Why Side Crafts Are Important
As a creative individual, I am always looking for inspiration and trying to challenge myself. Graphic and web design will never be my only creative endeavor. In my free time I enjoy painting, sewing, embroidery, jewelry making, candle making, and pretty much any other craft project I find on Pinterest.
Through my diverse years of design work, I have realized just how beneficial those side crafts are. While they may not pertain exactly to the design work I am doing, I still utilize small qualities from those projects in my work. Things like colors, textures, and imagery that help inspire my design.
There have been many design projects where I feel burnt out or uninspired. I feel this way particularly with design projects in the corporate world, as they usually have strict design guidelines. But by using my creativity in a completely different avenue, I often find different perspectives or ideas to utilize in my design work. While graphic and web design is more often more scripted and tailored, there are still details that I can craft to make the piece feel like a work of art.
From left to right: A pair of jeans I recently embroidered, A resin pet name tag I created with dried flowers and resign, & an acrylic painting I created.
Besides inspiration, these side craft projects also keep my brain sharp. I am always learn new techniques, patterns, and technical skills. I also have to be patient. Often learning new crafts means making mistakes and learning how to correct them. In any profession, especially a profession that heavily involves technology, it’s important to always be open to learning.
Adobe often creates updates that require learning, one of the most recent and largest being generative AI. Instead of being frustrated after using the tool a few times with lackluster results, I learned how to produce better imagery and what weaknesses the tool had. I have a very hard time painting human anatomy, especially faces and hands. Generative AI is much like myself and also cannot produce good results of faces and hands. After this trial and error, I realized other tools were better suited for human anatomy, like using actual photography.
Overall, side craft projects are crucial to my graphic and web design process as they provide me with inspiration, patience, and a willingness to learn. My hobbies shape me into the person that I am and the work that I create. So make sure to take time for yourself and find what inspires you.
