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Growth in Creative Career
The Blind Man and the Designer
The world, where the creator/god/energy/universe has made tastes that are called the same but are still different.
Sugar sweetness is different from mango sweetness, and honey sweetness is different from other sweetness. So, if someone asks you, “What taste does Watermelon have?” You can say “sweet” and try every word to explain the taste, they will get the idea, watery-sweet, etc., but the person who hasn’t eaten a Watermelon first-hand, won’t get it unless they actually taste it.
The same goes for color, you can’t explain to a blind person. How does purple look? Or What color is your Bugatti? Unless he opens his eyes, or he can see it and compare, then only the significance of the “bad man copper color” of your Bugatti would make sense. (did you get the reference?)
At first, when a Blind person starts seeing colors, they would like all the colors, but naturally and gradually, they will develop a taste through different factors like Rarity, Natural Preference, etc.
Same goes for any creative artist, you have to go out of your way to develop your taste by consuming and creating stuff, no one can do it for you.
“Design trends of 2025” article won’t help you, you will have to keep consuming things and create things just for the sake of it. Collaborate with your creative friends and get something done.
The Power of Passion Projects
Early in my career, I used to make a lot of “passion projects” you can see some . I have a lot more, but I have archived there and nowadays, I am not quite consistent.
Anyways, this “Passion Project” thing done right, you won’t need to learn principles and this that all stuff. Somebody might call me dumb for having that opinion, but I was hired as a full-time designer before I even knew what design principles were lol :) If you keep consuming good things, your brain will automatically get familiarized, and when you do something wrong, you would feel it. Might not be able to identify it by name, but you would know it!
Design principles do help, it’s not like I call them useless, when I analyse somebody’s work, I understand what rules are broken and what were followed instead, without knowing principles, you won’t get that idea.
Without knowing the principles when you analyse, you won’t have the exact words to describe it, but you would be like “this-with-thing-looks-good”. Your vocabulary would lack the word, you are trying to explain. Suppose you have ever heard Rajeev Mehta sir speak. In that case, it’s not that everything has a name or anything, in the start, when I started following Rajeev Sir, I felt he lacked experience ’cause he wasn’t using “designer’s vocabulary” but he exactly knew what he was doing.
The Importance of Consuming and Supporting Creative Work
After working a full-time job (or as I call it, working a whole day), if you don’t continue consuming creative work, you’ll fall behind. -
- Follow creatives you admire.
- DM them, ask questions, and share insights.
- Support the work you genuinely like.
If you are not gonna support them, who else will? Most random audience will be like “oh that thing looks beautiful”, it's you who would be able to understand the work in detail —
“damn, new way to apply Match-Cut”
“Oh, you can use gradient here too, never thought of it”
Trust me, creatives love when you see these details and appreciate it.
Feedback for New Creatives
A lot of the time, you will also find new creatives (Beginners) creating content, and they do not necessarily create bad stuff, not even “basic-good-okay-works” stuff, but that’s fine.
Give them feedback that they would be willing to apply next time, instead of just criticizing and ignoring. We gotta grow while making sure people that are around you are growing! Right now, in most cases, either there is no feedback or harsh feedback “Dumb design” Or worse, “great job” on the worst design.
There was this young girl, she would redesign everything that she would her sight on and having no purpose nothing whatsoever in the redesign and people supported that blindly and I am like “what’s wrong with you people” and there were harsh feedbacks as well and surprisingly some nice people were like “don’t believe this people who are appreciating, it’s not that good, research brand strategy and read more on “this” topic” etc etc. This is the thing that will help her grow if she is willing to…
Conclusion:
If you want to succeed in a creative career:
- Analyze and appreciate the work others put out.
- Create your versions or entirely new concepts.
- Experiment fearlessly and share your learnings. Don’t fear tapping weird buttons in your software. create a mess who cares!
- Give meaningful feedback to newcomers to help them improve. You grow when the Industry does. Instead of competing on pricing, compete on the quality!
Whether they call it building in public or something else, it’s all part of the journey. Keep creating, keep supporting, and keep evolving.
