Great creatives know how to stay ahead. But it's not by clinging to what once worked and repeating that forever; it's by staying open to what's next.
As Rick Rubin writes in "The Creative Act," "There's a dullness in sameness. At a certain point in a creator's journey, the mind can become more resistant to new methods or new styles of expression. A once-useful process might, over time, turn into a narrow, fixed way of working. To break out of this mindset, our charge is to soften, to become more porous, and to let more light in."
Early in our careers, expertise is the goal. But there's an inflection point where expertise can become a trap: we look at the same maps, walk through the same doors, seek the same certainty. But even in the physical world, the landscape is always shifting, whether we notice or not.
A true expert knows how to return to a beginner's mind over and over again.
Stay inspired,
Natalie Kent, Creative Director
LINK ROUNDUP
1. Iconic Pokémon Logo Creator Reveals His Early Design Drafts
Seattle-based designer Chris Maple created the beloved Pokémon logo with a nightmare brief. "Maple wasn't given any instruction on what Nintendo was looking for though, he says. Just one parameter: he had just one month to make it."
2. Strategy Is Shrinking — And How To Fight Back
As timelines get tighter, weird rabbit holes get rarer. Strategist Heidi Hackemer advocates for expansive thinking: "Get in the practice of first experience - meaning, don't experience something that's been filtered through an algorithm; be bullish about having the experience yourself."
3. Charles and Ray Eames Holiday Card Collection
Legendary design duo Ray and Charles Eames' collection of cards from 1945 to 1986 includes "correspondence from preeminent midcentury architects, designers, and other artists, as well as a few high-profile clients."
4. Headers Club
You know, like header images on a profile page? The thing that's too often a solid color with a logo thrown on it with no thought? Now what if it wasn't that. Headers Club curates the best of the best.
CREATIVE SPOTLIGHT
As a professor at University of Illinois Chicago's School of Design, Pedro Neves assigned students to create letterforms out of LEGO bricks, which evolved into a global collaborative project where designers from six continents combined LEGO bricks with letterpress to create engaging letterforms. The project is currently on display at the Design Museum in Chicago and Pedro Neves explains the project in a short video. Prixel also has a modular rubber stamp kit if you'd like to make some combinations of your own.
Programming Note: We talk a lot about the importance of rest in this newsletter, but we don't just talk the talk — we walk the walk (or nap the nap?) The Focus Lab team is taking some time away, so your next In Focus newsletter will be shipping in January. Cheers to you and yours.
