UNPLUGGED CREATIVITY

I spend an ungodly amount of time on my computer. It’s where I work, stay connected with the world, and unwind with entertainment—it’s practically a necessity for me. We live in an increasingly digital world, so there isn’t much I can do to unplug.

As a designer, it’s easy to stay within that digital space. Most of my work is done digitally, and my clients expect digital deliverables. But stepping away from the screen, using my hands, and engaging with the physical world brings an entirely different kind of joy. Not only that, but I believe it can also help broaden our creative horizons.

I have a video series on YouTube where I do typographic experiments (I’ll leave a link at the bottom of this page). Most recently, I printed some typography and filtered it through different glass objects I found around my house. Going into this experiment, I had some ideas of what might happen—probably some distortion and hazing. But some objects produced results I couldn’t have predicted, and I was genuinely surprised by my discoveries and what I could create by these means. Not only was the process fun, but it was also refreshing; it reminded me that sometimes the best ideas come when you step away from the screen and embrace the world around you.

By stepping away from my routine and the digital realm, I was able to create something I could never hope to make digitally. I introduced unpredictability into my work. While there are times we want predictability, there are also times we want to see something new. If the goal is to create something fresh and exciting, it probably won’t come through conventional means. To make something new, you have to do something new. The process has to change. The perspective has to change.

What started as a simple experiment taught me something valuable about my own creative process. As someone who wants to create work worth remembering, I can’t rely on a strict process. I can’t lean on the same methods every time to reach my goals. I have to be open and willing to step away from the norm and try something new, even if it sounds strange or unexpected.

So here’s the takeaway: if your process is the same, your results will be too. If you want different results, you have to change your process.

Be bold, and do something worth remembering!