Failing Publicly and learning from it

Well I want to be honest with you that I completely failed with my etsy store. The idea that I had for my store was not good as I expected it to be. Of course I did the a good amount of promoting. But the thing was not having control.

Another thing was for example you all would visit here and then have to leave and go visit another site. In regards to not having control was more so that I could have my store closed for no reason. The plans are to regroup and come up with another game plan.

Possibly redesigning my site overall. I have been wanting to revamp to a more professional looking site and something that is more navigable. I also want to say thank you all for following along with me and all of your support.

Because I have at the bottom of store/freebies section of this site more wallpapers will be updated soon. But I failed to do so. I am sorry for not updating more often. As I stated earlier I am going to regroup and relaunch my calligraphy work the correct way.

Are you crazy enough to believe?

Whether you believe it nor not many of us are. Therefore they will continue to going whether people believe in them or not. Having the belief in ourselves is what is most important.

If your focused on I wonder what my family will think if I work to startup a business and or do something nobody in my family has done. Thinking along those terms can be very bad over the long haul.

For one you will continually question yourself as if will you win the approval of your family and etc. Instead of getting approval focus more on the support. The approval that you should only worry about is yours.

If you are not crazy enough to believe in yourself then there is someone else who will believe in themselves, and achieve what they are striving for.

Knowing your work is not good enough

This is a realization that I came to the other day. Because over time while we post our work on our portfolio site it becomes boring. In other words we realize that its not good as we think it is. For example you have to pay attention to what people are saying.

If people are not saying anything that tells you a lot. The life of a project after getting posted can die a slow death. As humans we like to see knew and exciting stuff. If I did not update my blog 5 days a week you would go find another blog to read that constantly has new articles.

This is pertaining a realization that I need to update my portfolio section more. Really this is all in being honest with yourself. If you are like me and you’ve developed a better taste for design, then you expect more from yourself. So therefore the only way to get better quality of work is to make time to get better.

While you get off from your day Job whether you work as a designer full time or a day job like I do and design after your day Job get to work. You have to dig deep down to have energy to want to make that transition. Another thing I feel we experience knowing our work is not good by getting comfortable. One simple way to put it is being lazy.

But wait there’s one main point that I want you to remember is that:

Look at your current design work and then your previous work. Are there things you see immediately that you did wrong? Now go look at your current work are there things you see you did wrong?

Those few questions will help you realize whether you’ve improved your work and also your vision of a completed piece and how its supposed to look.

Failing to learn

I still have been applying to hopefully secure a graphic design position. But there was one thing that I did wrong. On my resume I had a careless mistake. The mistake was have just one single letter that was a mistype. I immediately caught the mistake compared to the first time.

But the thing I want you to realize that if I did not improve as a designer then I would not have seen the mistake immediately. This is something that I have noticed about myself. The other day I was looking through my old schoolwork and I realized the changes that I would make and then what I did wrong.

Then the realization that I have improved skill-wise and I have improved the way I see design. The same thing can be done for you as well. The amount of discipline it takes to want to improve in every way possible is almost insane. Because you have to dedicate yourself to the grind of day after day. Failure after failure which then leads to success after success.

Remember this that failing is not a bad thing if you continue on the fact that you failed and do not take the time to realize what you could learn from it and what you did learn from it.

My Current book I’m reading

This is a book that I decided I needed to purchase. Simply because I felt there are a lot of books out there on design. But I knew that improving my logo design skills and etc was important. You know when you have been doing something for so long you feel as if your lost. By being lost meaning your fall into the same approach. Therefore this was the way that I had a light to help guide me. I will say this is definitely worth purchasing.

The tutorials are some of the best that I have come across and are so simple to follow. When you read through this you will feel as if you are almost cheating and then have times such as wow so this is how its done. But I’ll let you be the judge.

Know Your Limits

When you are giving it you all in your pursuit make sure to know your limits. I recently experienced being burnt out. Since I wake up between 4:15 – 4:30 a.m most days are a bit longer. Anyhow I learned a lesson about overworking myself.

After learning my limits I realized how important stamina and getting enough rest can be. Also managing your time very critically is important. Because you can wake up early and get absolutely nothing done. For example you can read and eat breakfast then after just waste time browsing the internet.

When the sun comes up you want to be saying to yourself my goodness I never had gotten so much work done. There is just something about having more time to get work done. Let me stay on topic with this post and not get off track. I am not saying working hard is bad at all. Just more so you do not want to simply slowly start killing yourself.

By killing yourself I mean by not working smart,eating right and etc. Because there are people who do not need as much sleep as others. I for one feel if I get more then 5 hours I have slept too much. Another way to look at working hard,waking up early what is is your reason for it?

Then are you willing to start allowing yourself to increase your limits. In other words are you willing to take better care of yourself to push beyond your limits. When I started eating a bit better, exercising, doing yoga and meditation I always feel great. As designers we sit on our ass all day. We both know that’s not good to constantly do.

So make sure to get up away from your computer screen when the time permits. Do yourself a favor to not crash and burn while you reach beyond your limits.

Over-deliver

By over-deliver this is something that you should put into practice. Because when you treat clients as gold they will respect that. Then it will put them into the mind-frame to take you seriously. If you get a client that does not appreciate you and what you are capable of then they don’t deserve to get treated like gold.

When you over-deliver to a client its a sense of accomplishment. Also if you are meeting deadlines ahead and really dedicating yourself to this profession it will pay off. Before your client may have gotten a designer whom took forever to do things and who knows what else. So you want to do your best to stand out among the competition.

Then the next thing with over-delivering is to sketch more. This should be a thing your doing anyways. If you are going straight to the computer before anything stop doing that. But of course doing research is important and etc. Sketching a lot shows the client that you are willing to not settle for the first idea.

Things to remember

Go the extra mile with your clients

Treat your clients like gold

don’t settle for the first idea

Meet deadlines

Reality is my Drug

Being a designer and not dealing with reality is a tough thing to swallow at times. Because we can get so consumed with thinking we are making progress when really we are not. By progress I mean improving and doing what we need to be doing. Such as promoting your work, learning a new skill and etc.

Whenever you try and deny the truth(reality) things can get interesting for you. I learned to embrace the harsh truth of reality. Doing so has taught me to be more honest with myself and to stop kidding myself. Looking into a mirror you are seeing yourself. Take some time to ask yourself what is something/s that I have been putting off for so long? and what are somethings that I know I should be doing but not doing.

The simple things can range from ordering new supplies to reading a book based on your profession and or learning a new skill. Because those who progress are continually experimenting with different things until they get it right.

So remember there is nothing greater than the truth and being honest with yourself.

Getting better with continued practice

When I first started doing calligraphy I had no idea what I was doing. But I knew that after learning more about it I wanted to continue pursuing it. Because I felt why not. My first couple pieces were lackluster. Which is going to be the case for starting anything.

But you know what I did? I kept practicing each day. Some days I would need to recharge and take a day off which I don’t really know if I did or not. But anyhow let me stay on topic. Above is the first calligraphy piece I posted to my instagram.

Below is my most recent calligraphy work that I posted to my instagram.

If you can notice how much cleaner and thought out this piece is compared to my very first one in which I used a dip pen. Because I and you know that the only way to get better is to do the work. Being disciplined is only a small portion of the journey. My words I said to myself in regards to improving my calligraphy was “why not keep going with it and use it as another skill with my other ones in regards to design and it seems more people are doing hand lettering compared to calligraphy”.

If you are not willing to sacrifice to be successful in whatever field you are currently working in or striving to work in remember you will end up getting ran over by someone who will make the sacrifice.

Never Fall in love with an Idea

When you have an idea that you feel is amazing and going to change the world we fall in love with the idea. Then we tend to think that maybe that we will not have another one like that. But feeling as if we will run out of ideas is absurd. Everyday we are using ideas that we have thought of. Also we are using creative ways to solve problems that we have whether its the way we walk up the stairs or the way that we avoid straining our muscles lifting weights.

Coming up with ideas for creative projects can be exhausting and make you feel as if you will not be able to find one as good as before. You first have to learn to trust yourself. But before trusting yourself you have to believe in yourself. I feel personally that is one thing that creative people struggle with. Because we are putting ourselves out there whether its through music, art and etc.

When you learn to stop holding onto ideas you will become free from the limitation you’ve set. Then after you’ve decided to free yourself from limiting beliefs enjoy the process. You can even start writing down your ideas when they come to you. I personally carry a pocket sized notebook. Also a pen to go with it, so whenever I have a chance I would be able to write down ideas and etc. There is ton’s of apps for taking notes but there is nothing like pen to paper.

Remember you only run out of ideas when you believe that you will.