Creative People Podcast

CelebritySprayPaint, Dimitri Dimka joins me on the podcast this week.  Love this guy's art!  Appreciated his story and straightforward approach.  Dimitri tells me about moving to Canada from Russia and finding his art again, later in life.  Great one!

https://www.instagram.com/celebrityspraypaint/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2MGL4XU2LCJC47c7VvSwuE

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

This week on the podcast we continue our European convos with Isabel Carreńo, an illustrator from Spain.  Isabel's work captures the essence of the french cinema, rockstars, and icons like Audrey Hepburn with just a few perfect lines.  Her illustrations and pretty and classic, I love them.

Isabel tells me how she was drawn to her type of illustrations from an early age, why she loves to draw women, and how she grew out of some of her snobbiness.  We connect over our love of pop-culture and how it can bring people together.   Great chat, do it up!

See all of Isabel's work here

Music by shamgang
(*correction from episode credits)

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

This week we are chatting with UK artist, Kim-A-Tron!  Kim Thompson is an artist out of Nottingham, England and it was my pleasure to be able to connect and talk about creativity with someone on the other side of the world.  Spoiler: Creatives in the UK deal with the same stuff that you and I do. 

I love Kim's work, it's bold and colourful with reclaimed heroic themes.  She's paints moments that represent power reversals and that suggest a whole epic story.  Make sure you check out Kim-A-Tron's Instagram - it's a great episode.  Do it up.

Music by Matt Large

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

Back at it and in video with Marketer Elaine Decleir!  Elaine humanizes marketing and teaches me a few things along the way.  I really enjoyed Elaine's sincere intensity and it was great to hear about her creative and business partnership with previous podcast guest, Robin Lindner.  The duo makes up Robin and Elaine and it was nice to get a peek into how these two work through creative challenges.  Elaine is great!  It's a great time, do it up!

Elaine on Instagram
Robin and Elaine

Music by Sarah, The Illstrumentalist

Video Podcast on Youtube

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

Ideas.  Aren’t they the best?  Is there a sentence as full of possibility as “I have an idea."?  They are the beginning of everything.  

For us creative people, ideas are the name of the game.  It’s what we work in.  Creative living is having an idea, make an idea happen, over and over again.

But things get messy.  It’s not as simple as that in reality. Because ideas are like badly labeled seeds.  You don’t always get what you’re expecting, or when you’re expecting it.  It’s part of the fun.  

It’s also a massive pain in the ass.  

Here’s a scenario:  

2 Ideas arrive on the same morning.

One that you’re not supposed to use for years 

The other, you’re going to use that afternoon.  

Both good ideas, intended for very different timelines.  But how are we supposed to know?  Sometimes we do, it’s obvious.  That “idea seed” arrived with a good label.  But what about when they don’t?

The first step is to figure out if they are good ideas.  That’s a whole other blog post.  But part of the “bad labeling” thing is that ideas can be a lot of things.

Great.
Great, but not for right now.
Great, but not for you.
Bad.
Bad, that seems good.
Ok.
Ok, but the seed of something great could be in there.
Good.
Good, but seems boring or too much work.
Lifechanging.
A distraction.
A distraction that you need.

This whole blog post could be a list of ideas.  But that’s the job, sorting through ideas and then pulling them off.   

The problem is that we can easily misidentify an idea, and start trying to use it in a place it doesn’t fit or at the wrong time.

This will burn us out, or depress us.  It could lead us to question our intuition or talent.  But it might just be you put a “good idea” in the wrong place or you weren’t ready for that idea yet.

Here are some of the signs the idea isn’t for right now:

You are forcing it.

Great ideas don’t need to be forced to work.  If you feel like you’re forcing it, stop and reflect.

It’s distracting you

If it’s taking you away from work that you need to finish, that’s a distraction and it needs to wait.  Or, you need to re-evaluate the work.  Perhaps that previous idea has run its course.  You gotta figure that out.

Honesty with yourself is essential here.  Because sometimes we SHOULDN’T finish the first project.  Sometimes we SHOULDN’T act on a good idea.  Only you are really going to know that, and it can take some time to train our intuition to know what to look for.  

We only get so much time on this planet and you have to narrow down the ideas that you’re going to spend your time on.    

The flip side is that we are Creative People, we are building a body of work and you don’t have to be perfect.  I think we should finish, or bring to an end point, most of our projects.  You will learn something by finishing, and if you can bring it to a finishing point, it will give you a sense of closure.  

Abandoning an idea is the last resort, in my opinion.  I think a long list of abandoned ideas undercuts the confidence that you need to finish a great project.  Finish the project, even if that means massively cutting down the scope. Finish something.

So, how do we know if an idea is for now? 

And how do we get better at identifying our ideas?  

read more at creativepeople-blog.com

Music by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

BLOG + is a companion to the creativepeople-blog.com

Every creative has been there, deep in the ruins of an idea we were once excited about. We’re might be embarrassed, we’re certainly confused and it could lead to us questioning ourselves as creatives.  It’s painful and one of the worst parts of creative life, but what if it’s supposed to be this way?

I recently went out on my own, job-wise. I’m Full-Time Creative  It’s something I had been planning on, dreaming about, and on July 1st, I did it.  Then everything hit the wall.  What I had built and the direction I was going, wasn’t working.  The buffers I had in place broke, and I was stuck on where to go next.

Oh shit, now what?

Years ago, this would have crushed me.  My mind would say that clearly, I’m a failure and I don’t deserve love or cash for my efforts.  I had a black & white perspective on the world and held the dreaded FIXED MINDSET.  

My mind would tell me that,
“If I was any good, this would have been good.  And because it’s not, I’m not. “
 

Back then, I didn’t understand the GROWTH MINDSET and I didn’t have any idea how creativity worked.  It stopped me from getting shit done and I was miserable.  But now, I’m starting to know better… 

Here’s what I know now:

I know that when I hit a wall, it means that my idea needs to grow.  The idea I had before got me this far, but in order to keep going, it needs to die or evolve.  It doesn't mean it was a bad idea… it just wasn’t THE BIG IDEA you thought it was.  That is ok.

Ideas are kind of like the spinoff Pig Game from Angry Birds. Bad Piggies  I know, I know, but hear me out.

Basically, the rules of Bad Piggies are that you build a crazy vehicle for your pig, then push him down the hill and see if anything survives.  

That’s exactly what we do with ideas.

• Gather all the stuff we have around us; our skills, our taste, and the materials that we have access to.
• Then we build a crazy little IDEA Vehicle with all the parts that seem to work.  
• Next, we push it down the hill of life. Meaning, we put it out into the real world and we see what happens.  
• Now to see if it survives.  We observe it to see if it finds an audience or fails miserably.  Or worst of all… if it doesn’t do anything at all.
• Then we’re supposed to adjust.  

If it doesn’t work the first time, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure or not creative or that you should give up.  It means you have to pivot and grow.

The things we build with creativity are structures of ideas.  Creations we make in our minds and then we bring them into the real world and see if they work.  Ideas lead to other ideas and it’s all about growth. It’s this process happening again and again - that is creative living.  

I had to learn to become ok with an idea not working.  I am still learning to let it go and grow because holding on to ideas that should have died will burn you out.  

I have to be ok with people seeing me fail.  

That can be embarrassing.  People are going to see you fail!   You’re going to have to get over it.

So here I am today, taking my next idea, putting it together the best that I can… and running it down the hill.  If it survives and I’m happy with it.  Great!! On to the next one.   If it doesn’t, then it’s back to the top of the hill and trying again.     That’s what creative living is and how we grow.

I hope you found this encouraging.  You got this, bud!

Show up, and do the work.
I’m in the trenches of creativity with you.
- Ryan Leacock

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

This week, the wonderfully contagious Isabelle Poirier is on the podcast - Izzy is a creator and founder of the Ottawa Design Club - She sent me a copy of the beautiful semi-annual zine they produce, and... it is like a present from a friend with perfect taste!  The two of us talk about how cool it is that we get to create with other people, how her team made their zine through the pandemic, and of course - pantones/kerning.  Great one, do it up. 

Episode links:

IP Design

Ottawa Design Club

Music by _91nova

Creative People Design Service

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

What is the formula for creativity?  Is there one?  This week's guest, photographer Taylor Jones tells me about his formula for creativity and how it led him to create Dear Photograph.  He tells me about his grandfather's 10 Rules for Life and we take a left turn into the world of sports.  Back in the studio this week for my excellent chat with Taylor.  Do it up!

Links:

Taylor Jones on Instagram

Dear Photograph

Music by Dylan Sitts

Creative People Design Services

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

This week the podcast is #kwfamous with brand designer Robin Lindner.  Robin is one-half of Robin + Elaine (Elaine, you must be on the podcast sometime!), and she is the owner of the most adorable puppy you will ever see.  We have a great, giggly time talking Kitchener, what she learned early about failure and her ideal design community.  Great one!

Find Robin on Instagram

Music by Smartface

www.creativepeople-podcast.com

Sometimes I wonder if this entire podcast is just me getting people together to overthink creativity.  Because I love how today's creative person, Allison Poprocks, approaches her work, she doesn’t worry about it.  I really enjoy it when people like Allison are on the pod – balance all this overthinking out.

Allison is a Kitchener Artist currently residing in her home away from home, Dawson City, Yukon.  I love Allison's artwork. For me, it captures the proverbial forest and the beauty of the proverbial trees.

Allison tells me about her connection to places, mummified toes, and how she doesn't overthink her creativity.  Great one.

Check out Allison's artwork

Music by Jobii

www.creativepeople-podcast.com