Fear the pie (in the sky)

Creativity is fueled by constraints. The challenge is finding the right amount of information to get you started but not so much that you have no room to explore. Imagine sitting down to start a painting with no idea what you’re going to do. Then imagine sitting down to paint having made the decision to paint a duck. The second scenario immediately triggers associations and it’ll be faster to get into a state of creative flow.

If you’re working with a client who says ‘do whatever you like’ plan for extra revisions. You’ll soon find out that they’re aren’t actually okay with you doing anything. They just didn’t know what they wanted until they had something to react to. 

Learn how to interview clients, and yourself, to establish the right amount of enabling constraints. If you aren't doing that now, try it, it will save you time down the road.

Don't try to be cool

At some point someone is going to ask you to make something cool. When that happens ask them what ‘cool’ means then watch them mumble and say things like, “You know...cool. Like (fill in the name of a product/band/book/designer/illustrator/etc).”

It’s a ridiculously broad term that actually defies meaning unless you know the audience and in whose voice you should be judging cool. It means different things to different people. What is cool to a gun nut might be very different from what is cool to an 8-year old girl. But you can get more nuanced: What is cool to a gun nut might be different from what is cool to someone into cars. Until you know the audience you won’t understand the term.

And it’s not just ‘cool’. Words like cool, weird, sexy, dark, vintage, etc all need deeper explanation. Flag vague language and get specific.

Embrace the pain

We all love the hero myth. The tale of the underdog who struggles through pain and obstacles to achieve a goal is universally inspiring but when we encounter that pain for ourselves it becomes a different story. But it’s through challenges that we realize our values, shape our opinions and sharpen our skills.

There are all kinds of pain and the better you become at welcoming it with open arms the faster you’ll grow. I’m not saying you should become a masochist but you should be prepared to accept a challenge. This could be the pain of daily practice, asking for critical feedback or the real pain of pushing yourself physically. If it was easy everyone would do it.

Become the friend who tells it like it is. Tell people when they have spinach in their teeth and expect them to do the same for you.

Take a walk

If you hit the wall, find yourself getting overly attached to ideas or resisting feedback it’s time to step away. Distance improves your perspective and calms your nerves. Research creativity and a couple scenarios come up over and over again. People get ideas while showering and while taking a walk.

Stepping away from my computer is the one tool that I’ve used every single day for the past 20 years. I discovered this tool when I was a political cartoonist and it became an essential tool that I’ve incorporated into my workflow. It’s that valuable.

I’ll start by feeding my brain with research and then I’ll take a walk and let my mind wander. While walking I’m more likely to make connections between ideas and more freely plan my next steps. Whether I need the break or not I take a walk religiously every day in the mid-afternoon.

The Ninety-Ninety Rule

The Ninety-Ninety Rule is attributed to Tom Cargill of Bell Labs and states the following: "The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time."

The quote was made in relation to computer programming but one of the underlying themes of Tools not Rules is that the concepts translate across disciplines. These ideas work for illustrators, designers, bakers, musicians, dancers and more. The Ninety-Nintey rule is no exception.

That first big push, coming up with the ideas and laying the groundwork is the easy part. Wrapping up everything, polishing the idea so it’s ready for world is the hardest part and the push for the final 10% of a project can often take half, or more, of your production time.

Throw away your work

Any creative pursuit can test your Buddha nature. To make something special you need to get excited about an idea but be prepared to throw it away. Respond to your work as it’s in progress. Try something, react and either build on that idea or toss it. Every final design should be the result of dozens of these decisions.

Probably 90% of my work as a designer is thrown away. Does that mean I’m a failure because I don’t have a 100% track record? No, it means I’m constantly evaluating and adjusting my vision as its taking shape.

The thing I had in my head is almost never the thing I end up producing and I find that keeping my vision locked on a singular goals makes my ideas fragile. Fragile ideas are not inherently bad, just be prepared to break them.

Practice non attachment and make it part of your process.

Take it to the gutter

Don't overthink what you share and don’t be afraid to take it to the gutter. Once you're in the gutter the only direction to go is up.

If you’re unafraid of looking foolish the people around you will be more likely to take risks. Share the weird shit. Train yourself to push buttons and be an open channel. You'll get some rejection but its better to get a reaction than to be ignored. If you help someone articulate your failure you’ve prompted discourse. That’s art. And art isn’t always friendly. It doesn’t always please the masses. It can rankle and divide. That’s its power. It is emotional.

Be brave. Be foolish. Try the unexpected and be prepared to fail. Fail often and fail fast. Let it guide you - it will help you learn and focus your efforts.  What is truly a failure - an idea executed or an idea left unexplored?

Look, the Fool

Leave your fear of looking foolish at the door so you can spend more time generating ideas and less time worrying what people will think of you. Look the Fool is a call to action to be brave and accept that not all ideas are going to be mind-blowing. Or even good. The path to good ideas means you’ll need to suggest, and remove, the bad ones quickly and without fear or judgement. Be willing to share the bad ideas. 

Lead by example. If you’re willing to look foolish it levels the playing field and lets everyone know they can speak their minds without fear of judgement.

In the next post I'll talk about taking it to the gutter. From there things can only improve. Personally, I'm happy to absorb some judgement if it fuels the teams creative sensibility, focuses critique and makes everyone comfortable. We can all bond in the gutter.

Use Your Telescope

Telescoping is the process of actively switching between high level thought and the details of execution. Think of it as zooming in and out of your work. At the zoomed out view think about high level project goals: who is the audience, what is the hierarachy, am I working within or breaking existing conventions, etc. Zoomed in you can work out the specifics of execution: adding layers of polish and resolving outstanding questions.

If I notice myself getting fixated on details sometimes I'll physically step away from my computer and look at a work-in-progress from 4-6 feet away so I have to shift focus back to a zoomed-out perspective. 

• Plan and lay down the structure.
• Don’t spend all your time focusing on the details.
• Step back and evaluate.
• Repeat this process constantly.

Get your gut checked regularly

Gut checks are frequent, quick, focused tests of your ideas. Invite someone to give you a quick, gut-level reaction to a work-in-progress. You want an emotional or intuitive reaction that helps you clarify any bias you have as the creator. Go ahead and tell them you're just doing a gut check. The shorter their response, the better. It's not a brainstorm, it’s a fast tool to check your assumptions.

Ask a question so the feedback is focused. Use simple, direct questions and insist on simple, direct answers. 

Example questions:

• What’s the first thing you notice?
• What is the most important thing on the screen?
• What’s the first emotion that comes to mind when you see this?
• Would you trust this?
• Is this funny?

Don't hold back. Use your best ideas.

There is no better time than now for your best ideas. Use them, there will be more. Don’t save them for a better project or a better client because good ideas breed more good ideas.

When we become stingy with our concepts we get attached to them and when we get attached to an idea it becomes the thing that is always pushed to another day because we think it has to be perfect. It's easy to put off the perfect idea because it'll take too much time.

Additionally, the more things you try the more likely you’ll find something that works and when you do find something that works don't be afraid to repeat yourself.

You don't have to reinvent yourself on every project. And repetition is the thing that all your favorite artists are known for. Repetition is style and style is the thing that reputations are built upon.

Develop a daily habit

When I started studying music my teacher said the secret to practice is doing a little bit every day. It doesn’t matter if it’s only 5-10 minutes because the regularity is better than one or two longer practice sessions per week.

He was right. It’s about developing momentum and making sure the last thing you did is at the surface of your thoughts and easily accessible. The skills we don't practice atrophy over time. How long is too long? It's a matter of degrees but every bit counts when you're trying to improve.

You might have heard that doing something 21 days consecutively forms a habit. Maybe, but it doesn’t mean the your body will go on autopilot. On day 22 and every day thereafter you still need to make the decision: am I going to maintain my momentum? 

Regular practice leads to mastery. There is no other way.

Keep asking Why

Wikipedia calls The 5 Whys “...an iterative question-asking technique.” The idea is that you repeatedly ask yourself, or your client/partner/product owner ‘Why?’ as a way to better understand the issue you are addressing. It’s a useful skill when interviewing clients about their feedback or goals for a design.

Example...
I don’t like this logo.

1. Why? I can’t read what it says.
2. Why? Actually it’s okay at some sizes but doesn’t read when small.
3. Why? The font closes up.
4. Why? The icon overwhelms the name.
5. Why? The icon is too big and has too much detail.

Action: Select a new font, simplify the icon and rebalance the hierarchy between the icon and the name.

How to kill an idea: write it down and call it a rule

Be wary of rules. They are often well-intentioned but they don’t respect context. They are, by their nature, inflexible. In contrast, a designer needs to be flexible and have room to explore. Constraints are the fuel for a designers creativity while rules are the box that seals in a singular vision. A constraint describes a goal, a rule describes a solution.

That’s not to say rules don’t have their place. They’re wonderful for describing processes that have been reached through the creative process.

Rules represent values from a specific moment in time and, once you document an idea as a rule, it stops responding to the world around it. It becomes a rule and rules, by their nature, are rigid. They’re meant to protect us, to keep us from doing the wrong thing, to make sure we play well together. Think about the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the NFL rule book and the U.S. Constitution. All of them are powerful documents but once they’re written down people become attached to their interpretation of the text and the principles described become a subject of debate. A distraction from the original idea. Convert an idea into a rule and it will cease to grow. If it evolves that growth will be slow and painful.

Try new things and develop your own tools. Unexpected input from outside our systems is what forces us out of our routines and produces results. View rules as guidelines and tools, use the ones that work for you, discard the rest or save them for another day when they might be relevant.