Being back at work is not great, my fingers feel like a fist of sausages being dragged around the keyboard as I try to relearn how to type, it’s way colder in my office than I remember – and I’m not quite sure – what was it I used to do again?
I’m going to drape my fingers over the heater and make a few resolutions while my head gets back into ‘Work Mode’.
1. Think Better
I want to be more vigilant with my creativity. Sometimes an idea pops up and it only seems good because it indirectly reminds you of something you’ve seen that you really liked. It’s difficult to make the distinction between liking an original idea and the memory of something you thought was really good.
This year, I’m going to be more honest with my creative thinking, I’m going to break down the process behind the big ideas and make sure they’re original and directly from my own brain, in the process throwing away the crap earlier on, instead of flogging it into something reasonable and then binning it in a rage.
2. Stop Swearing at my Laptop
Is there anything more insane than sitting in an office on your own and swearing at an inanimate piece of metal? I don’t think so. Enough with the…’I can’t believe it, it’s crashed again, YOU ******* PIECE OF ****!! GREAT, A MORNING’S WORK GONE! WHY DO YOU TREAT ME LIKE THIS?’
3. Back to the Drawing Board
I make this resolution every year, and have too keep remaking it as I inevitably don’t stick to it. I want to do more work on the sketchpad before creating anything on screen. Unlike my laptop, the sketchpad is always there for me, it’s huge white page begging for some graphite, and without fail, in January it finally gets some.
I understand why it’s important to work on paper before you get to the screen, it’s easier to look at the relationship between the letters in this freehand form, and you get stronger results when you don’t restrict yourself to the fonts in your FontBook.
On the other hand, where did I put my pencil sharpener? See what I mean? It’s already over.
4. We Need Boundaries
Setting boundaries with clients and managing their expectations is something that I’ve started to do more of, and I’m going to continue into 2012. You can promise the world in a meeting, but in the cold light of day, can you deliver everything?
I’ve been using SmartSheets to put timelines together and plan project delivery dates more accurately. It’s really helpful to agree a visual representation of a project timeline before you start anything and it also urges the client to deliver assets when they’ve agreed to.
5. Get out the office more
I like my office, the light is bright, the view is beautiful and it’s very quiet. However, some days it’d be great to get out and have someone cough in my face in a crowded lift, or step in something horrible on the pavement, or listen to someone moan on about ‘How Christmas went too fast.’ Yes, all these things might sound terrible to you, but to me…actually, it really is terrible, I think I’ll stay in and Skype all my meetings for a bit longer.
6. Stop Panicking
I’m a massive panicker, I’m getting better and I’m starting to learn that if a job suddenly drops out of my schedule it’s okay. Using PPH (wink, wink..nudge, nudge) I can replace it quickly, but there’s always a moment when the terror sets in and everything looks bleak. These times are really unconstructive for me and really boring for my wife, I know she gets fed up of hearing me moan about having nothing to do one day, and too much to do the next. I have no idea why…I find my moaning totally inspirational!
7. Do…do…do
I used to do everything I could get my hands on: band artwork, flyers, posters, anything that needed a bit of creativity; but recently, (probably because I’m super busy, and we’ve had a little boy) I’ve not been as proactive on these kind of low/no paid briefs as I used to be.
This year I’m going in head first, approaching bands and labels and offering my services on really interesting portfolio pieces for whatever they can afford. On these kind of projects I work to the rule that ‘I don’t want to be the only one not getting paid,’ so if there’s money in the project then I’ll charge, if there’s not then fair enough. Either way you can’t beat the feeling of creating something you really love, and when there’s no budget in the job it means you have complete creative control.
8. No more Sugar
I went to a meeting last week, and was the only person who had sugar in my tea, I felt socially awkward about this, people were looking at me like I’d time travelled in from 1986. I had no idea sugar in the tea was the new ‘Smoking’.
If I don’t stop I’ll soon be made to sit outside of cafes to avoid ‘passive sweetening.’
These are my challenges for 2012, I can bet that I would have broken them all by the time you read this, what are yours?
Follow me on Twitter @citizenBB
————–
Ben Brown is a Creative Director and the founder of design agency, Citizen Design. Having worked with clients such as Apple, the BBC and Universal Records he is extremely experienced and also designs all graphics to accompany his blogs. You can view his PPH Freelance design profile here.
Thanks Ben, this is a great read! If you would like to guest blog for PPH, please contact our Community Manager Dea-Marie via email: info@peopleperhour.com and she would be more than happy to discuss this with you.
