...growing in a tin can.
Following the starting of my website, we dove even further into ourselves. This time, it was a packaging project that we had to label and curate content for. The workshop to start the process was interesting since we did it in pairs and got to interview each other. I enjoyed hearing about a different creative outlook and experiences that shaped, inspired and also the things that drive their decisions. The exercise focused on our creative selves, strengths, weaknesses and design philosophies.
There were a few things I hadn’t thought about before and I realised I had a much longer list of weaknesses than I did strengths. A part of me wondered how I had come this far with a list like this. My partners list was also somewhat similar but through an interesting conversation, I was able to list many more strengths in my partner than she could see, and she for me. We talked about our list of “weaknesses” and how in some ways they actually fuelled strengths. One of these examples was that we had both listed being impatient, but we realised that this made us more pro-active and solutions-driven when faced with a task and all we had to do was find moments to pause and avoid rushing.
The exercise made me see that we spend a lot of time trying to create perfection, especially in a creative industry, without even knowing what it really is. What if it’s actually doing the best we can do with our abilities at any given time? Maybe it’s because we always feel we could do better, which we probably can, but I think there is a strong benefit in acknowledging the journey we’ve taken and how far we’ve come and the things we DO get right.
Maybe then, we’ll see how truly magical we are.
Through the creative process, I started realising there wasn’t one particular direction that I felt I excelled in. But as I reflected on what I had learnt over the past months, I noticed how many different and new things I had tried, and not completely failed at. And thought:
Maybe this is my thing. Learning.
I had produced work in programs I feared and avoided, tried techniques I didn’t understand and expanded my creative process. None of these things were linear experiences or even remotely smooth, I did not feel empowered through it all, I was terrified most of the time but excited and CURIOUS too. Not just about learning, but about myself and giving myself room to fail and learn from the mistakes , figure things out along the way instead of avoiding it all together for fear of failure. I had learnt to configure and use a Wacom to illustrate the flowers I wanted to use on my pack, and even though the start was slow, I enjoyed it immensely.
I am growing. Evolving.
GROWING CURIOSITY.
Being able to extend the concept to the inside of the tin, I chose to use origami cranes.
Origami has always been something I enjoyed, and was inspired by the Japanese tale of the 1000 cranes, that once patiently folded, would grant a wish. Not only is the story beautiful, but the process of creating something without destruction is important to me. From a single square sheet of paper, there are so many different things that can be made, and sometimes folds are simply guides and help the final piece be formed, some fold in the opposite direction and others connect to each other.
Seems a lot like life to me.
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