The Meat and Potatoes
“Creative Freedom” is an Oxymoron
During my career as a designer I’ve often been bestowed the great and wondrous gift of “creative freedom”. In my earlier days, I waited and waited for this day to arrive…for this was when I was finally going to show the world what I was made of. When that day did come, the excitement and jubilation quickly dissolved as I sat there staring at a blank canvas, panicking and shaking with intimidation. So what did I do? I jumped to the first safe place I could think of, and in design that translates to doing the familiar.
As I grew as a designer, I became more wise. The illusion behind “creative freedom”, is that it is very hard to be creative with total freedom. The freedom tricks you into thinking you can really truly break new ground, while at the same time not requiring you to. I’m a big fan of 37signals, and one of their core mantras is to embrace constraints. This is where true creativity comes from. Without constraints you’ll default to the familiar. It’s safe, tried, and tested.
I’m a big fan of Pablo Picasso’s quotes, and this is one of my favorites:
“Forcing yourself to use restricted means is the sort of restraint that liberates invention. It obliges you to make a kind of progress that you can’t even imagine in advance.” - Pablo Picasso
So next time you’re blessed with creative freedom, give yourself some constraints. Find things about the project requirements that take away options from you. Instead of making a list of things you *can* do, make a list of things you *can’t*. In design (and in life), big reward comes from stepping out of your comfort zone.
This is somewhat related but I’ve always liked to think of embracing design constraints when it comes to flash. I think alot of interactive designers ran to flash to attain this “creative freedom” but now I find it interesting to see how flash design has really changed in the past few years, the aesthetic is changing almost like the designers are creating artificial constraints for themselves, you can see this in alot of the flash sites that are coming out now.
I agree. Seems like whenever any new profound technology comes around, theres a span of time where it is totally abused. Then once people get that all out of their systems, the elegant usage comes to the surface. But I think thats important as it serves as an experimentation period. Plus it helps create a contrast for what is good vs. bad usage.
I was just reading something similar in a book about Buddhism called “Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism” where the author says that ultimate reality is beyond “one” and “many” and learning to follow universal laws is by no means inhibiting. Rather, it is like a musician whose joy and expression is enhanced by his grasp of musical theory. It is by understanding the rules of the game (universal law) that we discover our freedom. Prior to knowing the laws, we constantly run up against the ill effects of “karma.”
Constraints are a similar thing in the design world. Without them, sure, you could be a Jackson Pollock or something, but your odds of success aren’t that good. And you’ll probably die a frustrated alcoholic. On the other hand, you get some constraints and now you have some rules which imply other rules which imply the whole concept of design in the first place: nice design developed from constraints and rules, which, like “karma” or universal law, are always in flux, ever-changing, and in the ultimate sense arbitrary and meaningless, BUT it is the ephemera of “now”… And, by gum, we live now and our life depends on all the fluxus about us… which is why the rebel is usually an outcast and outsider art is generally disturbing and not very financially rewarding.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go smoke this pipe and drink this liquor.
“HARMONY” … Fuck. I forgot to mention the whole point. Freedom within constraints = HARMONY, much like the musician who is liberated by the constraints of music. Without those constraints, you have noise. Or outsider art. Like Jandek.
There. Now, I will return to my scotch.
Interesting take on it…but I should also say that some people do well with creative freedom. I think it really depends on the person. Art (as opposed to design) is probably better suited in an environment free of rules. Art is much more free-form than design which I tend to view as art created to solve a problem…which inherently implies a certain number of rules and more structure.
They don’t call ‘em “starving artists” for nothing!
Signed,
Frustrated Alcoholic
Hi Mike,
I liked the whole idea as you have described in your post. It’s really good to implement these things, as the personal appraisal and growth will automatically be upgraded.
As you said “Instead of making a list of things you *can* do, make a list of things you *can’t*. ”
I don’t really go with the full of your definition but only partly as the whole the quote looks good but thinking is what matters. Making a list of things you don’t know is very appreciative as it helps to improve on them and make you learn new technologies and updates you. But, you should also make a list of things you know as they will give you motivation and self belief.
Hope you understand my opinion.
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