Sketchism

You don’t really expect it to happen. One minute you’re working hard, trying to come up with a new design and then you’re out of ideas. You think “I need to look at some professional work to get me inspired,” and then it happens. You find yourself in that uncomfortable spot between pure envy and pure inspiration. You read about designers your age who are working with some big time clients. You visit websites where their art is flooding the screen and you think of ways to emulate that style without being a complete biter. There are testimonies and little biographies about them and you realize that should be you. There’s enough potential and creativity in you to get that far, to taste that bit of success. You’re creative juices are overflowing, you take out your sketchbook and begin to draw. Anything. Just keep drawing, keep writing. After five minutes you realize this new drawing is nothing to be proud of. You want to scrap it, but you decide to just keep it there, you might need it later. You look around for something else. Just then you realize you have a camera. It’s time to remember where you are. You live in the most urbanized multi-cultural center in the world. Variety is normal to you, there are over 100 countries represented in your county and you haven’t made an effort to document it. There’s a lot you haven’t made the effort for and it haunts you. You want to create something fresh, something that makes people stop and reflect. You want just the right look, just the right words in just the right font. Color. You need something clever, something hip, something not particularly comfortable but something that will make them stop turning pages. Something that will make their conversations fade into a silence as they marvel at your creation. When people don’t notice, you cringe. You kick yourself. But not today. Today you have seen success in the distance and you know you’ll make it if you just keep producing. Don’t stop producing. Let everything you touch become infested with your passion for art. Think of your portfolio, think of your accolades. Think of the next piece you’ll amaze them with.

Now do it.