Old dog, new tricks

I admit it. I can be a grumpy so-and-so. There are times when I know better and won't be told. But isn't that the case for everyone? Of course, it is. I know it is. I know better.

One of my big bugbears in our industry—a world occupied by incredibly talented graphic designers and creatives—is the general lack of determination to learn new and technical tools. And, of course I would say that too; I lead a team developing cutting-edge vector design software. You can often find me looking wistfully over at the web development community with their never-ending drive and determination to dive deep into new and experimental tools, technologies and workflows. To me, they are the role model of how continuous self-improvement should appear. Boundless.

For all my self-righteousness, however, there is a flaw. It's my tendency to know better and stick to long-held conclusions. Now, at least one of my eyes is opening.

Rising to the [creative] challenge

I have to devote the majority of my time at the altar to Word, online meetings, JIRA and all manner of business tools on a daily basis. It's what my role dictates. Thankfully, I also have to spend a lot of my hours scurrying down rabbit holes in Adobe Illustrator whilst testing our latest and greatest product developments. Yet that time in Illustrator is not a truly creative moment for me. My job in Illustrator is, typically, to break things. Along with my colleagues, we step on the booby traps before our customers do.

When my colleague, Kim, recently reminded me and others that the 36 Days of Type challenge would start up again in April, I paused. I've witnessed the frenzy of glyph and character acrobatics in the past and wondered at the variations possible with a single letter or number. The pause was due to the time I knew it would take to commit to conjuring up a series of 36 individual designs. Sure, I could crack open our various effects and tools and simply scatter-gun the process, but that would defeat the object of the exercise.

What I truly admire about #36daysoftype (let's get all hash-tag-y) is that there is no money prize. There's no celebrity at the end of the tunnel about to welcome the winner to a new job as an apprentice type-smith. It's purely about the joy of the creative process, the satisfaction, the self-congratulation and self-critiquing. You simply do what you think is good and present it to the world as your own creation.

Sure, when you submit a design on Instagram, there is the catnip of juicy ?? likes streaming through. It usually leads to the desire for the 24 hours of a day to dissolve quicker so that you can post your next creation in short time. And still, there is no pile of freshly-minted cash waiting.

Rediscovering creativity

Bullet bitten and stubborn mind set, I sat in front the glowing screen and swiped all the spreadsheets and JIRA tasks to one side. I loaded up Illustrator and admit I cackled as I knew the advantage I had; a wealth of incredible workflow and creative tools by Astute Graphics all at my disposal. As importantly, the deep-soaked experience of how to apply them technically. Plus the tools that the outside world is yet to learn of. Sometimes, cheating can feel good!

Then the reality hits. When met with a blank page, it's a nerve-wracking process to create something from nothing. Armed with a long Easter weekend, it slowly became a cathartic process. Re-learning letter-by-letter that creativity is fun, rewarding. This is amplified if there's no real purpose to the creations; a complete lifting of any responsibilities each an every curve could otherwise pose.

Beginning with "A" was logical. And, arguably, the result was also logical and mathematical. Precise and cold. "B" started to flow. By the time I got to "D", I started to scare myself as to how simplistic I had become, where normally over-engineering wins the day for me.

Then came the first day to post on Intsagram and expose my own perceived lack of creative talent. It doesn't matter really... does it?

Thankfully, my Instagram following is small. To me, it's a pasteboard for random images. Therefore, critical exposure is minimal.

Then the learning started

At the time of writing this, I've polished off character 12 of 36; "L" for "learner" in my case. And now it's fully dawned on me how creative I feel again. Rediscovering tools I've had deep involvement in over the past 14+ years is a strange thing to admit to or defend, but it's been joyous to apply deeply complex engineering in such a joyous way.

Truly re-connecting with the basic understanding of what creatives toil over is vital and is already helping me to look at our tools and future plans in a different light. Sweating the details is vital in software development, but constantly reminding yourself what the core reason of the tool's existence is equally essential.

Getting up early in the morning and foregoing the ritual rowing exercise time just to start crafting a letter "M" is an odd admission. But that's what the 36 Days challenge does to you. It gets under your skin and gains a life of its own.

However, to bring the story full circle, "M" is the one that brought it all home how everyone can suffer from know-it-all-ness.

In my head, I could picture the character in full vanishing point glory. It's a task that could be completed manually, but as with all my entries to the challenge, I wanted to push myself to explore. Which is when I recalled the Perspective Grid in Illustrator. Largely ignored, often ridiculed—shamefully including by myself—over the years since its release, I clicked on the tool's icon with an open mind.

First reacquaint and then practice. Experiment, fail and try again. Persist and gain small glimpses of the promised land. Isn't that want I admired in the web development community for many years?

And you know what? That condemned too is good. Damn good! It does what it says on the tin and some more. It's functional and even playful. It can also delight.

If the only benefit of my participation in the 36 Days challenge was to discover my stale notions and preconceptions were built on a foundation of sand, it's served its purpose more than ever hoped for.

Couldn't we all do with a creative challenge in our lives?

If you want to follow my 36 Days process, follow my Instagram account.