Creative Mornings Utrecht | Bravery
Creative Mornings Utrecht - 29/11/2013
Presentation by Stephen Hay | Zer01nterface
It's been a while since I've done a write-up of a presentation or talk that I have visited. This one is really worth the effort!
Stephen Hay (a web strategist) gave an excellent presentation about why we sometimes get stuck in the same cycle. You know, the one where every project starts to look like one another. When you're using the same typefaces, the same colours and or graphics over and over again. He calls this your comfort zone, full of useable (old) tricks and autopilots.
He explained to us, that to jump outside our comfort zone we need to be brave (hence the theme bravery) and set aside fear and perfectionism. For perfectionism is a tremendous obstacle to overcome.
This means that we will not move on to a different style or declare something finished when it is perfect. But when will it be perfect? When you are happy with it? Or your client? Or the target audience? But will you show it to an audience if you want it to be perfect first? It seems to me that perfectionism is a negative vicious circle.
Stephen Hay tells us to jump over the boarder into the unknown. Try something new, do something crazy. Set aside your fear of failure and go with the flow. For then we can truly be creative.
For me this raises more questions than answers...
How long will you stay in what Stephen calles uncomfort zone? And once you've learned a new trick, does that in turn become part of your comfort zone? Will your comfort zone not become too stretched that you will lose your specialism? And how do you make use of your uncomfort zone when you're working on tight deadlines and rushed projects?
Let me know if you have answers ;)