“If you do things other creatives won’t - you’ll make work other creatives can’t”
I’m paraphrasing someone here and I can’t remember who - but it’s something that has stuck with me through my career, teaching, and well, life in general.
Considering creativity is supposed to be free-spirited and attract the more ‘liberal-minded’ (ha! Whatever that means anymore) there are an awful lot of rules.
Rules of thirds. Compositional rules. Don’t use Comic Sans. Conceptual rather than traditional. Don’t copy other artists. Do copy other artists.
Confusing! Or is it? The thing is - to be good at anything, you sort of have to ‘know the rules before you can break them’. It’s a quote often attributed to the likes of Picasso, and the Dalai Lama among others. Despite this - it’s worth exploring as an idea.
I spend an entire semester in the first term every year ‘unconditioning’ all the rules that students have learned in the previous 4 terms. Why? Well, as Rory Sutherland from Ogilvy says ‘The opposite of a good idea can also be a good idea. It doesn’t pay to be logical, if everyone else is being logical.’
This goes against my previous posts about critical thinking and considering all of the information to hand to make an informed, logical choice. It does however, underpin the idea I discussed last week of ‘gut instinct’. When everyone else appears to zig, you might be better off waiting, testing the temperature and then zagging.
Those labelled as ‘creatives’ are often better at seeing patterns or rhythms in things - their work, behaviour, visuals, music, literature etc. When you start to see this, it can become easier to ‘feel’ when things are right or wrong. This can work within an artistic capacity - or just within a social, environmental or political setting too.
It also makes for much better creative work - whether that’s drawing cartoon characters, painting landscapes, creating a new typeface, writing a new piece of music or decorating a room. Thinking away from the herd and ‘rules’ and following your own instincts.
That said - many of my fellow creatives have let us down over the last few years. Siding with the rule makers and establishment. This was another pattern I spotted over the last few years, and once again, noticing these patterns, it then wasn’t difficult to see where this was heading.
Universities and FE colleges are starting to hit a crisis point - I’d been saying this for a number of years, but many thought it was a blip. ‘Must be to do with [insert X political agenda here]’. Unfortunately, they had been out of tune with instinct and going with the guidelines handed down from the state - not realising that the ground was shifting. Changes were afoot in education and in people’s opinions about their lives and their children’s futures in general.
There’s a great poem which Patrick Wood mentioned today in his article ‘The Numbered Men’
‘One day while I was driving down the highway in the sun
I sat behind a milk truck just returning from his run.
His sign said "Licensed Vendor" and it made me feel secure
That only numbered milkmen could come knocking on my door.
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Then I saw a licensed builder with his number on the door
And a plumber with a permit which was issued by the law.
Then a hawker and publican each with his licence plate
And a licensed money lender with his number on the gate.
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I pulled into a café, which was licensed to sell beer
And struck up conversation with a licensed auctioneer.
He'd just been selling forfeit goods to pay the fines imposed
On a maverick hardware dealer whose late trading he'd exposed.
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A warm glow spread inside me as I drank a licensed beer
And I pictured the inspectors who called in every year
To check upon the numbered men and safeguard fools like me
Who'd waste their money buying things from men who paid no fee.
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I thought of all the union men whose cards protect their job
And dairy men whose quota scheme defends them from the mob.
The teachers who are registered, the chemists with their guilds
And lawyers with their closed cartel which keeps their coffers filled.
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As I sat among the numbered men it suddenly occurred
That I was just a cleanskin in a tamed and numbered herd.
Somehow I'd missed the muster when the planner combed the land
And now I was a maverick, a man without a brand.
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The numbered men live sheltered lives, their keeper is the State,
Their job depends less on their skills than on their licence plate.
Their future is determined and their charges are prescribed,
And the standards of their conduct are in rules and acts described.
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But thank the Lord for mavericks, who don't fit in the mould,
They help distract the licence-men from getting far too bold.
Without the help of mavericks, the planners would persist
Till we all need applications for a licence to exist.’
Viv Forbes
Remaining a ‘maverick’ isn’t just good for creating interesting work or innovative designs. It’s good for life in general. If you do things others won’t (break rules, challenge authority or shout about what you think or feel is wrong) then you’ll create a life others can’t…
Let’s keep this in mind as we guide the younger generations. Rules are helpful to know - so that you can challenge them when you feel they aren’t working.
Thanks for reading, always appreciated - I hope you had a great Easter, and are enjoying the holidays, if still off. I’ll see you back here next Thursday, with some new activities and tutorials as we head in to the ‘Trinity’ or summer term 😊
Thank you for making my day with this great, inspiring and (enjoyably!) provoking post. You da best!!