19 Jan 2023
19 Jan 2023
19 Jan 2023
Creative confidence and better inspiration for product designers
Creative confidence and better inspiration for product designers
Creative confidence and better inspiration for product designers
For the past two years I have been a ‘Helper’ in a design community that helps junior product designers create their first portfolio, get that first design job, or navigate the harsh seas of design positions.
Listening to hundreds of designers speak their minds and ask questions, I have come to notice some mental and knowledge gap patterns that I believe designers should nurture early on in order to grow as professionals. In this piece, I will map those gaps, and explain why I believe it’s important to understand and train those values early on.
For the past two years I have been a ‘Helper’ in a design community that helps junior product designers create their first portfolio, get that first design job, or navigate the harsh seas of design positions.
Listening to hundreds of designers speak their minds and ask questions, I have come to notice some mental and knowledge gap patterns that I believe designers should nurture early on in order to grow as professionals. In this piece, I will map those gaps, and explain why I believe it’s important to understand and train those values early on.
For the past two years I have been a ‘Helper’ in a design community that helps junior product designers create their first portfolio, get that first design job, or navigate the harsh seas of design positions.
Listening to hundreds of designers speak their minds and ask questions, I have come to notice some mental and knowledge gap patterns that I believe designers should nurture early on in order to grow as professionals. In this piece, I will map those gaps, and explain why I believe it’s important to understand and train those values early on.
Creative confidence
“The courage to be creative and to keep being creative through successes and setbacks. Confidence is the factor that supports and furthers creative thought and helps turn ideas into reality. It’s key to every successful design process”
There’s a lot of reading material online about Creative confidence, a huge part of it is attributed to IDEO, and I’ll leave some useful links here for further reading, but put simply, Creative confidence is the same as ordinary confidence — the freedom to be yourself even if the outside says otherwise. Designers need to develop creative confidence early on because it’s the armor that will lead them to the promised land — Their own creative style. Their “thing”, their “repertoire”. If you do not develop creative confidence, you will not be able to show yourself completely and stand out, or find your voice in design.
Any daily decision, from the base color or input field type, your experience approach to a problem, or the solution to the entire project will require some creative confidence. The best products are confident products, they are proud of what they offer, and they display that proudly. Whether you decided to design in the most common manner or decided to explore a completely new solution, one that is unique to that industry and project type, do it with confidence and let your intuition slowly take more control of the project at hand.
“The courage to be creative and to keep being creative through successes and setbacks. Confidence is the factor that supports and furthers creative thought and helps turn ideas into reality. It’s key to every successful design process”
There’s a lot of reading material online about Creative confidence, a huge part of it is attributed to IDEO, and I’ll leave some useful links here for further reading, but put simply, Creative confidence is the same as ordinary confidence — the freedom to be yourself even if the outside says otherwise. Designers need to develop creative confidence early on because it’s the armor that will lead them to the promised land — Their own creative style. Their “thing”, their “repertoire”. If you do not develop creative confidence, you will not be able to show yourself completely and stand out, or find your voice in design.
Any daily decision, from the base color or input field type, your experience approach to a problem, or the solution to the entire project will require some creative confidence. The best products are confident products, they are proud of what they offer, and they display that proudly. Whether you decided to design in the most common manner or decided to explore a completely new solution, one that is unique to that industry and project type, do it with confidence and let your intuition slowly take more control of the project at hand.
“The courage to be creative and to keep being creative through successes and setbacks. Confidence is the factor that supports and furthers creative thought and helps turn ideas into reality. It’s key to every successful design process”
There’s a lot of reading material online about Creative confidence, a huge part of it is attributed to IDEO, and I’ll leave some useful links here for further reading, but put simply, Creative confidence is the same as ordinary confidence — the freedom to be yourself even if the outside says otherwise. Designers need to develop creative confidence early on because it’s the armor that will lead them to the promised land — Their own creative style. Their “thing”, their “repertoire”. If you do not develop creative confidence, you will not be able to show yourself completely and stand out, or find your voice in design.
Any daily decision, from the base color or input field type, your experience approach to a problem, or the solution to the entire project will require some creative confidence. The best products are confident products, they are proud of what they offer, and they display that proudly. Whether you decided to design in the most common manner or decided to explore a completely new solution, one that is unique to that industry and project type, do it with confidence and let your intuition slowly take more control of the project at hand.
Finding better inspiration
“Inspiration is everywhere so don’t get trapped in reading and watching too much. Get out. Talk to people, friends, family, loved ones. Draw inspiration from everyday life. It has inexhaustible references and is always original.”
- Arnold Arre
Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” Put simply, our brains don’t just ‘make up’ insightful thoughts that push our projects forward. Sitting in front of the screen and trying, again and again, might work, but it’s not scalable nor will it motivate a higher creative level of solutions. That “I’m stuck” feeling is the brain’s saying “I need something else to solve this”.
First, we have to distinguish that inspiration is a vicious cycle between two devils:
1. Technical — More information is needed to move forward with this problem/task with confidence. The problem/task is not understood well enough nor defined well enough. It is too abstract or too big. (Define)
2. Creative — The information is managed, understood, and defined well according to the problem at hand, But the execution and use of that information do not resonate well, it does not satisfy the designer, nor does not seem to meet the success criteria (execution).
Considering that the former is not the issue, the latter isn’t going to fix itself. There’s a glass ceiling to watching the same screens on Dribbble and Behance. It will only take you so far.
“Inspiration is everywhere so don’t get trapped in reading and watching too much. Get out. Talk to people, friends, family, loved ones. Draw inspiration from everyday life. It has inexhaustible references and is always original.”
- Arnold Arre
Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” Put simply, our brains don’t just ‘make up’ insightful thoughts that push our projects forward. Sitting in front of the screen and trying, again and again, might work, but it’s not scalable nor will it motivate a higher creative level of solutions. That “I’m stuck” feeling is the brain’s saying “I need something else to solve this”.
First, we have to distinguish that inspiration is a vicious cycle between two devils:
1. Technical — More information is needed to move forward with this problem/task with confidence. The problem/task is not understood well enough nor defined well enough. It is too abstract or too big. (Define)
2. Creative — The information is managed, understood, and defined well according to the problem at hand, But the execution and use of that information do not resonate well, it does not satisfy the designer, nor does not seem to meet the success criteria (execution).
Considering that the former is not the issue, the latter isn’t going to fix itself. There’s a glass ceiling to watching the same screens on Dribbble and Behance. It will only take you so far.
“Inspiration is everywhere so don’t get trapped in reading and watching too much. Get out. Talk to people, friends, family, loved ones. Draw inspiration from everyday life. It has inexhaustible references and is always original.”
- Arnold Arre
Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” Put simply, our brains don’t just ‘make up’ insightful thoughts that push our projects forward. Sitting in front of the screen and trying, again and again, might work, but it’s not scalable nor will it motivate a higher creative level of solutions. That “I’m stuck” feeling is the brain’s saying “I need something else to solve this”.
First, we have to distinguish that inspiration is a vicious cycle between two devils:
1. Technical — More information is needed to move forward with this problem/task with confidence. The problem/task is not understood well enough nor defined well enough. It is too abstract or too big. (Define)
2. Creative — The information is managed, understood, and defined well according to the problem at hand, But the execution and use of that information do not resonate well, it does not satisfy the designer, nor does not seem to meet the success criteria (execution).
Considering that the former is not the issue, the latter isn’t going to fix itself. There’s a glass ceiling to watching the same screens on Dribbble and Behance. It will only take you so far.
How to define better inspiration
First of all, recognize that inspiration is (incoming cliche) a feeling. And being a feeling, different people might experience it from different triggers. But the point remains — Use the same resources, and get the same results. Find something new, and you might do something new.
Another important aspect is that inspiration does not have to be similar to the ‘thing’ you’re creating. You don’t need a visual to create a visual. Sometimes, A good line in a book about design thinking can open a new approach to creating something completely visual.
First of all, recognize that inspiration is (incoming cliche) a feeling. And being a feeling, different people might experience it from different triggers. But the point remains — Use the same resources, and get the same results. Find something new, and you might do something new.
Another important aspect is that inspiration does not have to be similar to the ‘thing’ you’re creating. You don’t need a visual to create a visual. Sometimes, A good line in a book about design thinking can open a new approach to creating something completely visual.
First of all, recognize that inspiration is (incoming cliche) a feeling. And being a feeling, different people might experience it from different triggers. But the point remains — Use the same resources, and get the same results. Find something new, and you might do something new.
Another important aspect is that inspiration does not have to be similar to the ‘thing’ you’re creating. You don’t need a visual to create a visual. Sometimes, A good line in a book about design thinking can open a new approach to creating something completely visual.
