How fear affects design
“Have I made a difference?” “Is this good design?” “Will this fetch me more clients or recognition?” these are few of the questions that cross my mind like a marathon runner every time I take pride in a new design.
Are these questions valid? Yes! Are these questions making me a better designer? Maybe! These are self-sabotaging questions especially when answer to these questions are a hard NO.
I remember deleting an entire presentation 8 hours before the deadline. Why? because I had so many thoughts and ideas but I couldn’t answer all the questions it required me to and it didn’t look good enough. Clean slides, flow was all right but something was missing. This thought of “something was missing” messed up my routine, I overthought every word, led to sleepless nights and much more. My head was clouded like a gloomy day, fogged or rather smogged with thoughts, blurring my vision (metaphorically) and gathering stress.
THE INFAMOUS CREATIVE BLOCK
Here it was… the creative block. Think of it this way: You are brilliant at what you think and visualise. Suddenly one day, you just can’t think. Like losing sense of taste or smell. So you go to your thinking place and yet nothing strikes. You do everything to start thinking, but you just can’t. That is creative block. It happens when we are tired of thinking. Our brain literally gives up on us and refuses to help you with any more creative ideas. ever watched an unsatisfied employee quit out of nowhere and all your work come to a pause?
Creative block can happen to anybody, especially and obviously to those in the creative field. We take it upon ourselves to be as creative as possible because of the growing competition and the fear of being called a copy-cat. You want to stand out, agreed, but at what cost? In order to stand out, we tend to over feed our brain with information disguised as inspiration and eventually run-out of ideas. Because everything we see is already taken!
I am sure this has happened to you before where you’ve thought of an idea, created something, but someone else has already done it before you. We are in the constant need to be “first”. We compete against the world. We catch up on the speed and let fear rule all of this.
How to let go?
You can’t. It’s true. You can’t stop thinking. But you can definitely change the way you think. Your fear when it comes to design maybe about anything, literally. Mine is generally about not being good enough. For me, design needs to solve a problem or answer a question. It can’t be “beautiful” or “fancy” just because people want it. I always question if they need it? Will it affect their lives? Will this make a difference in the way people perceive design today?
But sometimes, a design will not answer all these questions. It will not affect a life or change someone’s perspective. For some people nothing is good enough and one cannot be so hard on themselves. When I let these thoughts take over, my production value went down. I could barely contribute to brainstorming sessions, or I could hardly get through one label in a day. I couldn’t crack a strategy for days because constantly my head was all over the place.
I took a break. I couldn’t afford one, but I did. I cut off from all the “inspiration” pages and went back to my old school days of reading. I read for an entire week, only read. No video content consumed. Podcasts and reading were the only things to refill my brain. I read case studies from my go-to agencies and designers. I heard podcasts about the industry, relevant or not. I read pieces from my favourite book and a lot of people on Medium.
Sometimes it is okay to not follow a rule book. It is okay to just do something for the heck of it. It is okay to not compete with yourself, irrespective of anyone has to say in this world of HUSTLE. It is okay NOT TO HUSTLE for one day or a couple. This is how you let go of the fear, what ever that fear maybe. Look within to identify it. Ask yourself the questions that make you uncomfortable. This helps in clearing your head and getting clarity on a lot of things even if they aren't pertaining to design.
Fear can change design. Think of times you have doodles in your book and someone has accidently seen it and appreciated it. In a very modest way you just shrugged it off but inside you were gloating! Now think of the time when you have to draw under pressure? More than anxiety and sweat and procrastination in a few cases, no design or even a line will flow onto the paper. This is what changes everything. Letting go of whatever it is that holds you back is the key to good design.
