I spend a lot of my life "creating." I'm a graphic designer by trade and a crafty maniac by passion. As I result, people often ask me, "how did you think of that?" And, while there is no road map to a clever idea, every individual has some sort of creative process. Identifying and developing those sparks of creativity is the skill that we should all nurture.
I have piles of sketchbooks with ideas old and new. |
As you all may be aware, Thing 1 has a Sesame Street-themed bedroom. I have been thinking about drapes for his room lately but no needle has actually touched fabric - yet. To get to a finished product, I started by scouring the internet for Sesame Street fabric options. Of course. Buying pre-printed fabric is the second easiest solution for having themed curtains in that room (first easiest solution would be buying already-made Sesame Street curtains, obviously.) There were some pretty cute fabric choices but nothing that really "wow'd" me. So, I started deconstructing the idea a bit by thinking in terms of a single color or a single, clean pattern that would coordinated with the room but wasn't really obviously Sesame Street. I decided that, if I pursued this line of thinking, the curtains would have looked fine, but not have the impact I was hoping for. Then, sticking with the idea of simplicity, I thought about focusing on just one Sesame Street character. Maybe then it would be more dramatic? So, I sketched ideas for Elmo, Big Bird and Kermit curtains but it wasn't until I starting playing around with ideas for "Count Curtains" that I got pretty excited and could actually visualize what they would look like in the room. It's important to recognize inspiration when it happens and give it a long leash. I knew that, when I was able to fully "see" the Count curtains with such ease, this was the right path to follow.
This album cover is big-time inspiration. |
Getting an idea from a seed to a full-grown plan is, to use an old quote, two parts perspiration and one part inspiration. Some ideas (like this one) have only a few steps to inspiration...some have many, many more. Sometimes pushing an idea takes time, that is why projects in my house are in various stages of "done". It is more important to me to know that I've done something well, rather than just quickly. Now, I will admit that I've been at this for many, many years so the process comes to me faster than someone who hasn't. It's true that creativity is a muscle, you need to work it out to be in good shape. If only I could be so motivated to exercise my body! :)
–Cassandra
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