On setting no alarms
Yesterday I caught a video on the Awwwards YouTube channel by Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co.
Draplin is an incredible, and prolific, graphic designer working out of Portland, Oregon in the US. His designs have punchy power, big colour, and vintage sensibilities and I’m a huge fan of the graphic design work he does for a whole range of impressive clients. He also does amazing work for friends, family, small-league businesses, start-ups, and, as he likes to say, “little guys and underdogs.”
Some of Draplin’s logo work.
There’s a lot packed into the video of the talk Draplin gave, and it’s absolutely worth a watch from start to finish. He unpacks a lot of his design philosophy, talks through important moments in his journey as a designer, and slathers it all with irreverence, humour, and buckets of raw personality.
In all of this, something struck me full on in the first few minutes when he showed a (gorgeously designed slide) that put into simple terms why he does what he does, and why he does it the way he does it. The slide reads:
I left my “safe” career in teaching to step out and try something different. Something risky. But something I believe(d) in, and hearing these words from Draplin hit hard. He put in just 3 very short sentences, exactly where I am at with my professional, creative, and personal life, and really managed to distill it down to what it’s all about. What I’m aiming for, striving for, ‘fighting’ for.
A creative life of work I enjoy.
A life that supports and provides for my loved ones.
Freedom.
No alarms.
After I left teaching a lot of my friends and colleagues who were still in the teaching game asked how the transition was. They all wanted to know what it was like “on the outside”. There’s a lot that’s different for me in the work I do now, some of it great, some of it challenging, but I always go back to one thing: no more alarms.
Such a small thing, but for me, it’s the symbol of the choices I’ve made and the work I’m trying to do. It’s about the freedom to choose how I spend my time and what I give my attention to. It’s about being able to work on different projects, ideas, and challenges, with different people, and for all kinds of different reasons. It’s about giving myself the space and opportunity to build, create, and explore. That’s not without risks, and that’s not without frustrations and difficulties, but it’s the space in which I want to be.
I heard another person I hold to be very inspiring hit right on this idea recently, too. Sam Reich, the writer/comedian/performer/CEO of the Dropout streaming service was on a podcast (now lost to the depths of my podcast app) and was talking about the parent company pulling the plug on the online content platform he’d been working on and building for years. With the money tap turned off, and 90% of the staff fired, he decided to make a big and try and buyout the company, and take it forward by himself. When he was talking about this incredibly difficult time in his, and the company’s life, he said:
I belived in what we were doing enough to try and do it myself.