The Creative Process

Starting a clothing brand has taught me a lot of things and made me sympathize with a lot of people in ways I never had before. One group it’s made me sympathize with are creatives. You’ll hear about the creative process and the struggles of things like writers block, but I never really understand what that was like. Especially for those creatives who also have to put on their business cap a lot. 

Here’s my opinion on why things like writer's block or other creative blocks happen. It happens when you’re trying to balance being creative with all the other outside pressures. When it comes to helping my friends come up with ideas for their endeavors, I never have any issue. Why? Because I have no pressures conflicting with having to come up with ideas. I get to just think freely and not have to worry about anything else.

However, when I’m trying to be creative about my own brand, I’ve got dozens of outside pressures. The pressure of coming up with something in time to be able to start developing it in time to be able to drop it in time. The pressure of knowing there’s a thousand different directions I could go; what if I choose the wrong direction? The pressure of sitting down to carve out time specific to thinking of new ideas and knowing that the time block is finite. 

A little sneak peak into my most recent creative process

In an ideal world, you would be able to go through life and just wait for the next great idea. Unfortunately, there are seasons specific items sell better during a specific season. There are fashion trends that come and go. There are third parties you work with that are waiting for you to have a new idea.

I don’t think creative blocks happen because you’ve run out of ideas. It happens because you’ve mentally staked your creativity against something else or when the the pressures unrelated to creativity are cluttering mind. It’s sometimes inevitable and even necessary. Nonetheless, the more I’m able to clear my head of all other thoughts and ignore the outside pressures - even if they’re still there - the more often I come up with the ideas that I’m proud of.

Funny enough, I’m typing this as I watch the Grammy’s and Miley Cyrus just accepted her award with a story. The story is of a boy who wanted to catch a butterfly and so his dad got him a butterfly net. He went around swinging the net, but couldn’t catch a butterfly. He eventually sat down, accepting he wouldn’t catch a butterfly. It was at that moment a butterfly landed on him. Translation: sometimes it’s when you’re not trying or forcing it that the idea comes to you. I just wish the story she told sounded a little bit more manly because it was perfect timing, but it’ll do.