Together
Well now. It’s been quite some time since my last post. In the workshop of my brain, there are many “almost there” blogs of which I shall get to in the next month during this time of no excuses.
In the meanwhile, I’d like to give a shout-out to all of the freelancers and small business owners who find themselves on this rocky sea, in the same boat.
I have a book kicking around my office that I like to flip through on occasion for a little creative pep talk. While creativity is indeed a muscle that one gets better at with use, a trip to the inspiration gym in one form or another, is often in order.
Indulge me for a moment while I share a passage by Tad Carpenter from Creative Pep Talk, Inspiration from 50 Artists that jumped out today.
“There is great value in feeling a part of a team. As humans, we want to be part of a group that is larger than ourselves, whether that’s a family, a sports team, or even a profession, we want to be part of a group. As a designer, at times, it can feel like a very isolating profession. It’s as if we woke up on Christmas morning, and the entire McCallister family has left for Paris, and we find ourselves home alone. For me, the best work I create is always when I make an effort to collaborate with the others involved in the project and the others in my studio. As designers we are not just little Kevin McCallisters, working all alone. We are collaborators, colleagues, and team members working together to make our place a better place.”
As a freelancer, I am but one cog in a much larger creative wheel. Projects I work on would never see the light of day without the crazy talent that surrounds me. We all bring unique perspectives, an eye, resources (hey, did you see this?), act as a sounding board much better than the office window (“hmmm that’s interesting” code for “will never work”), technical skills, and lift us up when we need a boost.
More than ever, we’ll need to offer that boost a little more enthusiastically, a little more often.
As colleague Shannon Larkins of Blackcoffee Studio said, “There’s no sugar coating it, it’s going to be tough to get through these next days and weeks, but it’s going to be tougher for those that don’t realize it’s time to work smarter to survive this crisis.” And by working smarter for us freelancer types, that means leaning on those around us just a little bit more.
To wrap, I’d like to adknowledge the many in our collective. Keep going. Pick up the phone (5-minute warning for a video call pls) and walk away from the news. We’ll get through this together.
