How To Reach Past the Top and Crush Self-Competition

Hello Creatives!

At one point or another in your career, you will obtain success. Success is found on many levels and reaching "the top" can happen with hard work. Both of these terms have multiple meanings depending on the individual creative. What does "the top" look like? Is it measured by the amount of awards received or how many clients that can be maintained? How can we compete to reach "the top" and once we reach it, how can we surpass the competition within ourselves?

Admit There is No "Top"

Once a label is placed on a form of success we reach, we limit ourselves. Internal competition, fear and obsession begin to wreak havoc on our creativity. The way to combat this is to admit there is no "top". For some of us, reaching "the top" gives us an excuse to quit or stop trying due to the fear of not being able to surpass previous success. This mindset tends to kill the remaining creativity living in us. Imagine what could be created if artists and creatives kept going instead of quitting out of fear.

Admitting there is no "top" or no "winning" removes the pressure, stress and anxiety of having to create to surpass someone else; it allows us to create for ourselves. We always have more to learn, reaching "the top" gives us a metaphorical ceiling. Who wants that? The more that can be learned, the farther we can go in our careers and the stronger we become in our specialties. Don't fall into the trap of acknowledging a ceiling with reaching "the top"; we can always reach farther.

Surpassing Self-Competition

Self-competition can be difficult to overcome. It requires us to reflect inward and ask hard questions. Why do we compete so desperately to beat ourselves when encouraging ourselves to improve is more beneficial? This is a change in perspective of how we view our success. The notion of beating ourselves leads to unnecessary pressure, there are no external forces here (this happens in our own minds). We all face this wormhole of beating ourselves up for bad ideas, poor execution or having no ideas at all.

Shifting the perspective of needing to beat ourselves, which sounds painful when you think about it, to encouraging ourselves to constantly improve our skills is a better use of time and energy. Our creative sides will thank us one day with future successes. Let's try not to outdo ourselves but to improve to be the best we can in our own time. This is not to say there is no competition out there, but at least it won't be within us killing our creativity. Creativity can not come out to play amidst fear, doubt and anxiety.

Don't Stop, Just Create

When the realization of success, the fear of self-doubt and the need to surpass ourselves creep in, we tend to over-react or quit completely. Some of us enter the wormhole while others don't for-see future success, so we quit. This is not beneficial, don't quit. Keep creating, even in the face of fear. There's only one true outcome when we quit creating, we don't succeed. As a wise man once said,

"The way to get started is to quit

talking and begin doing"

- Walt Disney

Don't listen to that voice of fear, be courageous and create. By continuing to create, a possible outcome is success. Keep creating anything and everything; success will show up in different forms along the way.

Keep the creativity alive by letting that voice of self-doubt and fear go in one ear and out the other. The "top" is a glass ceiling we place on ourselves, don't entertain it. Continue learning, growing and creating. The fear, anxiety and internal pressure will fade in the light of forthcoming success.

See You Soon Creatives!

Entrepreneur Like A Creative

Hello Creatives!

Entrepreneurs have been on the rise and changing the game in business. These days, many creatives and design professionals have shifted from using their skills to improve other business' to promoting their own dreams and goals by becoming entrepreneurs. We see many of them every day on social and multi-media platforms like YouTube.

Entrepreneur

n. A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

There are multiple types of entrepreneur in every industry, creative or otherwise. Some fall into education, maker/creator and freelancer/entertainer. The latter being the most common for creatives but each type has their strengths and benefits for business based on what fits best with individual entrepreneurs.

Education

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The educative entrepreneurs make a living teaching a criteria of certain skills on a platform, YouTube or SkillShare, to an audience of which they are an expert. They build trust and a reputation with their audience for having expertise and a resume to match. They make a living by offering exclusive paid learning programs, like webinars, for their audience to attend and learn new skills.

Simply, they provide what you want or need, knowledge of various subjects from design and content-creating to business strategy and marketing, and make it easily accessible. They may also provide exclusive only sessions for those who can afford the premium price.

Maker/Creator

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The maker or creator type of entrepreneur is one that makes a product that consumers want and they market it themselves. Most cases, this results in merchandise and sometimes services. YouTuber content-creators fall into this category with their massive online following aka fandoms as well as makers on Etsy who market their handmade products on an online space exclusively marketed towards consumers who enjoy small business, handmade products.

Many maker/creator entrepreneurs partner with established brands and businesses to sell their products if they are not technically business-savvy. We see this a lot through products like books, shirts, accessories and home-ware.

Freelancer

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Freelance entrepreneurs are a mixture of creative and business. They provide skills and services priced by the hour or by job taken that is more personalized, or custom, at premium prices. This type of entrepreneur is the most common type of entrepreneur.

Many businesses turn to freelancers to receive premium, custom work from a professional as a means of being cost-effective. The ability to call upon a freelancer is more direct, less people to communicate what is needed out of the job, and costs less than going to a studio agency with a team of professionals.

Entrepreneurial Attributes

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There are many differences in skill level and expertise among entrepreneurs but they all share similar attributes that help them become successful. All entrepreneurs, like many innovators, start with a passion. Without a passion, they would stay in the typical nine to five job and wouldn't strive to be something more. The passion, or purpose, drives them to work harder and live a life with calculated risks that's exceptional.

Entrepreneurs are courageous, you have to be to step into the realm of unstable yet calculated risk of starting your own business. With that courage, they reach out to others in collaboration to make up for what they lack. These collaborations could be over skills to provide a service, where compensation is divided evenly, or an entrepreneurial to business collaboration in order to reach a wider audience for goods produced, where compensation is set at a rate for all involved. Keep in mind, entrepreneurs calculate the risks they take, while being courageous they are not fearless. Entrepreneurs forge ahead and create amidst the fear to reach success.

Entrepreneurs are strategic with their business and have a plan or vision for their success. They work hard in order to succeed and are always open to learning new things to improve their business. If you are not learning, you are not improving or succeeding. With the vision they have and the skills they are constantly learning, entrepreneurs are consistently networking themselves and their skills to get their name out there and affect their reach. Reach, or conversion, is everything in business because without consumers purchasing what is on the market, the business won't succeed.

Regardless of the type of entrepreneur you choose, or have chosen to be, you all have similar attributes that lead you to success. You are not alone in your ventures, there are many other entrepreneurs out there who have chosen to be as courageous and creative as you. This is why collaborative work is so rewarding, working with those who understand what you do and why you have chosen to do it. Keep creating!

See You Soon Creatives!

2018 Design Trends

Hello Creatives!

Welcome to 2018! A new years brings new trends and new energy. This year has a multitude of different trends that we will continue to see emerge. Some previous trends will peek into this year like gradients, bold typography, hand-lettering and animation or animated GIF's.

1. Gradients

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Gradients went from being a student-only utilized skill to becoming a trend within logo design, web design and branding. Many companies have already incorporated gradients, specifically Instagram, iTunes and even MasterCard. Before 2014, gradients were as comical as Comic Sans but recently companies have learned to appreciate the dynamic look of gradients to enhance their logos and make them memorable.

2. Galaxy Colors

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Galaxy colors have increased in popularity into a rising trend since November of 2018 when Pantone released its Color of the Year as Ultra Violet. The color pairings released reflect the cosmos and encourages everyone to reach their full potential and go for their dreams. We will be seeing a lot more of this vibrant, multi-dimensional color in web design, package design and editorial design.

3. Bold Typography/Hand-lettering

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By now everyone is familiar with hand-lettering, it's everywhere. Hand-lettering and typography have become synonymous these days so it's grouped together with bold typography this year. These two concepts have been trends in the past but this year they seemed to have evolved.

This type of bold typography is the chunky, in your face 1980's bloated kind of fonts. Hand-lettering is going in the opposite direction, one of sophistication. We will see these trends continue to evolve throughout the years as they lead us into the next trend.

4. Color Fonts

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This trend is also no stranger to us, we have seen it before but this also has evolved with a new twist thanks to Adobe CC. Not only are we going to see more bold ccolor choices for fonts this year, we will also see colored textured fonts with the help of Open Type-SVG fonts. There are some classic fonts like Trajan, which has an Open Type SVG selection.

SVG is style variable glyphs, they apply certain textures or color styles to a font to add depth and dimension to the font. Back in 2016, these were not available to use. Adobe has released these specialized fonts through their Creative Cloud service; we will be seeing many of these fonts revealing themselves in branding.

5. Duotones

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This trend is making a comeback as well this year. In the past, duotones were in reference to photography but this year we will be seeing them more in web design and branding. Duotones provide a bold statement contrasted with colored fonts. In web design and branding we will see a minimalist boldness.

6. Textured Papers

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Textured papers have been rising in popularity since 2014 and have grown into a full-on trend this year. In recent years, textured papers have popped up in business stationary, business cards and branding print work. In the past we have seen engraved fonts accompany these papers from companies like Mohawk, Moo and Jakprints.

These papers are being partnered with embossed and foiled typography to give the print work a more sophisticated look. From engraved fonts to foiled and embossed fonts, this year is looking very bright.

7. Line Art

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Line art is coming back strong this year. It made a grand appearance back in 2015 and looks like it's here to stay. Line art has made a massive headway in package design and web design recently. With the rise of natural and organic companies, line art has risen to enhance simple typographical-based design in packaging. In web design, it is used as a playful accent to landing pages.

These were a few of the design trends that are making their debut this year. Do you agree with these predictions for 2018? What will you incorporate in your design work this year? Share your concepts with me on Instagram @angeladesigns2 with the #mydesigntrend2018.

See You Soon Creatives!