How to Overcome Creative Obstacles

We all have that one idea we keep circling, but that always seems just a little too much to take on for whatever reason–you may be lacking the time, money, or focus to make it come together. We rounded up advice from a handful of determined creatives who have wisdom to share on how to get things in motion when things have been a bit stuck.

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Time-poor?

Many of us are busy, overextended, and doing our best to cram as much as we can in a day. No wonder many of us struggle to find time to properly ruminate on a big idea that’s been lingering. It might flourish into something significant, but only if you give it the space and attention it needs. You might think that multitasking is the answer, and fruitlessly keep adding it to the bottom of your to-do list. But as Dr. Sahar Yousef explains, this is a myth that might be holding you back, as well as adding to your guilt. Our ability to focus for long stretches has been compromised by distractions and a constant stream of demands on our time. We need uninterrupted time to get into the flow, fully focus, and sincerely engage.

“One of my mottos is that there’s no ‘on’ without ‘off’.”

The self-explanatory first step is to rethink your blurry relationship boundaries with your inbox by setting aside specific blocks of time for checking and answering emails. This frees up significant brainpower for other things–like turning your attention to a long-standing project. As Dr. Yousef points out, “The more focus training (i.e. meditation) you do, it’s like hitting the gym. That ‘muscle’ gets stronger, and then it becomes easier to then in turn focus.”  

And while it could be tempting to sacrifice your sleep in service of your creative momentum, the trick is to work smarter. Resting is a crucial reset for your mind and body. “One of my mottos is that there’s no ‘on’ without ‘off.’ It comes back to intentionality for me,” says Yousef. “Have intentional off periods where you’re relaxing, you’re not processing information, and you’re truly resting and rejuvenating.”  

Illustration by Andrea Manzati

Short on resources?

Can you visualize all elements of your project but draw a complete blank when it comes to the logistics? Maybe you need a working knowledge of Photoshop but don’t know who to ask for a rundown on the basics. Or perhaps you want to stage an event but don’t have the first clue about what permits are required in your city.

Mitch Goldstein is an enthusiastic advocate of libraries as the best (and most overlooked) resource available, be it your local public library or your alma mater’s facilities. The staff are likely able to send you in the right direction if it is beyond their scope, because librarians are trained in deep research, both digitally and via books.

Goldstein is also quick to point out something that many people may not be aware of, “Many libraries also offer a bonus hidden perk: a free membership to Lynda.com’s (now LinkedIn Learning) video tutorials on software, which is an excellent resource to keep up on new tools. Of course, the Internet has a ton of stuff for free (YouTube), but I really love Lynda’s well-organized and structured lessons, which include downloadable exercise files.” 

Lacking inspiration?

Being stuck in the quicksand of a creative rut sometimes seems insurmountable. The more you think about it, the more daunting it seems to take that first step. Take heart in knowing that everyone battles this particular obstacle, and lives to tell the tale. One way to jolt yourself out of a state of monotony is to experiment. Don’t think too much about the details, and go with your gut. Do something out of your comfort zone and shock your creative system with an unexpected excursion.

“It’s important to allow yourself some freedom, flexibility and time to begin noticing things.”

“What helps me get out of a creative rut is to stop trying to replicate previous success and instead try new things and experiment,” says designer and illustrator Marina Martian. Don’t feel tied to any particular path and see where expanding your thinking takes you.

Artist, author and podcast host Tai Snaith agrees, saying “If I’m feeling creatively flat, I will go to a thrift store and it helps to activate the part of the brain that looks for opportunities. It’s important to allow yourself some freedom, flexibility and time to begin noticing things.”

Feeling overwhelmed by the world?

You’re forgiven for feeling defeated, especially in today’s overwhelming news cycle. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking your voice can do little to change things that seem so much more pressing. But what if you reframed your creative pursuit as a necessary outlet for yourself, that will make you much more available to your community and the world at large? A creative outlet does wonders to shift your perspective, and can serve as a vital driver in other areas of your life. Monica Khemsurov of Sight Unseen touched on this when reflecting on the year ahead, “Since people are so anxious right now, they need the comfort of beauty and creativity more than ever. But at the same time I feel like we need to be actively involved in enabling change. I’m not sure yet what that means in practical terms.”

Take care to not overlook the importance of creativity, and the comfort it can bring. Your project might well serve as someone’s inspiration (or distraction!). And Khemsurov is buoyed by hop of a positive shift in the design industry, “What if people start spending less on fleeting fashion items and more on sustainably-produced objects and furniture they can live with until 2030 and beyond?”

Take a moment to think of the greater purpose of your work and how it can be a driver for change.

Need some direction?

Mentorship is an undervalued resource that can shift your perspective, be a powerful motivator, and change your approach to work. So when feeling apprehensive about diving into a daunting project, look to someone who has been through it already.

“If someone shares their work and it’s important to you, reach out to them.”

For Alexis Lloyd, VP of Product Design at Medium and former head of Design Innovation at Automattic, seeing how John Maeda worked up close shed light on what makes a good mentor and leader. The key is to “give people space to surprise you.” Use your network to find someone who would be a good fit as a mentor for you. As photographer Aundre Larrow points out, “If someone shares their work and it’s important to you, reach out to them. The internet gives exciting opportunities to meet people you can learn from.”

Illustration by Fran Labuschagne.

Commitment issues?

Have you heard the expression “throw your hat over the fence?” You’re not going to take on a daunting climb until there’s something to hold you accountable, and when you toss your metaphorical hat over the line, it puts a tangible placeholder out in the world. When artist and author Emily Spivack decided to write a book, she knew how tough the road ahead would be. So she created a website announcing her plans and made her ambitions public. “That was me putting a stake in the ground,” Spivack says. The public accountability she set up for herself was the push she needed to commit to a big project without external deadlines.

 

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99U Conference Speaker Spotlight: Alain Sylvain on the Ever-Changing, Infinite Pursuit of Creativity

What does it mean to be a creative? This year’s Adobe 99U Conference is an examination of “The Creative Self.” When we set about curating speakers, we looked to people taking an individualistic approach to their work and careers. Ahead of the event, we’re asking them how they nurture their own creative selves.

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Alain Sylvain relishes a challenge. As the founder of innovation and design consultancy Sylvain Labs, he is not afraid to push against convention and see creative potential in unexpected corners. Sylvain Labs has partnered with companies such as Google, American Express, Airbnb, and Spotify to develop strategies and identify exciting, unexpected possibilities. Building his own company allowed Sylvain to create the culture he was seeking in the workplace, with a clear commitment to diversity and inclusion. We spoke to him about his fierce independence and dedication to being “ruthlessly direct.”

 

Q. When do you feel most purposeful?

A. In truth, I feel most purposeful when I’m alone. I know this might sound uninspiring or egocentric, but I believe that purpose, at its core, is a deeply individual, personal thing. We run the risk of losing that individuality when we’re influenced by the intoxicating stimuli of the everyday. And in this “purpose”-crazed moment, the term is beginning to lose meaning—abstract, lofty, and, increasingly exploited by brands, businesses, and celebrities. Exploring my purpose feels true only when I’m alone— either in a physical or more mental way.

 

Q. How would you describe your creative voice?

A. I wouldn’t describe it, to be honest. Creativity is inherently an ever-changing, infinite pursuit and I would feel suffocated by putting a word to it. But, if you really pressed me, candor and forthrightness are important to my work. A question I ask myself often is, are we being ruthlessly direct about a challenge or insight?

 

Q. What are your most important work/life boundaries?

A. I deeply believe that you are just one person. Putting on one persona at home and one at work has never been something I could do. And I don’t think people should feel the need to, because those self-imposed boundaries become a point of stress. Perhaps I have it lucky, working in an environment that I helped create. It’s probably easier for me to have that space.

 

Q. What is your ideal creative environment? What are the circumstances that let you thrive and do your best work?

A. The middle of the night. My best ideas come to me when I’m sleeping. It’s like my brain wants to create challenges for me while I’m trying to refuel, and they often overcome me whether I like it or not. Sleep and a state of rest frees a part of my brain. I just wish I could remember more stuff when I wake up in the morning!

 

Q. Describe a creative breakthrough that’s had a lasting impact on how you think about your life and work.

A. In 2019, we partnered with the WNBA to help them reinvent their brand. Our goal was to help assert the league’s relevance and influence. And we were in a perfect cultural moment of momentum to do so and create a real buzz. We worked together to help define a brand that captured their enduring ethos—to inspire and empower women. We also helped design a new identity inspired by the players themselves. But what’s really had a lasting impact on me is what happened after our work was done. A groundbreaking CBA [collective bargaining agreement] for WNBA players was recently announced, which will increase compensation and benefits. It’s a big move, and having played a small part in changing something for this league continues to excite me.

 

Q. For this year’s 99U Conference, we have invented a menagerie of “creative specimens,” each with a unique personality. Which one do you identify with the most?

A. Purposo Careerus.

[Ed. Note: Not easily distracted from its path, the Purposo Careerus’s productive career span is driven by a primal inner purpose.]

 

Hear from Alain Sylvain and more creative specimens at the 12th Annual Adobe 99U Conference, June 3-5, 2020 in New York City.

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7 Accessibility Lessons for Designers

Welcome to 99U’s monthly Book Club, where we take a look at recent releases that challenge us to think deeper, explore new perspectives, and spark a better understanding of the nuances of a creative career from leadership and community-building to productivity and everything in between.

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In her new book, Inclusive Design for a Digital World, designer and user experience educator Reginé Gilbert walks us through the steps of building a framework for accessible design, using best practices and real world scenarios that highlight the importance of this conversation.  Regine is a seasoned accessibility advocate who teaches at NYU and General Assembly, and speaks internationally. 

We’ve identified a few of the book’s key takeaways, vocabulary, and first steps for the process of designing with accessibility in mind. It’s not a one-size-fits-all-track, but rather offers up ways within your daily practice to be an inclusive designer. Accessible design is not accomplished in a vacuum, but collaboratively. The book’s holistic approach makes inclusive design personal and tangible, and offers itself as a resource and reference guide. Inclusive Design for a Digital World reads like a conversation with a friend and who is there every step of the way along the design process, from history to thought-provoking visual examples. Accessible design is no simple undertaking, but using the learnings from Inclusive Design will give you a good jumping off point. 

1. Begin by listening

Inclusive design means making your product accessible to as many users as possible. Web accessibility encompasses websites, tools, and technologies designed and developed so people with disabilities can use them. This means allowing people to understand, navigate, interact with and, importantly, contribute to the web. Worldwide, there are over 1 billion people with disabilities. The first step to identify why these people are often being excluded from interacting with the web is understanding more about their disabilities. These can include visual disability: blindness, low vision, color blindness; hearing disability: deaf and hard of hearing; motor disability: inability to use a mouse, limited motor control, or slow response time; and cognitive disability: learning disabilities, distractibility, inability to focus on large amounts of information.

Before designing, start by observing and exploring the web, apps, and the physical world around you. Gilbert notes, “As designers, part of our role is to balance user goals, the experience, and understanding the needs of the business as well.” What are some of the best experiences you’ve had with a website?  When was the last time you used accessibility mode on your phone and why? Reflect on who is being left out of an experience and dig into why. Exploring what is frustrating for us about the web can give preliminary insights. Gilbert sums it up well: “If it’s annoying it’s probably not accessible.”

2. The W5H approach

Before jumping into the design phase, Gilbert guides us through the W5H approach. Who, what, when, where, how, and why are people interacting with your product? Does it bring them joy? Does it make their lives a little bit easier? Focusing on what we make for our user is just as vital as thinking about their participation. Gilbert advises us to advocate for user personas that include individuals with a disability. Connect with users who have a disability earlier in the process to gain insight into their needs—don’t make accessibility an afterthought. 

3. Learn the Rules

Accessible design has multiple facets, and a great place for designers to get started is with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, known as WCAG, which provides groundwork for building a more accessible web experience. As creatives, we often depend on color as an important expression. Gilbert reminds us that color should not be the only indicator for action and walks us through learning color contrast, using typography that is readable, and ask us to think about how data are presented. “If you can’t consider all disabilities, consider blindness. About 80% of accessibility issues are related to blindness.” Gilbert presents a recent real-world example from sports, when all solid color uniforms left color-blind audiences unable to differentiate between teams. The impact of our color choices are truly profound. The value in understanding these standards translates to designs that increase in usability immediately. 

4. POUR over it all

The WCAG guidelines are organized around four principles to solve design problems with increased usability, via the acronym POUR. Users must be able to perceive the information being presented, it can’t be invisible to all of their senses; users must be able to operate the interface so it cannot require an inaccessible interaction; users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface; and we must provide robust content that users can access as technologies advance. 

Consider applying this to your workflow, making checkpoints along the path to final design implementation. Are your designs easy to read? An immediate way to improve this might be to increase your body copy text a few pixels as a starting point. As Gilbert reminds us, “Do not put the onus on someone who is disabled to solve for something you did not.”

5. Designers do not have to code

As the design market changes, the question of “Do designers have to code?” is often at the forefront. To get started in accessibility, you do not have code, but should have understanding of the languages. Know the basics of front-end design (the user interface), through familiarity with HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Assistive technologies such as screen readers use this code, which communicates and reads the content of a web page or app to a user. This tool enables those who are blind or visually impaired to read text. Gilbert highlights the importance of this by reminding us “Not only will people be reading the content of whatever you create, there may be machines who read what you create as well.” Understanding the basics of these languages can foster greater collaboration with engineers and developers, and provide more insight for potentially impactful design decisions.

6. Inclusive design is good business

It’s always helpful for designers to be able to make a business case for accessible design. Building a more inclusive website is great for SEO and usability. Accessible websites and products can reach a wider audience and increase reach of a product exponentially. This builds trust and improves the overall user experience. Additionally, accessible design leaves less room for legal action. In 2017, there were 814 lawsuits filed in the United States over accessibility issues, and in 2018 there were 2,258—almost triple in a year. Claims of discrimination and lack of accessibility for websites have increased and may only continue, which may be a strong case to make should your organization be risk-averse.

7. One step at a time

As designers, we are sometimes siloed or isolated from the entire product development process. The work of designing with accessibility at the forefront is a cross-functional team effort. Advocate for having accessibility considered as early as possible, and every step of the way. Partner with content creators, developers, and project managers to start creating a culture where accessibility is understood and prioritized. Document the process and learn what steps can be taken to begin improving the usability of your work. If you are fixing existing work, partner with an accessibility professional to conduct an audit and plan for your team. These steps will help move design to a more inclusive future and experience, which we all need.

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Navigating Grief When a Creative Role Model Passes Away

I’m sad to say I wasn’t familiar with the work of illustrator Jason Polan until he passed away in January, but I am grateful to have discovered it now. Once news spread on social media, I found myself sucked into a tunnel of discovery. I felt drawn not only to Jason’s work and way he saw the world, but how he was described as a person and friend. Suddenly my own life was influenced by this talented figure I’d never known, and only discovered after his life was cut short by cancer.

How is it possible to feel so touched by a stranger? I learned about his passing from friends who knew him well and turned to social media to pay tribute. There were plenty of others who shared their sadness from the news though they had never met him. 

Death and everything that surrounds it is nothing we’re taught until we find ourselves navigating it. What’s appropriate? How can we care for ourselves in the process? And how do we remember people publicly?

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There’s more than meets the social media eye

To this day, my dad reads the obituaries in the newspaper daily and cuts out those of people he knew. But my generation hears of deaths in a very different way. We find ourselves coming face-to-face with the news through push notifications or unexpected posts by friends. 

Rebecca Soffer, co-founder of the website (and book) for supporting people as they move through grief, Modern Loss, has seen how people continue to turn online for this process. “Expressing grief through social media is so interesting. It’s been fascinating to see how it’s evolved over the years. Even though I’m not the type of person to share personal details on my accounts, I completely respect the people who do. Because it’s their way of reaching out, creating community, and asking people to bear witness to a loss that they’re living with every day.”

Soffer acknowledges that some people do it for hashtag attention, but she says, “Ultimately, I believe most of us weigh in because we just need somewhere to put all of these difficult feelings, and we don’t always have a supportive, we-get-it, in-person community to share in these days. Grief is meant to be communal.”

Litsa Williams, a therapist specializing in grief and co-founder of What’s Your Grief? points out, “The internet gives us new and complex ways to see and connect with lives. We see [internet strangers] as human beings and feel a deeper connection. Social media shares a real reflection of the inward experience. It may be fleeting, but does not make it less real.”

There’s a certain irony that some of the best expressions of grief come from words shared by strangers online. In a Twitter post that has been retweeted almost 20,000 times, @ElusiveJ shared: “Thinking about how we mourn artists we’ve never met. We don’t cry because we knew them, we cry because they helped us know ourselves.”

Illustrator and author Jessie Kanelos Weiner reminds us, “With social media, it’s easy to have the idea everyone else is doing better than I am. Which isn’t the case.” She goes on to point out, “There have been what feels like a lot of public deaths in the past couple years related to personal struggles and substance abuse. I’m thinking specifically of Anthony Bourdain and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I think those in particular were wake up calls that creative people are fragile. And I myself have experienced it, too. It’s a good reminder to keep an eye on each other.” [Ed. Note: If you are struggling and need support, text HOME to 741741 to access Crisis Text Line. This free service is available anytime of day or night in the U.S.]

Kanelos Weiner has also created her own illustrations of people who have inspired her and passed away—both famous and not—that she’s shared on Instagram. 

People can touch us in ways we can’t predict

Grief is a natural reaction when someone close to us passes, but what happens when we’re affected by someone who we didn’t actually know? We see glimpses of this whenever a celebrity dies. A public figure’s death can trigger previous grieving or other unresolved fears we hold.

Losing anyone makes us very aware of our own place in the world. According to Williams, “Grief is always about our own mortality in some way and brings up things.” The struggle comes from the fact that we often see ourselves in the other person. The dual processing model of grief acknowledges that we’re oscillating between coping with loss and coping with day-to-day, and sometimes there’s overlap between the two. Grief is complex. She adds, “It’s hard to talk about but very real.”

Beyond celebrity, it’s still possible to feel the loss of someone who is a rockstar in your world, even if they’re not a household name. Mike Rugnetta created an episode for PBS Idea Channel that explores “Is it okay to mourn celebrity death online?”  Rugnetta addresses the topic head on. “Losing a creative hero is like losing a great teacher, someone who knew things about the world you didn’t but showed them to you in this inviting way that encouraged you to become yourself. I like to think that we’re all capable of understanding why the loss of such an important figure might result in grief.”

Soffer acknowledges, “It may feel bizarre to experience very real, very deep grief after learning about the death of someone you’ve never actually met. But it’s totally normal. Public figures such as artists, musicians, activists, and athletes are so deeply connected to our own lives. When we think of them, we think of our own dreams and goals and how they inspired us, and of course we think about how all of those played out in our lives.” It’s not only about the person, but about the memories and associations we had with them, an event we attended, or how an artwork made us feel a lot of emotions.

Collective grief is also real and community can form around a person. According to Williams, “Even if you weren’t deeply impacted by that person directly, seeing how much people you care about were impacted by them then does start to create a feeling of loss for you that maybe you didn’t even know was going to be there.”

Creativity can be a recipe for self care

There are many ways to grieve and mourn, publicly and privately. There is far more than writing a social media post to help you process what has happened, and, of course, different tools work for different people. “We see so much creative expression in coping with loss, often we see people using the creative tools they already have and adapting them in new ways, whether it be connecting with that person, with the emotions they’re feeling, or attempting to reconstruct a world that has now fundamentally changed,” according to Williams.

Grief in Six Words is a project by the founders of What’s Your Grief? to encourage people to share their stories about grieving. It was born out of the lore that Hemingway was bet he couldn’t write a six-word story. His was ultimately about grief. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Williams explains, “Some people will say I’m not a writer at all, but something about the idea of creating a story in six words and only six words, to encapsulate something I’m feeling so deeply, felt compelling and it felt manageable. Sometimes you end up finding an outlet you didn’t know you’d connect with.”

The two founders created another spin-off site called Photo Grief which provides photographic challenges as a way of coping with grief through artistic expression. Photography became a medium co-founder Eleanor Haley turned to after her own mother died. Others will turn to art as a way to share their work without words and can be a comfort as they process it. 

Coping with loss can be an excuse to try something new. Mari Andrew was a writer who took to drawing every day after a bad break up and sudden loss of her father to a heart attack. It’s easy to focus on the huge following she’s accrued, but for her, this artist’s outlook was not about gaining followers, but rather a creative outlet to deal with her grief. 

After losing my mom to cancer, I happened to see that my online friend Matt Trinetti was hosting a 100-day challenge. I accepted the challenge and chose to write about my mom for 100 days. Not only was it therapeutic, but it also helped me capture so many memories.

Even if you didn’t know the person you’re grieving, you could write a letter detailing how they inspired you. It may be something you post online, or one you keep to yourself and never send. Others may turn to journaling as a way to process emotions, and for those not inclined to use words, art journaling and experimenting with different media like painting and collage is a productive form of creative expression.

A creative outlet doesn’t have to be crazy or ambitious to resonate. Consider something simple you can do to honor or explore the world of the person who inspired you. It could also mean getting involved in an organization that was close to the departed. 

Grief and mourning are deeply personal experiences

Experts like Williams are quick to point out that grief exists on a spectrum and looks different to everyone. There’s no right or wrong way to handle it. There’s long been judgment surrounding grief, from how someone grieves to how long they grieve, along with societal pressures that can vary across different circles of people.

According to Williams, “A lot of the tension and judgment that people have towards one another comes from the fact that our individual needs are different. It’s easy for someone who would never share publicly to be judgmental about those who really need that, and vice versa. It can be easy for those who really need that public display to think that others who aren’t doing it are being avoidant or they’re suppressing their grief, when the reality is that people just grieve differently. For some people the public is a big part of it and for others it’s not.”

Soffer emphasizes the importance of self-kindness and self-care when it comes to grief. “Remind yourself that there is really no ‘right’ way to grieve, as long as you aren’t hurting yourself or anyone else. Don’t beat yourself up for not hitting certain ‘milestones’ that society is telling you to hit; grief has no timeline whatsoever. And remember to always check in with your needs and figure out how the people in your life can support you.

“We generally do a really poor job of legitimizing and caring for the grieving in our culture, so as unfair as it sounds, it’s typically up to the person moving through loss to figure out ways to care for herself and build her team. Which friends make you feel comfortable no matter what? Who can you rely on to make you feel better? Then reach out to them when you need it, because people normally want to be there for you but don’t always know exactly how to and the right time to do so. And when it comes to grieving a public figure, they may not automatically assume you’re that affected unless you tell them.”

Moving forward, keep reminding yourself there’s not one “right” way to grieve. Grieving could even include a field trip to Taco Bell with friends for a Jason Polan-inspired Taco Bell Drawing Club night. It doesn’t matter if you knew him or not. 

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99U Conference Speaker Spotlight: Shantell Martin on Sparking Conversation and Joy with Art

What does it mean to be a creative? This year’s Adobe 99U Conference is an examination of “The Creative Self.” When we set about curating speakers, we looked to people taking an individualistic approach to their work and careers. Ahead of the event, we’re asking them how they nurture their own creative selves.

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Artist Shantell Martin’s large-scale line drawings have an impulsive, joyful quality that draws the audience into her creative process. She has exhibited her work at The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts and the Museum of Modern Art, collaborated with Puma on multiple projects, and joined forces with Kendrick Lamar for a multimedia live performance at Art Basel in Miami. By embracing new platforms and forging creative connections outside the art world, she has made a point of defying expectations of what it means to be an artist. She spoke to us about what guides her creativity and gives her motivation. 

 

Q. When do you feel most purposeful?

A. When I’m creating work that inspires connection, empathy, and conversation.

 

Q. How would you describe your creative voice?

A. An indescribable force within me that gives me joy and guides me closer to my most honest, fearless self.

 

Q. What are your most important work/life boundaries?

A. I’m still figuring that out but something I’ve always made a priority for is sleep/rest. That’s very important to me and my work.

 

Q. What is your ideal creative environment? What are the circumstances that let you thrive and do your best work?

A. It varies but where I can hear myself and my thoughts and [otherwise] disconnect always helps.

 

Q. Describe a creative breakthrough that’s had a lasting impact on how you approach your life and work.

A. Knowing how important it is to let yourself say no to things—and being able to trust my intuition on why I do the work I do and why I don’t do the work that I don’t do.

 

Q. For this year’s 99U Conference, we have invented a menagerie of “creative specimens,” each with a unique personality. Which one do you identify with the most?

A. It’s funny because I identify with both Communicatorum Claritus and Purposo Careerus equally.

[Ed. Note: With its talent for collaboration and communication with other creatures, the Communicatorum Claritus has no known enemies in the creative kingdom. Not easily distracted from its path, the Purposo Careerus’s productive career span is driven by a primal inner purpose.]

 

Hear from Shantell Martin and more creative specimens at the 12th Annual Adobe 99U Conference, June 3-5, 2020 in New York City.

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Milestone Moment: Zach Klein on the Most Memorable Advice He’s Received

Do you remember the first time you felt like you had “made it?” How about that defining moment of clarity that now serves as your compass when it comes to making big decisions? Milestone Moment is a monthly feature where we ask creatives to reflect on a watershed moment in their career and the impact it had on their life and work. This month, the founder of Cabin Porn and current Dwell CEO Zach Klein looks back at a crucial piece of advice that has pushed him to cultivate community and collaboration wherever he goes. 

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“Shortly after finishing college I received some advice from a peer further along in her career that I have never stopped thinking about: ‘Be careful not to promote yourself to obscurity.’ She was referring to the cycle in which you get good at doing something you love and then start trading up, exchanging the thing you love for a title/salary combo that makes you feel safe—because that’s success, right? Some people manage to have it both ways, but perhaps more often when you make this trade you get further and further from the thing you love: you entrench yourself inside the experience you already have, you stop taking risks, you stop collaborating and you stop learning, and you become obscure.

“I understand this outcome works for a lot of people, but I’m not wired that way. Work is play. I love playing. I can draw a straight line from building forts with other neighborhood kids, through editing my high school paper, starting up a company in college, publishing books, to joining Dwell now.

“I love working inside small, intense, creative groups of people who are putting something out into the world. I love the constant churn of new challenges and discovering that the challenges give me energy. I love meeting different tribes of people and learning their lingo, workflows, and expertise. I cherish the vulnerability and humility you can achieve when you’re collaborating. I love trying, failing, getting better, and constantly expanding what I believe I can do. I know I will be happiest if I keep sharing, receiving, and accepting invitations to join in.”

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How Creative Couples Balance Their Relationships and Work

“In one hand you have to hold the larger vision. In the other, you hold the current situation. It’s important to keep both in sight as a couple,” said Julia Parris, founder of NYC-based creative studio, Analog is Heavy. Julia and her husband Able Parris, a designer and creative director, have learned to navigate the ambiguity of pursuing nontraditional careers over the course of 20 years together. Their paths have evolved in unpredictable ways. Yet they have managed to approach each season of work with support for one another, keeping the larger vision in sight. 

Forging a creative career requires an enormous amount of energy, investment, and belief that the future will bring you closer to your goals. Finding support via your partner can have a positive impact on your confidence as you make decisions about your future. But what happens when both partners are pursuing creative careers, and how do each offer and receive support while moving forward as a team? 

To find out, I interviewed four couples about how they support one another’s ambitions in practical ways, what helps them moving forward together as a team when the future is in flux, and how their partnership has helped them attain individual career goals. 

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Mitchell Kuga and Adam J. Kurtz: Take turns literally supporting each other’s dreams

Financial stability may ebb and flow as we build our careers, especially in creative pursuits. Talking about money from the start can help create an environment of understanding and support as journalist and writer Mitchell Kuga and artist and author Adam J. Kurtz noted. Together for seven years and married just over two, the pair opened up about how they’ve taken turns supporting each other’s dreams. 

Adam Kurtz and Mitchell Kuga recognize the ups and downs of a creative life and offer each other emotional and financial support. (Photograph by Daniel Seung Lee.)

Early in their relationship, Adam was paying down debt while building his career. “We try to speak openly about finances and how rare it is to have a creative passion become a full-time career. In 2013, I was between jobs and had $10k in debt between credit cards and taxes so Mitchell paid for most of our dates back then. Now, thanks to a lot of good luck, timing, and support from many others, I’m enjoying an unexpected level of success in my creative career. I know how special and ephemeral that is, so I’m carefully saving for our future while doing what I can to help Mitchell create the space he needs to build his own career.” 

Mitchell noted that Adam, now in a better place financially, has offered support in return: “Aside from the emotional support—listening to me whine, being my first reader, believing in me and pushing me to aim bigger—Adam has supported my pursuits as a writer in the most literal sense: financially. In a lot of ways financial support is a kind of emotional support, because without that cushion I could not pursue life as a full-time freelance journalist without intense precarity and burnout. His financial support has given me the privilege to breathe.” 

James and Naomi White: Embrace a shared enthusiasm for encouraging each other 

“We spend a lot of our spare time chatting giddily about each other’s personal side projects!” said designer Naomi (Atkinson) White, who married digital artist James White of Signalnoise in August 2018. The pair, who both run their own studios, take a genuine interest in one another’s work and find themselves equally matched when it comes to passion, energy, and the ability to work hard toward their vision. 

Although they are now both in the groove when it comes to their work, Naomi credits James for helping her find her creative mojo again after she had to liquidate a physical retail business which she had poured her time, energy, and savings into. Now back at work helming her branding studio, Naomi reflected, “James’ ongoing support and encouragement is the sole reason I’m back loving what I do.”

James and Naomi White’s partnership is ruled by a no-nonsense approach to their shared obstacles. (Photograph courtesy of the couple.)

James likens the support they give one another to Calvin and Hobbes, “It’s said the cartoon doesn’t have any wasted brush strokes. Each stroke is meaningful without any of the nonsense. The way Naomi and I walk through life is without nonsense. Each day Naomi helps me focus on what matters. When you’re surrounded by that kind of calm, your creative goals become super clear.” 

Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy: Foster a sense of trust and independence    

Designers Che-Wei and Taylor cofounded their studio, CW&T, to make physical products they want to see in the world. The pair first met in 2007 in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU and began working together as friends before graduation in 2009. Shortly after, they began dating, opened their studio, and are now married with two kids. 

Even though their lives are wholly integrated through running a studio and building a family together, they foster a sense of individuality through their own artistic practices, which gives them space to create and simply be. “I think we have an unspoken agreement that we get to do whatever we want in the studio. We don’t have to justify to each other what we’re doing. That’s been extremely freeing,” said Che-Wei. 

Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy give each other the physical and emotional space they need to feel creative freedom. (Photograph courtesy of the couple.)

Taylor shared that she’s someone who likes to work alone, “For a long time we worked side by side, but after our second kid was born it became increasingly difficult to get back into a creative practice. I realized I needed a space that was just mine, so I took over our small studio—Che-Wei will lovingly say I kicked him out.”

Che-Wei responds with humor, “Haha, yeah. Taylor kicked me out of our studio.” But in turn, that has given him the opportunity to fulfill a dream of his own, “The basement workshop is my happy place. I’ve wanted a dream workshop where we have all the tools needed to make anything and we now have it. It took years to slowly buy the tools and set up everything. It’s still in progress and it will keep evolving.” 

Able and Julia Parris: Remain flexible and pick up the slack for each other

Creative director Able Parris noted the ever-changing nature of taking his chosen path, “We have these strange creative careers—Julia is independent and I’m recently independent. The job will be different tomorrow, next week, and next month. Patience with the present and hope for the future is key.” On a practical level, that could look like Able and Julia picking up the slack for one another when needed, like pitching in to help with their dog, running errands, or making dinner when one of them is heads-down in production mode for a deadline.

For Julia and Able Parris, practical support is often the most appreciated gesture. (Photography by Julia Parris.)

While pitching in to pick up the slack might not sound like the most romantic gesture to some, Julia chimed in that, “It’s a beautiful gift to give one another.” She went on to note that it boosts feelings of mutual support, “When it works both ways, there isn’t room for resentment. It shows equal respect, support, and that you value the work the other person is doing.” What a beautiful gift to give your partner, indeed. 

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Friends Work Here – Brooklyn

Tina Roth Eisenberg, founder of CreativeMornings, Tattly, TeuxDeux and the newly-launched Creative Guild, says the coworking space she founded has completely changed how she approaches life and her work. “My coworking space, the people around me, have changed my circle,” says Roth Eisenberg. Case in point, the TeuxDeux app was conceived of and built within three days with engineering and design studio Fictive Kin in the first incarnation of the space. 

Initially started in 2008 as Studiomates in Dumbo, the space was reframed as Friends Work Here after a move to the historic factory building and home of The Invisible Dog Art Center in Boerum Hill. A carefully considered application process means the space is filled with kind, driven, and generous individuals who inspire one another to be a little more creative, a little bolder, and a little more believing in themselves.

The thoughtful layout of the studio allows for both focused work and connection. The “workspace” area is a dedicated quiet zone, whereas the common areas have a more relaxed, collaborative vibe, explains studio manager and illustrator, Liz Ryan.

“Having both is essential and the glass doors separating the two areas communicate this boundary, which is fantastic because it empowers you to nonverbally signal where you’re at with your own workflow.” The workspace is an expansive room that houses a mix of dedicated desks for full-time “friends” as well as spaces for “floaters” who use the space part-time or while visiting from out-of-town and abroad.

Beyond the placemaking details that make Friends Work Here conducive to both productivity and connection is a smattering of regular events: live music concerts on the fire escape, Happy Hours where members and friends-of do show and tells, and annual Friendsgiving in collaboration with downstairs neighbors CreativeMornings and Tattly. “Happy Hours are the heartbeat of the studio,” says Ryan. “We learn about and celebrate members of our community and welcome previous members and friends-of-friends.”

In the common area, members can reset or connect in a variety of cozy nooks, on the indoor swing, and at the communal dining table over lunch. Color-coded bookshelves and wall-mounted magazine racks lend a variety of printed inspiration sources.

Friends Work Here reaches beyond members to the entire neighborhood. “The first fire escape concert exceeded our expectations. It was such an inclusive community event, with passersby and neighbors hanging and meeting for the first time. All it took was music on a fire escape to bring people together,” adds Ryan.

On an idle Tuesday afternoon, you might walk down Bergen Street in Boerum Hill and spot bubbles descending from the building, an extension of the whimsy of the space and an invitation to extend the circle of friends.

 

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How to Recover After Burnout

Burnout, unfortunately, is everywhere. If you haven’t experienced it personally, you probably know someone who has self-diagnosed. Defined by the World Health Organization as a syndrome “conceptualized as resulted from chronic workplace stress,” it causes exhaustion, “feelings of negativism or cynicism,” and reduced efficacy. That’s a big umbrella, and the condition has become something of a catch-all for chronic, modern-day stress. 

“The sort of internal atmosphere of burnout is always, ‘I should be doing something but I’m not,’” says Josh Cohen, a psychoanalyst and the author of the book Not Working: Why We Have to Stop. “It’s the feeling you are always a step or two behind where you should be and yet you feel you’ve come to the end of your capacity to do anything.” Given the continuous demands of modern life, in the professional realm, yes, but the personal, too, it’s no wonder burnout has become so commonplace. We’re simultaneously exhausted and plagued by the idea that we’re not trying hard enough, a phenomenon Anne Helen Petersen explores in her viral essay on millennial burnout. “I’d put something on my weekly to-do list, and it’d roll over, one week to the next, haunting me for months,” she writes.

“I think it’s very hard to find someone who has not felt burnt out,” says Terri Bogue, who co-authored Extinguish Burnout: A Practical Guide to Prevention and Recovery with her husband, Rob. The condition is frequently associated with work, but it can just as easily arise from issues outside the office. Terri last experienced burnout over concerns about the path one of her children was heading down. “I felt completely out of control, like I had no impact,” she says. “That lack of ability to feel effective turned into burnout quickly for me.” She was flooded with feelings of inadequacy that bled into virtually every other aspect of her life. 

“At the root of it are exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy,” adds Rob. “If I feel ineffective, I am going to be exhausted because I don’t feel anything I’m doing is enough. You become cynical because you feel like you can’t change things.”

It’s a vicious cycle that is easy to enter and hard to emerge from. With that in mind, experts and creatives share strategies for how to recognize the signs and develop strategies for recovery. 

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Avoid comparison

Brooklyn-based graphic designer and artist Kelli Anderson rarely experiences burnout. She attributes this, in part, to her ability to switch from different modes of work, interspersing sometimes amorphous passion projects with deadline-driven assignments for clients. Just as important, however: a gift for avoiding “the bad habit of comparing myself to other people,” an activity she’s found often manufactures unrealistic and arbitrary goals.

Frustratingly, comparisons can be hard to avoid. “We live in a culture that’s inundated with everyone’s updates,” Rob says. In real life and on social media, we’re exposed to curated versions of friends, acquaintances, and strangers’ existences. Epic vacations, prestigious jobs, elaborate wellness routines, homemade meals, and picture-perfect families flood by in a well-staged blur.

It’s a good environment for inadequacy to thrive. “You feel ineffective because your expectation is built on the aggregation of everyone else’s highlight reel.”

Recognizing this is a good first step, as is dialing back the modes by which you make comparisons in your daily-life. (Yes, this likely means reducing your social media consumption.) 

Reframe your relationship with productivity and achievement

Along with endless forms of comparison, our modern-day life is built on the concept of continual productivity. No matter how much we’ve achieved, there’s always more to be done. 

This, unsurprisingly, fuels burnout. Recovering from an episode or, better yet, avoiding the condition altogether often requires a reset. “It’s about developing a different internal relationship to that voice in your head that says, ‘You have to push on, you have to achieve more,’” Cohen, the psychoanalyst, says. 

Most people are familiar with the superego, which acts as the minds’ self-critical conscience. The ego ideal is less well-known, but Cohen believes it is intimately involved in mental patterns that contribute to burnout. 

Compared to the superego, the ego ideal “is ostensibly more positive…it’s like one of those insanely peppy fitness trainers who pushes you to do more reps. It seems like it’s your ally and your friend; it wants you to do more because it knows you can do more.” (For many of us, it’s a voice that has been cultivated by adult figures who showed encouragement by denying that we had limits—anything was possible if we just worked hard enough.)

“Ask yourself what you’d want to do—not what you feel you should do.”

For the vast majority of people, such continuous striving is unsustainable. Recovery from burnout, then, requires a more understanding, realistic, and less demanding internal motivator, one that allows for moments of rest and doesn’t view life as something to be optimized. 

For those who are feeling early signs of burnout, often the first step is to pause, Rob says. A day off or a vacation is rarely a long-term solution, “but it can be self-care in the moment to give yourself the ability to pause and just sit.” Ask yourself what you’d want to do—not what you feel you should do—if you had an hour of free time. “And then give it to yourself without feeling bad about it,” Rob says. 

Reevaluate your expectations

Redefining your relationship to productivity requires a similar reassessment of expectations. Cohen frequently hears from people who feel as if they can’t slow down; they have too many external demands and deadlines. If this is truly the case, it’s worth considering how you got to a place where “your commitments are so persecuting and pressing that you don’t feel there is time to do anything else,” he says. “That requires a reckoning with your particular working situation.”

Siobhan Murray, a Dublin-based psychotherapist and the author of The Burnout Solution, recommends that clients regularly audit their activities and obligations. Once a quarter, Murray takes stock of what is going on in her life and reviews any major changes. If she feels at all overextended, she goes over her negotiables and non-negotiables in order to reduce stressors and time commitments. 

“Social media can delude us into thinking it’s possible not just to do everything, but be excellent at everything.”

For instance: A few years ago, Murray decided she wanted to start a book club—it sounded fun and relaxing. The reality was more complicated. A single mom, each meeting required that she find the time to read the book, secure a babysitter, and get to the meeting spot. After six months, she threw in the towel. “I wanted it, but it wasn’t working for me.” Her kids and her work? Non-negotiable. A book club? Negotiable. 

Social media can delude us into thinking it’s possible not just to do everything, but be excellent at everything. This, of course, is a fantasy. “We can’t be successful when we have ten identities and want to fill all of them personally,” Terri says. 

Like Murray, she recommends paring back. Start by mapping out all of the various identities you’d like to fulfill, and then separate them into those that are core to your personhood and those that are aspirational. Next, plot out how many hours each identity consumes (for example, the hours you put in as an employee, as a parent, as a friend). Most of the time, “you end up with a deficit,” she says, which means it’s time to adjust your expectations for how many identities you can simultaneously juggle. 

Cultivate rest

To recover from burnout, you need to truly rest. Often, this first requires an acceptance of the state itself. Engagement, activity, and connection are crucial parts of being human, “but they aren’t the only things that define us,” Cohen says. “There is equally an impulse to retreat into privacy and to commune with oneself rather than the outside world.” In our over-stimulated, productivity-obsessed culture, too often this urge is recast as an aberration that must be suppressed. 

“It’s distressingly easy to apply an achievement-mindset to the concept of rest itself.”

Cohen recommends finding past times that aren’t attached to any productive outcome or purpose. This can be tricky; It’s distressingly easy to apply an achievement-mindset to the concept of rest itself. “You see this with people who are really into activities that are supposed to induce a state of rest.” Under the wrong circumstances, meditation and yoga simply feed our drive to become even more efficient machines.  

Murray has noticed a similar trend. When doing a personal audit, she recommends including “wellness” activities, which can suck up a lot of time and energy. “Maybe you realize that going to three yoga classes a week at 5:30 in the morning is not going to work, but doing 20 minutes on YouTube is more manageable,” she says.

Ironically, she’s found the wellness industry contributes to burnout by trying to convince us that if we only ate paleo, meditated more, and practiced Reiki, “our lives would be perfect.” Instead of chasing an impossible regimen, she recommends that overwhelmed clients simply find a way to move that works for their schedule. Maybe it’s yoga, maybe it’s running, maybe it’s simply carving out 15 to 20 minutes a day to walk. “Go back to the basics,” she says. 

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