Keeping our creativity and passion alive, as design professionals

Preface: Everybody is creative. This article does not apply to just design professionals.

As designers in the industry, a part of our jobs requires us to be creative ‘at work', and that leads to an interesting overlap! As design professionals, we have refined our creative skillsets and techniques over several years of education and work. We also explore different forms of art and design as a part of our day-to-day work.

In my education as a visual communication student, I dabbled in various forms of design - illustration, film-making, photography, graphic design, and game design. Each module opened up a world of creative possibilities, and I was quick to explore them.

After a few years into full-time work as a UX designer, I noticed that there was a definite lull in my creative life. While I practiced an extremely analytical and user-centered form of design at work, I felt that it lacked the opportunities to create freely without bounds or constraints.

And that’s when I noticed something. Ultimately, the creativity that brings the most satisfaction (and respite) is something you do for yourself.

At work, I research, communicate, collaborate, negotiate and manage design projects and time. I love my job, and I find that I can continually scale my skills and learn new ones as I grow. But it’s not enough to rely on the job role for creative fulfilment.

It is as important to make time to sing, dance, write, draw, create content or practice any art form that is enjoyable to you. These extra-curricular activities are the best form of self care!

A pitfall to avoid if you're new at exploring your art

Holding your ‘extra-curricular’ creative pursuits to an impossibly high standard of perfection is best avoided. It might sound like - 'Every illustration I create needs to be the best-in-class example of vector art.' Or, 'That painting needs to be as good as that great artist's. Another mistake is to try hard to make these outcomes ‘share-worthy’. Like the music clip that you recorded, needs to be good enough to go on your sound-cloud page. Or that piece of writing needs to be publish-worthy.

With this, the perspective of making art for the self shifts, and external validation becomes more important than the process of making something.

Try integrating your art into your work

I often try and integrate my creative side pursuits into my work. Eg: Making videos for hackathons. I once recorded an entire stop-motion film to explain a concept at work, and though the project never took off, I have a cool film to look at! Or illustrated for the team newsletter, or sang at a work event. These keep my life at work interesting.

A simple rule that I use

'Do something creative everyday'.

I stick to this simple rule because it works for me. You might use notion boards, planners, or reminders to track your personal creative projects, which is great! But for me, the 'do something creative everyday' rule is oddly simple and comforting. I might write a paragraph of text, draw a doodle, or learn a new chord progression. On a good day, I might play and record a new song that I discovered, or draw a scene inspired by one of my walks or travels, on Procreate. But it doesn’t have to always be worth sharing. It can be mundane, like a piece of poetry nobody will ever read (some poems are best chucked in the wastepaper basket), or making a new type of sandwich for my lunch!

The amazing thing about expressing myself creatively every day (even with terrible outcomes) is that I will eventually get better!

That high standard that so many of us aspire to reach with our art? We cannot hope to reach there if we don’t even try! Integrating these into our routines takes away the fear and is a great way to disconnect and recharge from regular work.

What's your technique to keep your creativity alive?

What's something creative you did for yourself, today?