Idea wrangling.

People tend to think that creativity is a genetic predisposition of some sort—a talent that can be turned on and off with the throw of a switch. Though it is true that some are born with a creative inclination, the reality for most professionals is that their creativity is just a fact of work and needs regular and life-long attendance. Like most serious pursuits, the road to creative mastery is paved with schooling, practice, discipline—and then more practice—and a dose of luck. Since that’s the baseline for anyone serious about working in the design business, what makes one’s ideas different—and maybe better—from another?

The fact is that some of the best idea-makers are malcontents. They tend to maintain a healthy wariness for ideas—particularly their own. Let’s not confuse this obsessive restlessness with grousing about bad projects or difficult clients. That’s a normal distraction. We’re talking about that nagging diffidence for one’s own ideas—bona fide doubt. This doubt is different from ‘early career’ doubt that stems from inexperience and naiveté. In fact, it’s the opposite. This form of doubt is born only from experience and the time-proven knowledge that good ideas are just plain hard to come by—and that the good ones are cultivated out of a contempt for the mundane.

For a lot of designers (and photographers, illustrators and writers), this becomes a modus operandi—an unwritten code of travel. It’s an itch that doesn’t go away until just the right idea surfaces. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that believes that sameness is the enemy—that the search is actually for something that doesn’t look like anything we’ve seen before. Therefore, it’s hard to recognize. It’s a particular thirst for ideas that aren’t safe, that aren’t calculable, and that often feel uncomfortable—ideas that may, in fact, be hard to get used to in the moment of their creation. Once found, it starts all over again until another idea is unearthed—better than the last, or at least different. A sort of Mobius rock-overturning—poking and grabbing at the illusive muse before it vanishes.

The fact is that some of the best idea-makers are malcontents. They tend to maintain a healthy wariness for ideas—particularly their own.