Way back when I was a bright and snotty graphic art student, I would cram every book, magazine, and websites about design. I spent hours flipping through Wallpaper, Graphic Arts and 3d Artist. I would be in awe about The Designer Republic, and other British graphic firms. And I would browse odd collections of design from art books at the local half-price book store. I was very inspired at all hours, and it would reflect in the backgrounds, and the handful of sites I designed for friends.
Over time, as I grew up to old as I am now, design and art began to have a smaller and smaller role in my life, to the point it was nothing more than a afterthoughts in the back of my head. Its final death then arrived some time after marriage. Once the visual creative juices left, life changed. Thinking about design lost out to thinking about paying bills, taking care of the basics, and working. None of these things had much use for a composition, or a perfectly arranged furnishings. Overcoming these things, became my focus, and it didn’t feed the mind as much as creating visual content.
Until last week. I read a copy of the magazine Giant Robot, that was left by someone at work. The next thing I know, parts of my brain started firing, that I haven’t felt go off in some time. My brain rebooted in a small way. Ideas suddenly started flowing and out of nowhere, not only I wanted to illustrate again, I had better ideas for my muse. All because of an single issue of a Asian culture magazine.
Protect your creativity folks. Don’t shut it down, or feel embarrassed and ashamed what it conjure up. Feed it a balanced diet of [insert how you will keep it going] and I promise it will take you places beyond what its tuned for. Mine might be tuned to interesting visual representation of shapes, but it sends “interference” to the thinking process what the mind is consciously focused on.
I know this is sounding a bit Polly Ann’ish(is that even the correct way to write it?), but bare with me, for at least two more paragraphs.
So, was it my design interest was leaking its goo all over my business ideas, or was it the subconscious sending conscious ideas to the surface? I will never know until someone makes a comment or I decide for myself , but I like the results. I like the way how more balanced I now feel.
So I know it seems odd to get a business perspective from a home design magazine, an article about war gaming, a piece of music you haven’t listened to in some time, or for me- a art magazine. Tapping into that hobby will send your brain into overdrive. And when it does, be prepared for a new sense of energy, that I could only vaguely explain.
Tags: CreativeThinking, Creative Business Thinking, Creative shock therapy, Creative intrests, Design effects on the mind
