The joy and despair of completing a fun graphic design project

happens every time

Hey friends 

I am currently in the in-between phase of personal projects, YouTube videos and any client work. The phase where I am supposed to be “relaxing and enjoying my wins” yet I am stuck with the anxiety of what to do next.

Does this happen to anyone else? Let’s talk about it.

The life cycle of a project

So I recently finished one of my most rewarding and fun personal projects to this date.

My hardcore alphabet series.

I redesigned some of my favorite hardcore albums every week for 26 weeks letters A to Z.

This project was something that was so fun to work on each week and really pushed me to think of new creative ways to layout design, work with typography and overall the relationship between music and visual art.

If you look at the sticky note above, when I finished the project and posted it to Instagram, I was sitting right at the top of the mountain.

So proud of working on a 6-month project and excited to share the final presentation with the world. That joy is pretty short lived though and if I really think about it the fun is in the journey not the destination.. but anyway that’s not the point.

After celebrating that win for idk a couple of hours lol there is that steep drop off into the low point I am currently in now.

It is this feeling that i have

• already done my best work

• I have no more compelling and exciting ideas

• I do not know what to create or how to even get started.

This feeling happens everytime and just like that feeling everytime in end up eventually coming up with a new idea.

but why cant my brain learn from the past and be comfortable in the thoughts that this new project idea will come soon?

idk…

Aside from writing this newsletter, I have been sitting at my desk all morning trying to think of a new project to work on, but I got nothing.

I know it will come to me and I wish I was better at just enjoying this in-between time and relaxing in the accomplishments of my past self.

What do you do when you feel you are all out of ideas???

I think that is the tricky thing about being a graphic designer versus a traditional fine artist.

A lot of artists I know hate constraints, parameters, or having rules on the thing they have to create.

But for me quite honestly I feel the exact opposite. Nothing is more intimidating to me than the idea of

“create whatever you want”

I think that is why even when I work on my own personal projects and series I always set guidelines for myself or some kind of North Star bullet points to help guide me through the process.

So that is my goal for the rest of the week.

SET PARAMETERS FOR A NEW DESIGN SERIES I CAN WORK ON

I have come to accept that I thrive in some type of order and routine that way all my creative energy can go into the actual design process and I can stop focusing on:

And channel all my power into

The proof is in the pudding too.

I had no problem designing a new hardcore album each week and created 26 album covers over the past 26 weeks.

On the contrary the 26 weeks before that I only created 13 personal pieces.

HALF THE AMOUNT OF WORK IN THE SAME TIME

The fear of the blank canvas was really getting to me.

So for now, I am going to try my best to enjoy this incubation phase and come up with a fun new project I can dive into.

Until then, I would love to hear what kind of projects y’all on working on!

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Last little note, stay tuned for the full project breakdown for my hardcore alphabet series, coming to YouTube next week!

Much love and talk soon!

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Cool stuff to check out

• good new video by the homie struthless

• cool linocut and identity design

• amazing curation by Elizabeth

• great video by the match cut King Justin

• Fav Design of the week below

dope icons by Ethan Fender

Weekly Wrap Up

The secret to becoming a better graphic designer

Hardcore Alphabet Series Wrap up

see full IG post here

Thanks for reading!
I plan on keeping this newsletter free, but if you want to support, the best way is to buy me a coffee:)