fun embracing ‘the new’ and change can be. We know what we like and what we don’t, but also what is realistically viable when it comes to juggling the ‘normal’. From balancing the highs and lows, here are three lessons we learned from the year past.
One: Personal Sanity over Industry Expectations
It’s about the balance between personal projects and client work. It’s difficult working on great ideas when you’re worried about getting gigs that pay the rent. Finding that sweet spot takes some experimentation. It requires stubbornness, putting in the hours and an ethos of saying “fuck it, let’s do it” — because if you don’t, who will?
We started with the 80/20 rule (80% client work, 20% personal projects). This year we’re saying “fuck it, let’s do it” even more and going for a 60/40 rule. There’s logic to the madness. The truth is although we love the projects we take on, it’s the personal projects that get people looking. The client work brings home the bread, but the personal work takes the cake (in a good way).
It’s not about recognition, in fact that’s the least of it. Personal projects have allowed us to learn more, experiment like mad scientists and expand our knowledge on ideas through ridiculous amounts of research. Client work usually comes with an air of restriction. Because understandably there are objectives and goals. With personal work, it’s more a case of trying something, getting it out there and seeing what happens. Sometimes nothing will happen, but other times you may be lucky enough to break the internet. Like Osbert Sitwell or Vincent Van Gogh said, all artists are lunatics... or at minimum half crazy. The lesson for us is to do more personal projects and in the process lose our minds and learn something.
Two: Having a Perfectly Productive Workspace
Everybody is different. Some prefer working somewhere new each day, others like the office environment. It’s a question of where and when you’re most productive and able to focus. It’s easy to fall for the nomadic lifestyle of working remotely. The truth is (for us) we need our self crafted ultimate workspace to maximise the flow of ideas. Free from annoyances, second rate wifi and distractions. Primed and ideal scenarios to get stuff done.
We spent a month working on two projects remotely in Bali. Although we strategically planned the trip to be a ‘work retreat’ the reality was there were far too many distractions. It was simply too difficult to sit down and focus on user experience tasks. At home we have the perfect productivity setup. All our tools are readily available, a super fast internet connection, comfy chairs, 4K monitors and so on. It’s our threshold for getting shit done. When we’re not in the office, we usually succumb to the temptation of Netflix, or the odd episode of Bob’s Burgers.
Whilst working remotely in Bali, we came to realise how hard it was to concentrate. We needed our little bespoke space for productivity. The distractions were too great and a lack of discipline got the best of us. We managed to get some work done but not as much as we’d hoped for.
Three: Being at the Frontline
Earlier in the year we got arrested in Copenhagen for flying a drone. Resulting in a £500 fine along with seizure of our drone and all footage (worth another £600). It’s hard not to get upset with the complete injustice of it all. At the same time, if you’re constantly pushing what you do and work with technology at the rate of its advancement, then expect some form of push back.
Technology moves at such a fast pace that regulators and government officials struggle to keep up. Four days before our arrival, Copenhagen had introduced new laws around drone flight. Making it illegal throughout the city to operate one.
The reality is laws won’t please everyone. In a fast paced industry there will always be someone who disagrees. If you’re at the forefront, there will most likely be a price to pay. In our case we pushed how we capture content and as a result, paid the price of £1k in losses. Rather than get upset, we accepted this as a burden of progress. Boundaries need to be pushed, it’s how we learn, evolve and get better at what we do.
Conclusion: Find Value in the Process
Throughout the highs and lows, the bottom line is we enjoy it all. With each experience comes a valuable lesson. With all the ideas, crazy experiments, silly side projects and epic fails, we’ve managed to get a small inkling of acknowledgement. A small sign we’re heading in the right direction.
This article was first published in the Curate 2018 Annual Digest. An annual report that focuses not on statistics and performance, but rather experience, lessons and perspective.
More at www.curatemag.co
