Home » Archives » September 2010 » I Need to Make... [Previous entry: "American Graphic Design Awards"] [Next entry: "Make Stuff"] 09/14/2010: "I Need to Make..."
I'm a professional creative, for whatever that's worth, and you would think that means I create stuff. However, it strikes me that I do not make enough stuff. Of course, if you look at my last year, in which I worked on 58 jobs, including designing and building a few websites, booklets, brochures, logos, trade show exhibits, and posters among other things, you'd be hard pressed to back up that statement...but it's true. I don't make enough stuff.

I've recently become aware of people within the design community who just can't stop making things. For clients or not for client, to solve a problem or apropos of nothing, they just MAKE stuff, compulsively, all the time.

I'm envious of those people.

I feel like I'm lazy in comparison. I feel as though if I were making things all the time I would make more awesome things. I feel as though my time is spent consuming things and having an opinion about them, for no damn reason.

Who the hell cares which contestant I like on Top Chef?
Who the hell cares if I think The Office can survive without Steve Carrell?
Who the hell cares if I agree with Seth Godin? (I thought I'd throw in a book there just so you wouldn't think this is about TV.)
Who the hell cares what I think of whatever the hell you said on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or your Blog?
Who the hell cares what I think of the new lineup of Apple gear? (Oh wait, people ask me about that all the time.)

I feel like I need to get more comfortable with the idea of screwing up and just DO some stuff. Just make some things. Just make some stuff that might suck, because if I make stuff that sucks enough I might make something that doesn't suck one day.

I remember being a kid and making really completely useless things by nailing scrap wood together. When did I stop doing that? I also remember trying desperately to paint BatMan with watercolors that were way to watery, but not really caring. When did I stop doing that? When did I stop painting? When did I stop drawing? I used to draw all the time. I used to get in trouble in class for drawing compulsively. I used to draw in the face of very real consequences, like an addict.

WHEN DID I STOP DRAWING?

WTF?!?!?!?!?!