My Creative Philosophy
I know, I know… blogs are supposed to be for sharing helpful tips, hot takes, how-to’s, and guides. Today, though, I would love to just talk about my creative philosophy. And write! So I am writing.
Childhood Creativity
When I was a little girl, I loved paper dolls. I loved miniatures, tiny versions of real objects, and making my own dollhouses and furniture and clothing. My American Girl doll (and alllllll those catalogs) was one of my favorite toys. I didn’t really like the plastic furniture you could get pre-made for Barbie dolls – I would much rather build a bench out of popsicle sticks or make stools out of egg cartons & puffy hand-sewn cushions.
As I grew older, I began drawing more, and ‘designing’ clothes. My friend’s mom had been a textiles major in college, and donated fashion model sketches that I could trace and design dresses for, so I spent hours doing that. The idea of creating a dress on a mannequin was so cool to me (like the mice in Cinderella, or literally any of the classic Barbie movies). I never did get that far (turns out, I’m not exactly the world’s best seamstress!). So I designed knit and crochet clothing instead.
Over the years, I tried my hand at all manner of creative hobbies. Watercolors, embroidery, macrame, weaving, crocheting, knitting, spinning, and even quilting! Anything that gave me a physical result was exciting to me, even if I wasn’t great at it.
Entering the World of Graphic Design
When I began designing simple posters and graphics for the little bookstore I worked at out of high school, I knew that graphic design was something I would love to pursue. At the time, though, it felt very intimidating. Getting a ‘Google degree’ wasn’t a thing yet, and YouTube was still developing so there weren’t a lot of tutorials or how-to’s out there. So I did the ‘normal’ thing (eventually) and went to college for my bachelor’s in graphic design. After that, I began to explore brand identity design and knew I loved creating packages of work that businesses could use to market themselves. I found brand clients simply by posting on Instagram, having a website, and going to a networking night once a month! Oh, those were the days.
I knew I would always want to keep some physical, from-scratch elements in my digital work, whatever that would look like. There is so much you can do digitally, whether in a program like Adobe Illustratror or on an iPad using ProCreate, but I always start my brand projects with pencil and paper and ruler. A trick I learned early on with logo design was to create a series of thumbnails – just small sketches of very rough layouts of a logo, and to go from there. I also loved drawing out little illustrations to include in each brand identity, whether they were specific brand icons or simple flowers and vines.
My AI Approach
Over the last few years, AI has become more and more prevalent in the design world. More and more designers are utilizing all of the cool new tools at our disposal, and moving farther away from analog design. Heck, in the 80’s, graphic designers were laying out collages and typesetting and printing – where has that world gone? My friend told me that her chiropractor made an AI-generated poster for her office so that she’d only have to pay for printing costs. And yet, the true cost of AI is so much higher than many people realize.
I made the conscious decision to not use AI in my work at all moving forward. I once tried ChatGPT to help me generate blog post ideas and outline them, but I quickly realized they all sounded the same. And after realizing the effect that using AI has on our world and environment and communities, as well as how AI art & illustration looked, I knew it wasn’t for me. I may not be up there with the cool kids anymore, but at least my work feels true to me and full of integrity, and that’s what I am pursuing.
Me, Today
My life outside of graphic design is typical crunchy-adjacent. I bake my own sourdough, cook from scratch, brew kombucha, garden every year, and attempt to mend my clothes instead of donate them. I love traditional crafts still (I have a whole weaving shop!), and domestic pursuits make me really happy. My values are fairly traditional too, and that often spills over into my work. I’m also an introvert, and so that informs how I market my services and my work (spoiler: it’s hard).
As my personal life has evolved and changed, so has my creative philosophy. Though I pursued girlboss culture somewhat from 2019 onwards, over the last few years I’ve felt the push to move away from that approach and examine who I actually am. I’m not a CEO. I’m a freelancer. I’m not a powerful fempreneur, I’m a multidisciplinary artist. I’m not a 6-figure business owner, I’m a small-time designer who enjoys working with kind, passionate people and making just enough to pay off my student debt, feed our cat, and invest in those around me. I will always be that way, especially now that I am married and expecting my first child.
This post was a bit outside of my usual, but I don’t care. Let’s all be a little more personal and approachable now and then! The world would be a lot kinder. Much love!
