Cynthia Oswald

Surface Design, Fine Art + Branding for Creatives

Books

Designing Your Career for Happiness

It was the summer of 2013 … I was approaching 30 years old and I started getting restless. My career was taking off. I was the Director of Web Design and e-Business Development at a high-end printing company. We worked with museums, galleries, and many well-known artists to develop their websites and printed promotional materials. We were in the process of rebranding our Studio’s website when things started taking a turn for me. I began taking notice to what made me most happy. I especially enjoyed doodling during customer service calls. Or when my co-worker, Brendan, would give life to a dying bug by sketching a speech bubble which read, “Where have you been all of my life? It’s almost over …” or “I’m dying to see you!” He would leave them on our officemate’s desk as a warm welcome. The hilarity was perfection. This makes it sounds like I was a slacker, but that wasn’t the case at all. I just knew I could be enjoying my work life a little more. So I started to discuss this idea with Brendan, “You know those people—the people who are always happy? I want to be more like that.” I knew that what had originally attracted me to a creative career was somehow lost over time. I wish I could tell you that I opened an Oreo and voila, my career changed in an instant but that’s not how it worked. Instead I’m going to give you some practical advice and references you can use to design your creative career for happiness.
dead bug illustration Oswald

Step 1. Make a decision to change.

Don’t just accept things as they are. Instead be bold enough to make changes. I have a friend who is an exceptional artist, illustrator, and designer—her talent and abilities far outweigh my own. She’s always commenting on how lucky I am to get the jobs I get. Luck has zero to do with it. Accepting things as they are keeps you small. It’s so easy to get comfortable and let fear get the best of you. If your initial reason to be in the creative field has become lost, it is time to make a change. For each person this will look different. I suggest digging through your local bookstore for some inspiration. What finally kicked me in the rear was Jen Sincero’s book You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. The yellow book cover and the word “Badass” immediately made me happy so I went with it. Jen’s whimsical sense of humor and storytelling sucked me right in and I began taking action.

“When you up-level your idea of what’s possible, and decide to really go for it, you open yourself up to the means to accomplish it as well.”

— Jen Sincero1

Jen made it clear that I needed to make a bunch of uncomfortable life choices and stick with them. So I did.

Step 2. Identify what makes your heart sing.

In a world where we can be “all the things” it’s hard to narrow your focus and your expertise. I knew that I wanted to spend more time illustrating but that’s all I could really muster up. How in the world was I going to transition from a Director of Web Design to creating brilliant illustrations? What do I even want to illustrate? These were—and sometimes still are—the questions roaming in my brain. One way to identify what makes your heart sing is to think back on a time when you created something that made you happy. You love this “passion project” for its final form, and you enjoyed the entire process of creating it. Remember it by writing it down.2 It could be as simple as a napkin doodle or more complex like the invention of a portable computer accessory. You may not be able to recall these moments right away. In fact, I recommend asking yourself this question and then sleeping on it—maybe even for a few weeks. As you recall events jot them down so you don’t forget. Spending time focusing on and remembering what makes you happy will not only help you figure out what you should be doing but it will attract more of what you love in your creative career. For me it ended up being a blend of food and illustration. I landed a part time job where I created watercolor illustrations of food which allowed me to grow my business on the side.
botanical watercolor illustration veggies vegetables

Step 3. Write out your creative goals.

When you have a project to complete it’s easy to create a task list. You envision the final product and then work backwards—creating a schedule based on everything that is needed to get you to the final. When you’re redesigning your creative career to cultivate more happiness in your life don’t worry about having an elaborate Gantt chart. Take time to figure out what it looks like. Create a schedule or a list of goals if you need it, but I like to think this process is a bit more magical than a to-do list. Why not use your intuition to start the process? Ask yourself what you truly want out of your creative career and see what comes up over the next few months.

While I was at a conference in San Fransisco I visited Muir Woods National Park. It is such an incredibly beautiful place. After being awed by the enormous trees and how the light moved through the forest, I visited the gift shop to see what the local artists had to offer. I came across this beautiful little container. The top piece had been carved from the wood of the forest and inside was a little piece of paper that read, “The Legend of the Dreambox (often attributed to Lemuria) suggests writing down your fondest dream, greatest desire, strongest wish on a small piece of paper and putting that paper in a Dreambox and placing it beside your bed. Every evening as you retire and every morning as you rise hold your Dreambox and think of your dream believing with all your heart that it is so. Legend has it if done faithfully … your dream will come true.” Since then I’ve filled out two sheets of paper front and back full of my greatest desires. The first page has 15 different work and life desires that I wrote in 2013. All but 2 of them have been achieved. Ranging from paying off my debt and running my own creative business from home, to meeting/marrying the man of my dreams. I’m not sure it’s the “Dreambox” per-say or the mere fact that I simply wrote them down and had faith they would happen.

Step 4. Work on your passion projects.

What would happen if you spent time designing or illustrating for your own happiness—creating passion projects? Creatives are highly passionate individuals. Otherwise why would we subject ourselves to a career whose financial stability coined the phrase “starving artist”? We live and breathe to create. It wakes us up in the middle of the night. As designers we start our career inspired by our inner creativity. When we fill every last ounce of our working hours on client work we sometimes lose our initial inspiration. It’s worth carving out the time to create for yourself whether you are planning to make money or to simply gratify yourself. Jessica Hische launched her lettering career by working on her “Daily Drop Caps”—a true labor of love. She’s created a successful career by making the time to explore her own interests.

“The work you do while you’re procrastinating is probably the work you should be doing the rest of your life.”

—Jessica Hische3

My own personal projects receive twice the amount of attention as my client-related posts. I don’t know if the audience can sense my excitement or if they genuinely like what they see. Either way it’s clear to me that when I show passion for what I’m working on my customers are excited too. Nine times out of ten I generate more business from those posts. Slowly but surely I’m seeing my project list grow into work that I’m excited about. After 2 years at my part time job I was able to launch my creative business working from home doing what I love. It wasn’t until I took inspired action toward understanding my creative preferences that my career started to shift. While I can’t accredit one specific passion project I have a big list of tiny projects that made a notable difference.

Step 5. Move forward with perspiration and positivity.

Almost every time I create a time consuming piece of art I get to the midway point and think what’s the point? I enjoy the creation process it’s just that I can’t quite see how the piece is going to turn out and I’m not sure if it’s what I initially envisioned. Self doubt and fear start to cloud my judgement. I have to intentionally cheer myself forward. Something tells me I’m not alone here. The good news is that studies show creative people tend to have the ability to delay gratification.4 Thomas Edison conducted 2,004 experiments, using different materials before he invented a working lightbulb. Which explains his quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

So then how do we move forward and perspire? Through positivity. It’s so easy to give up and get distracted. It’s crucial to stay connected to your initial inspiration. When you begin a project envision how it will make you feel to complete it. Write it down so you can recite it when you lose sight of your original goal. Maintaining a positive attitude takes intentional practice. When you hear the tired, old sayings of negativity playing out in your mind use them as a trigger to remember the positive. Overtime it will become much easier. Not only will the attitude shift help you complete more work but you will expand your reach. In Stephen Covey’s book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People the first habit is being proactive. He shares specifically how proactive people have a positive energy and how that benefits their reach—in other words their audience. “Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase.”5 When in doubt focus on what you can do right now in this moment and keep moving forward.

Let’s recap.

The first step is identifying that a change is needed. Don’t get overwhelmed by the tiny details of getting from point A to point B. Designers are planners so we tend to turn everything into a project to-do list. Start out by just recognizing that a change is needed and sit with it for a bit. Take notice of the little things that make you happy in your everyday life. Your brain will start thinking creatively for you in the background. Write your perfect day-in-the-life, or list major accomplishments or desires and keep them somewhere close by to review them when you start feeling lost. Start chipping away at your career dreams by working on passion projects that make your heart sing! This will lighten your mood and help your business thrive. Customers love seeing what you are doing outside of work and might even hire you to create something similar for them. Stay aware of the negative self talk and turn those stories into positive ones. When you are lost just do what you can with what you have in any given moment.

When Brendan started cutting out speech bubbles and placing them next to the dying bugs he was certainly living in the moment. The belly laughter that followed will never be forgotten. I’m still confused as to why there were dying bugs in our office anyway? The building was clean. The office was clean. I like to think they were dropping dead in our office to illustrate the impending doom if we chose to stay there. What hints are showing up in your life that it is time to make a change? They could be as subtle as a dying bug or as big as not having your mortgage payment. Make the decision to change and trust in the process.

SOURCES:
1 Sincero, Jen. You Are A Badass, How To Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living An Awesome Life. S.l., Running Press, 2017.

2 Robert S. Kaplan (Author). What You’re Really Meant to Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential. 21 Sept. 2017. Referencing pages 69-70

3 Hische, Jessica. “Procrastiworking Poster.” Jessica Hische, buystufffrom.jessicahische.com/product/procrastiworking-poster. Accessed 18 Sept. 2017.

4 Dacey, John S., et al. Understanding Creativity: The Interplay of Biological, Psychological, and Social Factors. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1998.

5 Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Provo, UT, Franklin Covey, 1998.

7 Steps to Move Through Project Overwhelm

Project Overwhelm

One very good lesson I’ve learned from creating artwork is to enjoy the process. It’s easy for me to envision how I want the final piece to come across, what feelings or thoughts I want to evoke from the viewer, and how the steps I’m going to take will lead me closer to the overall goal. This helps me get past that midway mark—where I feel like the piece is not coming together the way I hoped or perhaps it’s taking too much time. I’ve sat and thought about what went wrong, whether or not the piece was going to be effective, or questioned why I even created it—what purpose does it serve?

I noticed that the time I spent negatively criticizing my idea was not beneficial to the final result. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a step back and analyze what is working and what isn’t. It just means getting stuck in project overwhelm is useless. If you’re stuck mulling over your idea but not actually moving forward towards completion I suggest that you take the following steps:

1. Picture your project or idea complete. Who is holding it or viewing it? What are they thinking? How do they feel? What is your main objective? Write this down as it is pertinent to the success of your goal.

2. Gather inspiration. Using your descriptive words from the list above start to gather some content. Do your research at this stage. Are there other companies or projects that resonate with you? If so, reference them. Once you’ve done your research create an inspiration board that will help you to visualize what feeling you are trying to emulate. I like to cut magazines apart, or gather content and lay it out in InDesign—you could also use Pinterest.

3. Chunk it down. What materials do you need in order to formulate the end goal? Start with the overall feel and then move through it piece by piece, page by page or chapter by chapter. What components of the project will remain the same throughout and what will change? It could be colors, fonts and layout that stay the same—while the illustrations and written content changes depending on the section.

4. Create a schedule. For example, if it’s a book or a website, when will you need the written content by? When do you need the illustrative/photography elements? When does the final project need to be completed? How can you break it apart into sections that make it less overwhelming? Set up a calendar with reminders and maintain the deadlines you’ve set for yourself.

5. Be realistic. I always underestimate how much time it takes me to do something. Give yourself more than enough time. There is no reason to disappoint yourself by not meeting your goals. If you have a drop-dead due date that is adding pressure alter something else in your schedule that doesn’t have a due date.

6. Be flexible. Details might need to change in order to create the final vision you imagined. There may be one component that you really wanted to use but now that you see it altogether you need to be willing to let it go. It may be too much or perhaps it was just an inspiration but not part of the final piece.

7. Solicit help. I cannot stress enough how important it is to collaborate with others. If you’re a writer have an editor proofread your work—be willing to accept positive as well as negative feedback. If you’re a designer or marketer solicit someone in your network to give you feedback. Working together always produces richer and more meaningful work.

In the end moving forward is always the answer. It’s easy to get caught up in all of the little details that make up the whole. Coming up with an outline or a plan will help you to focus on the bigger picture. Whether you are starting a business, creating a website, writing a book or cleaning your house—I believe this is true no matter what goal you are trying to move towards.

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon

photo2
Just about a year ago I was feeling a bit stuck. I had put a lot of effort into my work and felt okay about what I was presenting to the world. Somewhere along the line I had let the influence of what and how others thought interfere with the authenticity of my work—design and fine art. I was at an InDesign conference in Austin, TX that was fairly straight forward and to the point. One of the speakers had canceled a few weeks earlier so they scrambled and found a local speaker, Austin Kleon, who would take his place. The name of his speech had caught my attention in a negative way—”Steal Like An Artist.” I was a bit offended but was curious nonetheless.

The speech began and it was evident from the start that Austin was capturing the audience. He was the first person who spoke at the conference in which emotions were stirred. In short he was giving the crowd a creative spanking. I felt so relieved that he had taken some of the most misconstrued conceptions in the fine art and design world and turned them upside down and shook the garbage out. One of the ideals that resonated the most was about working on multiple projects/talents at a time. I’ve been interested in multiple levels of creative work my entire life. I’ve been told numerous times, by numerous people to hone in on one craft if I really want to be good at anything. Austin’s way of looking at that one facet of his speech really helped me embrace that part of myself.

His speech was created from his book Steal Like An Artist, which is a New York Times Best Seller! The excerpt below was pulled from page 72 of the book:

“Don’t throw any of yourself away. Don’t worry about a grand scheme or unified vision for your work. Don’t worry about unity—what unifies your work is the fact that you made it. One day, you’ll look back and it will all makes sense.”

If you need a boost of creativity I suggest you purchase this book right away! I’m certain one or more parts of his book will help you embrace a part of yourself that you’ve been limiting.

See his Ted Talk below: