Coasting on Content
Does social media make it hard for us to dream?
Very slowly, and then all at once, the young, green, baby creative finds themselves scrolling on social media and discovering others like them—graphic designers, illustrators, fine artists, animators, tattoo artists, photographers, printmakers.
The baby creative, filled with amazement and astonishment alike, wanders for more—and more and more creatives they find. And more and more creatives they admire. And more and more creatives they idolize. “Where have I been!? These people are talented. So much more talented than I am!” The baby creative will say. A whole new world opens up, almost like they’ve been in a microverse all along and now’s the moment they meander into the real, big world.
The thing with the real, big world is that it’s real. And it’s big. And what’s real and big can often be immense and unfamiliar and unpredictable and scary, and if the baby creative’s not careful, they’ll find themselves—very slowly, and then all at once just the same—turning that idolization into comparison.
I love social media and the internet. Look over my shoulder and you’ll see my berserkly uncurbed ADHD bouncing happily from my computer—with its boundless tabs—and my phone—with its evenly boundless Saved folders on Instagram—stashing visual inspo and falling into rabbit holes (especially on Are.na. Gosh. What a site. What ingenuity.) Discovering new artists and designers (or rather, artists and designers that are new to me) is one of my favorite pastimes—and social media and the internet allow me that. They help me—us—amass knowledge, articulate ourselves, and create connections.
But where there’s yang, there is yin. Social media makes it hard for baby creatives to dream. There is so much talent out there—so much that we’ve all got copious amounts of Pinterest boards and Are.na channels and Instagram saved collections in our back pockets—that how could we not help but compare and despair? To exalt everyone around us as above us? To feel as though everyone’s in sixth gear while we’re stuck on first?
How can we even begin to dream when it looks as though everyone on our inescapable feed’s already been there, done that?
Last week a student studying digital media at the University of Leeds approached me for a video interview to discuss designing for social good. One of his last questions to me was, “What do you want people to take away from your work as a designer?”
I responded with, “That they can do it, too.” It’s a reminder I tell myself time and again: we all hold the same potential. What she can do, I can too. And what I can do, she can too. It’s the innate beauty of creativity to me: anything is possible. But social media exposes us to so many creatives and talent that instead of being creatively stirred by them, we end up being creatively crippled by them. All that content hoarding and reference gathering just for us to push not even one pixel.
Have you ever been there, done that?
In moments where I don’t know what to do due to feelings of creative paraplegia, I try to do one of the only things in this world I know to be sure and true: take the next step.
In our pursuit of more complex, nuanced advice, this instruction is so simple it almost doesn’t even count. But that’s the point. Almost always, the solution is simple.
I know in these newsletters I always tell you to relinquish control and let the chips fall where they may, but this is one time I’ll advise you to take control and turn that creative overconsumption into just plain creation, creative paralysis be damned.
You had a dream before you mucked about the trenches of creative consumption and got bogged down by the saturation of the space, and you still have that dream now, after. It’s your responsibility to cater to yourself and chuck away your phone, put your head down, and start. You deserve to start, to create. You deserve to figure out what you like to make, don’t like to make. You deserve to do what they’re all doing, and do it bigger, better, differently. You deserve the opportunity.
The real, big world is immense, unfamiliar, scary, unknown. But it is also epic and magical and sublime and full of possibilities; like I always say: it’s all about perspective.
🤮 A LIST OF MY MOST IRRATIONAL FEARS
A store with no Apple Pay
A car with no backup camera or lane departure assist
A stomachache in bed, especially when I’m ready to sleep
Eating sushi without pickled ginger
Jelly-filled donuts
Tax season
Raisins
🎰 JAMES JUNK JUKEBOX*
TEXAS HOLD ‘EM, Beyoncé – Daddy Lessons formalists rise! I wanna thank Beyonce for making this upcoming album personally for me.
Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You, George Benson – While stuck in traffic a week ago, my Spotify took me on a rabbit hole of bops from balladeers of the 60s to 80s. When I was a child I’d hear songs like these all the time because my dad loved playing CDs of them every Saturday morning, and this particular song stuck to me but I’d forgotten about it until it came on shuffle after all these years. I don’t have a conclusion other than that they don’t write love songs like they used to anymore. Yearning was a job back then.
Training Season, Dua Lipa – I want to thank Dua Lipa for making this upcoming album personally for me as well.
Dancing Anymore, IS TROPICAL – The perfect song to play for when you’ve been sitting at your computer for ages and need to dance/stretch.
Panalangin, APO Hiking Society – I’m just gonna start including Filipino songs on this list because y’all need to be put on.
*Now you can listen with ease! I’ve compiled these into a mixtape on Spotify. I’ll add as we go. 🔗 Here.
🧾 A RECENT NOTE ON MY NOTES APP WITH NO CONTEXT
The pitch decks, Chico. They never lie.
Dated February 18, 2024 at 12:11
📼 THINGS I WISH I KNEW AD LIBITUM
Excel shortcuts
After Effects shortcuts
How award shows work and who votes for winners
How the crew lived while filming Survivor seasons
Blender (in general)
👔 LIFE UPDATE IN 300 WORDS OR LESS
February has been a gift. Last time we spoke, I told you I’ve been spending time not-designing and living life like our ancestors did, and I’m happy to report I’ve been keeping it up.
A lot of cool things happened in February: I won a design award (aaaahhhh!!!) for starters, one I didn’t expect to win but always wanted to participate in; I went to a creative café with a friend where they “served” creative activities like clay sculpting, collaging, and watercolor on the menu in place of food; I finally accepted the climate change-resultant fact that LA is just gonna adapt PNW-esque weather for the foreseeable future, and have invested in some rainwear and shoes (any excuse to feed my wildly unchecked shopping compulsion); and I made peace with the fact that my website is perfect as it is and that it doesn’t need a redesign like my brain likes to tell me so every eleven weeks.
February was fast and hard and slow and easy all at the same time. Is this what growing up feels like? Everything in constant motion but always feeling a sordid sense of stagnancy? I’ll have to get used to it.
🫗 CHAOS FUEL
🧹 Fonts
Tiempos Headline by Klim Type Foundry, Kiosk by Nguyen Gobber, PP Fuji by Pangram Pangram Foundry
🛝 Internet Things
p-rallel at 32 Broadwick – My YouTube algorithm always leads me to great mixes such as this.
Tracy Chapman performing Fast Car at the Grammys – If you haven’t already, you need to.
NaN Jaune – A sitepage for a typeface with a game baked in! THIS is what they made the internet for, not deepfakes and distributing disinformation. Peruse on desktop!
🌐 IN THE ORBIT
Twitter / TikTok / Print Shop / OnlyFans / HomeFree / YouTube
S’good
Love u