What Being ‘Creatively Brave’ Means to Me
I’m partial to sharing a thought or two from time to time.
I often find myself pondering, but since I work in visuals I tend to shy away from getting them down into words. The thought of sharing them with the world becomes a very daunting task as my words don’t always come out the way I want them to…
*sigh*
But let’s give it a go, eh?!
I wanted to pick up on a discussion from a recent blog post I stumbled upon about what it means to be ‘creatively brave’. It gave me that weird gooey feeling in my stomach that fires me up and really got my cogs turning.
Heck. It’s only taken lockdown during a global pandemic (plus completely exhausting the Nintendo store) for me to get here, but the important thing is we’re here now — better late than never, ey? So—sod it—we’re going on an adventure!
Disclaimer: I write in online/text/youth slang a lot because I think I’m funny (sorry, not sorry). I also swear a lot. Deal with it.
In the office, we often have a difference in opinion about ‘that awesome piece of work we found last night’ and if it is in fact actually awesome. When looking at this kinda stuff, I really do try my best to look at it from all angles before coming to any form of conclusion. It can sometimes take days to form an opinion; I need to allow thoughts to settle into my brain.
Over the years, I feel I’ve built up a lot of confidence in my own creative opinions and stand by what I consider to be ‘good’ or ‘creatively brave’ (is that even the same thing?). I totally respect and value others’ opinions because ultimately, it’s all subjective. We all have something valuable to say from our completely unique perspectives on this sorta stuff, because, creative or not, it’s our own inherent experiences that formulate these opinions in the first place. And that’s what I really love about it.
As long as you can form an argument, confidently fight your corner and rationalise the creative decisions you’ve made, then bloody stick by it.
If I’m gonna be right about anything (and ironically contradict myself) then it’ll be to say that no one is right and no one is wrong. I think it’s such a valuable asset to be able to confidently defend your work with rational thinking, whilst still maintaining an openness to opinions that you may not have considered. It’s only healthy for these discussions to happen as it only benefits both parties and the work in question.
The way I see it, nothing good (or progressive, for use of a better term) ever came out of doing the same thing over and over again. You’re stuck in a circle and not moving forward. At least, this is the case in the creative industries because quite frankly, it’ll get a bit fucking boring otherwise, right? If nothing is challenged, then nothing ever moves on, and I honestly admire those who are willing to take the risk and try something new in the pursuit of moving the industry forward.
Even if that means running the risk of missing the mark on a load of things in the process, in doing so you’re increasing the potential of shining a light on a new technique, a new style, a new *whatever that sparks the exploration in a completely new way of thinking, then shit, you’ve done it. That’s what I think ‘creatively brave’ means.
What do you think? Totally keen to hear your thoughts, even though I might not agree with them for the sake of being ‘creatively brave’… ?
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Alex.
