Doodling
The act of Doodling is not given enough credit. Now, I'm not really talking about the scribbling you do while in a boring meeting. Neither am I discussing the science behind doodles or analysing the different shapes we scribble while on the phone.
If you do want that though, then here you go:
Rather, what I want to talk about is the escaping from the real world/daydreaming/letting your mind run free/keeping yourself sane aspect of doodling. Switching your brain on standby from the real world is a tough but worthwhile activity that you should indulge in whenever you can.
Some days it feels like all you do is this:
And that's it!
You need to escape and I'll tell you how.
There's letting your mind float away and then there's, what could maybe be described as 'active doodling', where you make a proper effort to indulge in a quirky little project of your own. Something not Internet related in the slightest, which will take you away from the monotony of reaching Inbox Zero.
The strangest of hobbies.
Want to know one of my 'active doodling' projects? I take photos of seat covers on buses, trains, and subways. I'm fascinated by the intricate and bizarre mishmash of patterns that I'm confronted with on a daily basis. You can't help but think that someone must have sat down and 'designed' these strange works of art.
Here's some of my collection, which I've rated on interestingness.
Now, I do this because I'm drawn to the geeky and I collect the quirky, but the main reason I partake in little pet projects like this though, is to escape. I'd say 75% of the time I'm awake is spent on my Mac or iPhone, so something like this which has absolutely nothing to do with the Internet is such a breath of fresh air.
Another side benefit of something like this is inspiration. Too often the first method of getting inspiration is to open up Google. Getting interested in photography, cutting things out of magazines and getting your hands dirty will make you a much richer designer in the end.
Maybe I'll reveal some more of my weird hobbies in later articles, but until then you should definitely get one of your own! Take photos of chimneys or collect mugs with ducks on them. Anything!
Just get a geeky hobby.
3 Dribbble invites to give away!
You may have heard that Dribbble, the designer's playground, recently went public and the demand for the highly coveted invites has escalated. The quality of work on Dribbble is extremely high and their invite only system of recruiting is a fantastic way of maintaining that quality.
I've been known to post sneak peeks of upcoming articles on Dribbble so be sure to follow me.
Competition is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered.
The Results!
Well it was a tough decision. I received an insanely HUGE number of entries, but I've chosen the 3 that really stood out for me. Here are their entries below, so make sure and keep an eye out for them on Dribbble. Congratulations and I look forward to seeing some creative work!
1) Bojan Janjanin
Website: yesterdayishere.com
Twitter: @bojanjanjanin
2) Evan Dinsmore
Website: evandinsmore.ca
Twitter: @evandinsmore
3) Reed Enger
Website: reedenger.com
Twitter: @reedenger
fin