CSP 025 - Take a Day Off - Learning and Creating are the same thing
Creative Project: a poster collage of other posters
Hey Creative Souls,
I hope you are safe and well.
The other week I was struck by an idea about pulling together all of the posters from my book Take A Day Off, and putting them all into a single poster - a kind of collage.
So, I put aside 20 minutes, opened Affinity Publisher and got to work.
I realised during this mini creative project that learning and creating are the same thing. As I was creating the posters, and with any creative project, I was learning about:
Myself - what I think, see and wish to bring into the world
My skills and where the edges of my experience and talent are - it didn’t take long to find that with Affinity Publisher especially
The tools used, in this case the publishing tool but also photo editing, dropbox etc.
It’s the same with any creative project - learning is part of the process.
There are consequences for not taking a day off
When I was creating the Take a Day Off book I learned a lot.
I wanted to self publish, and print, this book. I had been pondering this book for about 4 years and collecting plenty of snippets, ideas and, sometimes, fleshed out chapters for the book.
I also wanted to explore the creation of posters.
Since an early age I have been pretty much obsessed with posters. My wall as a teenager was covered in them - from film posters to flyers for bands. I also realised that wherever I go in the world, I always snap photos of posters.
So, I figured I would like to design some simple posters for the book.
I also pondered the dual nature of work - where we tend not to be our authentic self at work (often for very good employability reasons). So, I opted for two posters to accompany each chapter.
The first poster was more of a “design” style poster - clean, simple, obvious in some respects. The second poster was an “urban” poster typically with graffiti inserted into the poster.
All of the images were my own also - pulling on a vast selection of photos from the years was helpful for sure, but I could also edit them without fear of copyright.
Learning as you create
I was learning.
Learning how to manipulate images. Learning how to write shorter prose for the book. Learning how to build posters.
An important learning point for me was organising the base material in simple folders so that these “resources” were kept together for Affinity Publisher. I made a few mistakes here, such as not labelling the photos correctly and then spending hours trying to locate them when pulling the book together.
I learned how to use Affinity Publisher - and spent plenty of hours watching YouTube tutorials. I learned about bleed edges, PDF exporting and then, probably the hardest of all, was learning how to use a print service to get my limited edition print copies. I must have uploaded 30 different versions until I get it all lined up.
But most of all, the most powerful lesson was learning what I was capable of and how much, even at my age, I can still learn and do.
My second self-published book, Zero to Keynote, was a breeze when it came to publishing and formatting - because I’d learned how to do it on this book.
I also know that by continuing to create, I am continuing to learn. They go hand in hand.
The gap between vision and reality
I have spent a lot of time, and still do, seeing the massive gap between what I imagine in my mind, and what I end up producing. Especially, when it comes to video.
I just need to work out how to get the final creative output closer to what I see in my mind. After all, it all starts with vision, then the reality of competence, resources and ability kicks in.
For example, as much as I wanted a single poster for this mini project, I just could not make it happen - so I created three (also available in a PDF).
But as I create more, I learn more about the crafts, skills and trades related to what I am creating.
I am also learning a lot about myself.
And I know that one of the best ways to learn, is to work out how to create something. And when I create something, I am always learning.
👉 Grab the PDF with all three posters in here, for free.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this edition of CSP, feel free to share it with others.
Until next time
Cheers
Rob..
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