Category: Life Experience

For the last three years I have been entering some of my paintings into major competitions in the hope of making a living out of my art rather than just as a hobby.I have developed a style that is unique to me and maintains a conceptual theme about personal life experiences as a 2008 graduate from the worst economic recession in history.

My latest entry was ‘money talks’ for the 2014 exhibition but alas, again, out of over 2000 entries I didn’t get through stage 1. It does not dishearten me as one of the reasons I enter is to keep my creative/philosophical side of my brain active and to express myself in a way that I seldom do in any other way. In this blog post I discuss the concept behind my latest piece ‘money talks’

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When I was 21 back in 2004 I was ambitious and enjoying the art foundation at Liverpool Community College. My works as a graphic designer and artist were quite appreciated and my tutors often commented about the works I was producing. One tutor’s comment had always stayed with me and that was ‘have you ever done a life drawing before? That is really good if you haven’t’ and another occasion when they asked me to explain a life-size drawing I did of myself that exposed all the chakras of the human soul and how they related to myself to the whole of the art foundation class.

It was a very proud ( but slightly embarrassing ) moment to be standing in front of over 100 other art students discussing my piece but obviously they were trying to encourage me into the right direction. Stupidly, instead , I applied for architecture because a) my father was a building contractor and I did occasional labouring for him and b) the prospect of lots of money when I graduate and my work standing the test of time when dead and gone rather than graphics that tend to change from day-to-day and you don’t earn as much.

Building a dream

Architecture was great fun, very tough but up my street (pardon the pun) as it allowed me to be conceptual and use my artistic skills in my family background of building maintenance.

I completed my degree with an extra course in Autocad & 3ds max in May 2008 but unfortunately, it was possibly the worst time to graduate as an architect in the history of the modern world and I was quite disappointed, actually…I was very disappointed by the lack of opportunity, particularly in the north-west of the UK, especially after trying so hard to have the skills required to do a good job as an architect.

At the time I  was with a long-term gf who had a job in the area so couldn’t look anywhere else in the country for an opportunity and so in need of a wage and knowing you get a bursary to train as a teacher I tried that even though I never in my wildest dreams saw myself as a teacher but I needed the money.

Teaching me a lesson

As already stated I never really considered myself a teacher, even when  I was doing the course I knew my heart wasn’t in it as much as it was when I was doing architecture but I needed a profession and I guess teaching didn’t seem a bad second choice on reflection.

Receiving a fairly good wage, a good pension and inspiring others to achieve their very best seemed quite beneficial but then I started teaching and found it to be a bitchy bullying environment…and that was just the staff room!

I had to attend three schools, the first an all girls school but I only taught maybe 10% of the time so it gave you a taste of what schools are like, the second school that I attended in 2009 I got sent to was a school that was shutting down due to an amalgamation proposed by the labour government so the tutors who were meant to help where loosing their jobs and firstly they admitted they didn’t want me there and secondly they really didn’t like me even though all I did was tried to do a good job for the children…

…they made my life very awkward, being unprofessional, informing me to tell lies to the children, shout at them, playing inappropriate music and didn’t want to help me learn when I was struggling with certain parts of teaching and then…behind my back, contacted my university saying i wasn’t coping even though I was doing  three times as much as anyone else in my university!

These are just a few of the terrible things they did whilst I spent my time with them, there was a lot of mind games…

Eventually, towards the end of the placement, they made me feel worthless, I couldn’t pursue architecture, my first choice as a career and now they made me feel I couldn’t teach either… I couldn’t carry on, I had a bad break down…a very very bad one, so bad that when I had to return back to the school environment I was very low, lacking confidence and always very anxious, I didn’t want to be in that industry after what I had experienced but I pushed through to get the course finished as I wouldn’t let anyone stop me doing something I really wanted to achieve and maybe, just maybe I might use my teaching degree in another form or venture abroad to teach those with very little in the future.

The good news is that I completed it and thus beat those wicked women who tried to make me quit! I was finished!

Money holds the answers

A couple of weeks passed after graduation, relief fell over me but then I collapsed on the floor. I was mentally exhausted.

It was summer 2011 and I had given everything I had to give, I was hugely in debt after two degrees and no opportunity or understanding what I was to do, my relationship was not good either and aiming to make lots of money had actually put me in a large negative spiral in the hope of a good profession on graduation and now I knew I didn’t want to teach and I hadn’t done any architecture for over 2 years so I didn’t feel that wasn’t an option and even worse now with my qualifications taking smaller jobs was virtually impossible as I was over qualified…

what was I going to do? How was I going to repay my financial mistakes and begin my career so much older than I expected?

Dreams collapsed

Feeling totally lost and extremely low I drew away from the world, hardly going out. All my dreams of a fulfilling career and happy life had crashed and burned in my 20s’ and mostly due to things out of my control, I didn’t want to be here any more. I’d been so driven by money and dreams of high positions that I had lost my health in the pursuit. Due to how a bad state I was in I phoned my family and told them how terrible I was feeling and how I want to end it all…thus they came around to my flat and took me the doctors.

Doctor diagnosis

I got asked a questionnaire by a doctor, a standard questions sheet that they ask everyone who is ‘depressed’ or ‘low’ and if I was playing bingo I would have surely won the main prize!Instead I was informed I was at high risk of suicide, the only thing that stopped me considering it as a viable option was the fact I have my family who care for me otherwise I may have taken the next step, I felt so hopeless…

I was put on a very high dose of Citalopram, offered cognitive behavioural therapy and was looked after by family rather than live with my ex…I wanted to be back where I felt safe, in my childhood home with my parents and my relationship was one of the reasons I felt pressure into trying a profession I didn’t really want to do.

Flipping coins

Back at my parents I was sleeping a lot, even if I wanted to be awake my body didn’t want me to, my mind needed rest. When I was awake I wrote in a journal to keep my thoughts in. It was a suggestion of my family so in time, as I improved, I could see how I got better.

A technique I chose for myself was flipping coins…

From a very young age I had been interested in the unexplained, spirituality &  more recently I studied the basic theories of quantum psychics and alternative universes. At the time I believed that if everything was connected to each other as ‘one energy’ and if alternative dimensions existed where there are other possible outcomes dependent on the decisions made in the mind then it is possible to predict the future through flipping a coin to receive the answer to my dilemma as the coin would connect to my thought to the correct reality of thought, a scientific ‘theory’ gone mad.

Looking back now with a healthy mind of course it seemed a strange thing to do but that is how ill and desperate I had become, I had reached the lowest point in my life and I needed answers or a helping hand from someone or somewhere, quite ironic really considering that the reason  I chose Architecture over Graphics was to earn more money and here I was flipping a coin with no money in my bank account!

Getting well again, lesson learned

Eventually after 6 months rest, my ex left me and I started trying to enjoy life again and I found the will to start going out again by walking our new family dog around the locality and studying something with all my free time that I knew I loved doing, web and graphic design.

My hometown unfortunately didn’t seem to have opportunity for me ( later I found out the area was one of the worst effected in the country) so I applied for jobs all over the country. If I didn’t get a job in the UK I was preparing to apply abroad, I had to start my career somehow, I was ageing and I had already lost too many years stupidly wasting my money and time in further education training to teach.

Working on improving  myself

After applying for jobs all around the country the response was much better than before and I found a job the other side of the country.  It was the best thing that could have happened to me!

I still wasn’t 100% well, I was still taking Citalopram on full dosage but I knew working was one thing that would help me find my confidence again as well as begin my career long over due!

Things continued to improve when I found this job opportunity and a year after moving away from my hometown I was off Citalopram as well as meeting a woman who helped changed my life even further, so really I am already a rich man, maybe not in monetary terms but I have a lot of love in both my family and my wife as well as a job I love doing.

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The Painting

The painting measuring 2 metres x 1.5 metres, is painted entirely by hand/finger. I don’t paint my paintings with brushes as I want my emotions to come across on the painting and by using a paintbrush the accuracy would obviously be there but my technique and concept is to express emotion of the experience I have had and without the direct contact I feel I can achieve this.

Flipping coin on hand

The hand is my own and represents the stage when my mind was at its deepest darkest lowest point. Within the  groove of the hand is lacking any form of detail for a reason. I did not want to show anything inside to represent the feelings of emptiness that I had during that time due to the pursuit of money and graduating at the recession…I reached a point where I felt nothing but despondency.

The technique of painting shows the sweeping of the paint across the hand representing the scars and wounds of bad past decisions and that although you heal the pains of the past they always remain regardless of new circumstances.

The thumbnail is a different colour to the rest of the fingernails to represent looking for answers in the coin I was flipping as though the coin/money was going to give me the answers to my problems.

The coin

The coin is not recognisable as any currency in the world, the reason for this is that sometimes when we focus too much on money as the main objective for all our decisions we begin to lose our identity and thus the coin itself is loosing its recognition and its purpose in the reality that is created by focusing solely on monetary gains.

Background

The background is half red and half green. The red side for the negative thoughts, actions and decisions that money can persuade us to make and the green side for growth, positivity & enhancing actions that money can also have the power to give.

Negativity Background

It could be said that money has been one of the main reasons to blame for lots of the plights of humanity. For example, removing funding from the north in the 1980s in the industrial sectors of the north UK destroyed many generations of families stability as there was no replacement just a cut to jobs in the north and most new investments going into the south that still can be seen having a ripple effect in the north/south divide to this very day.

The recent war in Iraq was without question to gain the oil reserves of the country and financial gains for the west. China’s supremacy as an economic super power allowed them to invade Tibet without any interference from the West as they knew interference would result in less investment and trade would have been impacted so vastly it could have destroyed our way of living so humanity was forced to watch as many native Tibetans had to flee their land, those who stayed suffered greatly and still do.

Others want quick financial gains and those who travel to South America may be tempted to try to smuggle large amounts of drugs from one continent to another in the pursuit of vast amounts of money but no regard for where the product is going to go or ruin the lives of the consumer and the family that care for them when it reaches these shores and some of the super rich avoid paying taxes to the respected countries they trade in exploiting the lower working classes in the process.

This is just a few examples of the power the coin has in a negative stance of the human psyche…

But thankfully money can also be a force for the positive.

 Positive Background

Money when invested into the right places can alter the lives of normal people quite drastically so much so that it bring about bliss.

For example when humanity is faced with natural disasters the world comes together and gives what it can to help others  give what they can to charities to help those they have never met.

Taxes are paid by the majority so a free health service and benefit system to those struggling can be provided to everyone who lives in the UK. Others may invest in great business ideas generating work and careers for normal people benefiting society as a whole.

New buildings can be built and fantastic carnivals can be created. Money can create great changes in our lives and can help us make good decisions as well as bad ones, it is whether we think with greed and selfishness or love and morales that is what makes the difference on whether its one side of the coin or the other.

Flowing thoughts

At the base of the hand is water, the water represents the unsettled mind of decisions based around money. Money can quite easily flow in or out depending upon the thoughts and actions of the person holding it so whether the negative or positive energy falls into the pool it will continue to have a ripple effect and either increase in size or pull the owner into a pit of despair.

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Main message

We should never let the pursuit of money come into our big decisions of life such as choosing a career for the sole purpose of monetary gains.

When I was 21 I was much better at fine art and graphic design than I was at 3d and spatial design but regardless I pursued Architecture mainly for the purpose of money ( as I knew Graphics wouldn’t earn as much ) even though I’d never really made models and my artwork was not technical, I was more  expressive than Architecture appears to be.

Be driven by the love of things

What should drive every decision we make is…

love.

It may sound cliche but John Lennon got it right, all you need is love! If you love a subject or topic then usually you become a master at that topic. Thinking with the heart makes life experience a lot more positive, having money and lots of it is of course great but as long as it isn’t your main goal in life otherwise it is likely that you will not enjoy life and possibly destroy yourself in the process.

This painting is a reminder to me and anyone who  views it that I/you must always choose the love of something rather than love of material gains as love will always bring more joy and satisfaction in life than the pursuit of financial wealth…this does not mean that financial wealth is not achievable but…

Love what you do and everything else will flow to you.

This painting will be available as prints on society6 and various other products, if you are interested in buying the original please contact me directly for details.

Everyone who is anyone dreams of winning the lottery, what must it be like to have millions of pounds at your disposal, removing your money worries from your life forever but what if money was no object? What if it didn’t exist and you didn’t need it to live? What would you really want to do with your life?

We all say in our mind ‘ I want to do what I want to do with my life ‘

We all say this in our mind and a few of us are lucky enough to fulfill our dreams and pursue a career that we actually want to be doing. It is in my belief that the reason people don’t do what they want is that they let their situation and surroundings stop them.

Be determined, be focused, be present

You have to stay determined in your efforts to pursue a ‘dream career’ whilst not hurting anyone along the way. You have to be focused on your idea and imagine what it is like to have the job you want to drive you to make hard decisions and sometimes life changes ( such as relocating or leaving unproductive relationships) and finally you need to be present in the moment, another words don’t let the experience of others influence your own thoughts. People will tell you are a disillusioned dreamer and some people will see you as stupid but stupid people make change happen and normal people…well…they are just normal.

Nothing wrong with normal, its perfect for some, its comfortable, but what if money was no object?

If Money was no object

I came across a video by a man called Alan Watts, its quite an inspirational video where he discusses if you had unlimited money what would you really be doing with your life? Would you be doing your job or would you be pursuing something different? What is it your desire from life?

Before we know it we will hit 80 years old and we can look back on life and say I had a fulfilling life and I tried my hardest to make my dreams a reality or we can look back on life and regret we didn’t do more.

Family also important

I think what we must remember when watching the video below is that career is only one part of our human life and we also must not regret not doing more for those we love as much as creating a career we love. So next time you think I want to do what I want with my life ask yourself what if money was no object then plan to make your dream a reality.

Its Movember again and this year, for the very first time I have agreed to take part! I have never had facial hair of much level before to deem it a manly growth but with the scheme aiming to raise awareness of both testitical cancer and mental health I felt I wanted to show my support as much as possible having been effected by both.

Why I’m doing it

If you have read any of my early blog posts you will realise that I did suffer with mental health problems from 2008 – 2012, a period of time that was particularly difficult for me. Last year my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and I also discovered my old school friend’s uncle passed away due to testicle cancer.

The power of both mental health difficulties and contracting cancer are terrible forms of illness, both for the ill person and those who care about them seeing you suffer.

When you have mental health difficulties you look normal or people judge those who are undiagnosed with difficulties as crazy/different/strange/stupid or worse, to be wary of when really what they truly need is a helping hand of compassion.

Similarly when someone contracts cancer it is important to discover the disease as early as possible in order to be able to fight it.

By raising awareness of these two forms of disease we can make a difference, we can tell people to have the balls to check the balls and to get help for mental problems when things are hard rather than ‘be a man’ and fight the good fight. It is not a weakness to admit you have a problem, it is a strength.

My attempt at a mo

Yep, I’m growing it!

Maybe not a moustache but a full on facial feast of hair instead! Who knows, maybe I will like the extra warm to the face this winter, who needs a scarf when you have a beard eh!?

Are you growing a mo for Movember? What are you doing to try and help raise cancer and mental health awareness? Feel free to comment in the box below and if you are feeling extra generous then please donate to the great cause that is movembor here.

Its no secret that over the last 5 years financially speaking it has been one of the toughest, if not the toughest periods in world economic history. It is for reasons such as this that makes people stop believing in their dreams and striving for the ‘perfect life’, this blog post discusses why you should keep believing in your dream and what you may encounter along your path.

1. You question if you are a dreamer, but you aren’t the only one

Everyone who is anyone has dreams. Whether it is becoming a musician or artist, running a successful enterprise or winning the lottery. Many people will try for a little while, maybe not do quite the right things to make a success of their chosen goal and so feel it is out of reach. The problem with most people who reach for the stars, including myself, want things now! As human beings we are not patient and

2. If you stop following your highest ideal what is the point?

When I reached the bottom of my barrel in life I was quite literally hanging by a thread…should I stay or should I go? Vast amounts of debt, no opportunity, lack luster relationship and a world that seemed very unjust.

I was so close to ending it all but was pulled back from the brink of the grim bloke’s hand by the love of my family. Being so close to death removed my fear of dying and reduced my fear of what others opinions of myself are. This gave me the drive and determination to become a professional creative, albeit inhouse but I was turning my life around.

The message here is what is the point of life if you give up on your dreams? One day WE WILL die, one day money, experience and the people around you WILL go. Will you look back on life and say you did all you could to follow the path of your dream whilst not hurting others as you go or will you look back and regret that you should have done more whilst you were young?

If I was 20 again I would tell my young self NOT to go to university and waste 30k on an over priced government educational scheme and instead teach myself web coding at a much young age, but hindt sight is a wonderful thing!

3. Others tell you that you can’t do it, do you believe them?

When you discuss your ideas with others they will laugh at you, they will tease you and torment you. They can’t see your vision and they are scared as hell to do anything that involves risking their livelihood, respect and to be quite honest, most people don’t know where to start or to find the time so see any venture as ‘unrealistic’.

You need to stop giving a shit (pardon my french ) what other people think about you and your ideas if you are to give your dream a go. If you listen to people’s opinions and value the wrong ones because your ego has been emotionally hurt then you are giving up on life! Yes as human beings we naturally want to be accepted but get used to being rejected because following your dream people WILL try to pull you back for fear of feeling you will do better than them.

4. People tell you that you are deluded

Once, I worked as a general builder, painting and decorating, labouring and apprentice plumbing. I was working for my father under his small business and I had a jolly good time and a lot of banter with the painters in particular! One of them was very very intelligent, read a lot of books and had so much knowledge should have probably been a lecturer, another was a couple of years older than me and a kind soul and the last one was Mr Pessimism , actually he probably would have won Mr Pessimism World had there been such a competition. Don’t get me wrong, he was a great guy and very kind but had given up on his dreams long ago and here I was dreaming!

He would tell me things such as ‘this may be the best time of your life you are having right now’ & ‘you won’t ever be rich John’ & ‘wake up!’ but I would always knock the comments back and let them go over my head, I won’t stop dreaming until they day my heart stops.

5. But I have no finances

This is the major stumbling block on people’s dreams.

If like me you have no finances because a) all your money was plowed into a very clever marketing ploy by government to get more money off its young citizens by telling them to get a degree ‘because thats what everyone does to get a better life’ ( what a lot of cow poop!) or b) a partner expected you to give everything you had to be able to live even though you had very little or c) you had a bit of a ‘oh im young! I want to live now’ attitude or d) all of the above, you feel as broke as a pauper, how can you fund your dream?

There are ways such as angel investors or even borrowing money from friends/family. Or if your dream isn’t business related and is to become a model or actor then look for modelling agencies, find the ones that don’t take a fee for taking your photographs, join starnow.co.uk and find those auditions. Unless YOU put yourself forward you may never be known about.

Plus, now that social media is around it makes it a lot to easier to network and link to people around the world who are in the industry you want to join or do business with! Start tweeting, google plussing, liking and generally having online conversations, you don’t know where they will lead!

6. Dreams drive you to gain a better life

Like I have already mentioned when you hit rock bottom when all hope is gone the dream can save you and drive you to attempt to reach the goal that seems so unreachable to all others. I nearly tried to talk a family member out of a dream she had because I didn’t think the business model was real, I felt it was a corporation exploiting people. Then I thought…who the hell am I to tell someone they can’t do something!? If they believe it and have studied the business idea in detail then go for it, one day we will be dead so at least lets try and live the life we want to have.

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Am I living my dream? In some ways, yes! I have managed to land a job where I am using my creative talents, I have learnt such a great deal from my current position, my MD has given me a lot of new information I never knew and I am ever so grateful to being given the opportunity by someone and for someone to see something in me after 5 years of struggling.

I met the most wonderful woman who became my wife whom I would never had met if it wasn’t for my employer.

My employment restored my belief that I had something to offer, that the world is mainly made up of good people and that my dream to achieve a ‘comfortable lifestyle’ can be achieved so for this alone I am always indebted to my employer, MigSolv the data centre experts. The things is, if I had given up on my dream and said ‘oh well, I couldn’t become an architect in my hometown I’ll just do anything’ in may 2008 then would I be a branding designer right now? Probably not.

Don’t stop believing!

If you follow my Twitter Account @JAWilsonDesign you may have noticed that my profile picture background has changed to promote the #timetotalk hashtag from the time to change campaign helping stop mental health discrimination.

I decided to become a time to change champion because I know what it is like to suffer with mental illness.

I have suffered quite badly over the last decade with severe mental illness but eventually, began to recover.

Why am I writing this post? I am writing this in the hope that my story might help others who are suffering with feelings of hopelessness, depression or/and anxiety to know that you can get better and things can improve. I am not trying to be presumptuous I just want others to know there is a way out of the dark place of depression and this is my story…

Continue “Why I became a time to change champion”

I want to be a designer

Being a designer can be one of the most rewarding professions available to you (if your main talents are creative) but getting your first fully paid professional design job can be difficult particularly in this economy. It is a highly competitive market with thousands of new design graduates graduating every summer, opportunity to step into the creative industries is becoming more & more difficult. In this blog post I discuss what you will need to secure that dream vocation combined with my own search for a job in the creative industries.

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Passion

Most people find their passion when they are a child. Francis Xavier once said “give me a child untill he is 7 and I will give you the man” meaning that you will know what that child is likely to succeed well in by that age. What did you enjoy when you were just a toddler? Do you remember? I remember I used to draw,paint lots, design my own computer games, create my own paranormal magazine with membership & I was always on the computer! My passion was art, design & computing and it still is.

Go back to your childhood, find what it is you love and continue to develop that passion!

Skill Progression

With time comes new technology, new technology means as a designer you must be willing to and wanting to learn about the latest trends, fashion & tools for creation. If you decide to stop learning and just happy to deal with the skills you have within 5 years you will be outmoded by the other designers that are constantly improving themselves. Don’t loose the race, keep practicing and keep learning.

One way to do this is use youtube for free photoshop tutorials, stumbleupon for the latest news in your industry, websites like www.photoshop.com for free tutorials or do a google search for the thing it is you are wanting to learn. The internet is a haven for everything you have EVER wanted to know if you search hard enough.

Website

Again if you are serious about becoming a designer buy a domain name, hosting plan & start making content for the web. Also sign up to creative social media such as creativpool , behance, dribble, deviantart & flickr. Getting your work out to the masses is important…

Time Management

What do you do with your time? Do you spend more time watching tv than progressing your skills? Do you go out drinking three days out of seven? Could that time be used better? Everyone has a choice how they use their time but if you are serious about becoming a top designer , or a top anything in the industry you have chosen to enter you will have to reassess your time usage and see if you can use it in other ways. With the job market so competitive drinking with friends will keep good friends but they wont necessarily help you with job opportunities unless you are fortunate enough to have friends that are in the same industry as you.

Do another job but keep practicing

Its okay if you are doing something totally irrelevant to your dream vocation of a design job, we all need to live.

My first job I was 18 in 2001 & i was working as a sales assistant in Burton Menswear, then I did bar work as a cocktail barman, I then tried plumbing, labouring, painting and decorating for years whilst practicing to become an architect, RNID Typetalk Operator ( so deaf people can use phones), a photo lab technician & eventually…when i was 28 in mar 2012 I finally landed my first creative job I had seeked since 2008…but it wasn’t in my hometown.

To make sure you don’t loose your passion that you had as a child, be focused & allocate time to your hobby when you are free so advancing your skills and knowledge base will continue to increase. One day you will have the portfolio to show to potential employees.

Do a degree or don’t do a degree?

This is something that many designers wonder. The benefits to degrees are you are learning from highly experienced designers with a lot of knowledge, you are learning how to research properly, you are showing potential employees your ability to commit to something with some intellect and you will have an aim such as design briefs to where you are designing to keep you motivated.

If degrees are good value for money is still in question. I think if you are really talented, with a strong portfolio and you have confidence ( not arrogance) you don’t need a degree.

Create things for friends and family

Be warned, although this seems like a good idea it can be frustrating, very frustrating and the only benefit to you is that you will increase your portfolio..thats not going to put food on the table.

I would recommend you advertise yourself on fiver.com or freelancer.com and at least get a small fee for your time whilst you build your portfolio up as friends are unlikely to pay you..or at least not what you would expect to receive for your skill and time.

Hit a brick wall, hit it back..or alternatively ..go around it

I graduated from Architecture in June 2008 when architecture and banking had taken a huge hit due to consumer confidence around the world. Such an effect that there was a 3000% reduction in part 1 positions ( the first stage to learning the practice of architecture ). This was very hard hitting and devastating especially when you put a lot of money and time into progressing your career and educational cv.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, yes you feel low and like you are being wasted but push yourself on, im sure there is another avenue for you. I tried teaching but that was not for me, i never wanted to work for government and it is just isn’t rewarding especially when you have pursued a career as a creative for so long before. The good thing about that course is that it opened up my eyes to IT as a creative avenue. Two paths were wrong for me but both gave me skills and experience to becoming a branding/graphics/web designer today.

Take it on the chin

Naturally, most creatives are very in touch with their emotions, that is what makes great artists great but learning to control your emotions when dealing with others opinions is important because not everyone will be a fan of your work so you need to get used to criticism. Criticism isn’t bad, it is how we designer’s make things better just as long as it doesn’t become personal then it can only make you a stronger professional.

Hardest truth for anyone pursuing a career dream

How important is success to you compared to being close to friends, family and your home town?

The truth is your perfect job opportunity may not be where you have lived all your life and gained friends, life experience & comfort and for me…it wasn’t.

It was only after my most severe breakdown that I realized that I HAD TO leave my hometown as there was no opportunity and i was prepared to go ANYWHERE in the world ( I even began learning spanish & traveled to South America alone to work out if it was the place for me). You too need to adapt that attitude if you are serious about following your dream vocation, get you suitcase, pack your easel, paintbrushes & pens & get travelling! Remember, travel broadens the mind and being creative, that can’t be bad!

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Any other suggestions to how to become a designer please comment below

I am going to sound like a bit of a broken record but I still feel that without Facebook my life is more productive. Only 2 more days to go and then I will decide whether to permanently shut down my Facebook or continue using it.

Refocusing my attention on other social platforms

I started using other social media tools a lot more such as Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Delicious, Reddit & others as well as t o continuing to blog. For me, using social media platforms is about being productive, for others it may just be to waste a bit of time, not everyone wants to develop themselves, we all want different things and that is what makes the world interesting.

Facebook is boring

Facebook has become quite boring to me now, after exploring so many different ways of communicating online I personally find Facebook limiting. As previously mentioned there are only two reasons why I really like Facebook…easy log-ins on other websites & gaming. Other than that I am not particularly interested in seeing pictures of what my friends are getting up to ( unless in person ) and I am not really interested in being advertised at. I am though, interested in what the art and design community is doing…but there are better social media platforms for this purpose.

Prefer to be in touch with Family in other ways

I prefer to contact my family the old fashioned way..on the phone or I would like to use skype or such like a bit more than I do. There are so many technological options now that Facebook isn’t the be all and end all…personally I think its time to take back a bit of control  back in our lives, make our personal areas such as holidays, nights out & such like what they should be ..private & make work & interesting things such as art/quotes/articles/music public.

Facebook…is a chapter is closing on my social media use.

I am coming to the end of the “a week without Facebook” experiment with only 2 more days to run on it. It seems as though a life without Facebook is a very positive move in my personal life as each day I seem to putting my time into things that add value to my life.

Spoke to my family more

Since I gave up Facebook last Friday I have spoken to 3 members of my family in just the week I have ran this experiment. Before starting this experiment I would probably have spoken to a family member once a month for a very short time, 5 to 10 minutes each time. Now without Facebook updating my family about what I am doing every 5 minutes there is more to talk about and it allows a good communication to ensue as BT rightly put it, it IS good to talk. Facebook isn’t talking, in my opinion it is simply snooping on others, a bit like a digital peeping tom.

It was nice talking to my younger sister this day, we spoke for half an hour on the phone which wasn’t very common at all before this experiment so is Facebook actually hindering proper communication between people? Possibly…

Added extra security & learnt more

Sorry to make this sound like groundhog day but once again I have been more productive with my time than if I had it active. I have added 2 step verification processes to access my online accounts, making it that little bit more difficult to those with malicious intent on the internet, I created a backup system incase a succesful breach of security is reached and I am feeling better about what I do with my time than spending it all on Facebook.

When Im really bored, I want to Facebook

The only time I start missing Facebook truly is when I want to start gaming to pass some time. I do miss my top eleven game & I do miss tracking how my friends are doing on candy crush. Man its been tempting to reactivate my accounts just for this sole purpose.

My family add me on my works Facebook

I have a separate Facebook account just for work…it doesn’t have any pics , updated status or anything on it, its just simply so i can give my work a facebook page and some presence on the king of social media. My family have ALL added me on this account , desperate to stay connected on Facebook. I may be getting rid of the Facebook glue but my family certianly aren’t. That is the thing about social media, there are so many different options that certain social media platforms work well for others. I love my family to bits but my mother & sisters ( although very caring ) are also very nosey and want to know everything that is going on so I guess that is why they love Facebook so much…for me Facebook is a bit of time wasting and nothing else…I think I may just be shutting the door in the face of facebook…

Another day without Facebook, another day with more done. Is this a coincidence or not ? Is Facebook too time consuming or is it simply the fact there is plenty to do?

Update your status, show approval to your friends comments and likes,play games,update business pages, sharing news feeds, connecting various social media platforms together…Facebook really is the social hub of the world.

Another productive day

On this day I went on another little trip to the V & A Museum in London and learnt a lot about the history and cultural differences in the design industries. It was a beautiful building with really impressive architecture and artifacts, I wouldn’t have seen things like this on Facebook, the virtual world can only offer you so much in terms of knowledge. A lot of the information on Facebook is just noise and I would much prefer to gain some knowledge with my time than waste it being fed information on Facebook like a digital sheep.

Is Facebook unproductive

Each day I have been away from Facebook I seem to be more productive with my time and feed my mind with more beneficial information for an advancement in knowledge or life experience. Of course Facebook allows you to share your experiences with friends and family fairly quickly, it just depends if what your friends and family are doing as well as sharing what you are doing with those you know in your life is an important part of your life.

Choices

Life is all about choice, Facebook may be very beneficial to some, for those who enjoy the social aspects of life and like to be up on the latest gossip in your social circle really quickly but for others Facebook may be less beneficial. My preferred social media tool at the moment is Twitter as I feel it connects me to people who are interested in the same things I am, it can connect me to knowledge that I may not have previously known in my industry & also takes a lot less time than the other tools you can use to do something similair. The experiment continues…

Day 2 is drawing to a close without any activity on my Facebook account and I have probably felt no difference to if I had been actively using it. My partner and I did go for a nice morning stroll in the nearby greenery when the sun was shining which was very nice, but am I missing the app or not?

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Starting to miss it

On day 2, although I don’t like to admit it, I think I am starting to miss Facebook..a little. It is something to do whilst the adverts are on TV. I do use twitter & many other social media tools but I don’t spend half as much time on them as I do on Facebook. Like I mentioned yesterday, I am particularly missing Top Eleven Football Game.

More productive today?

Well my favorite football team had a match televised so I was quite busy watching the game until 3pm …If Facebook would have been active I may have updated my status that I was quite bored as the game was a bit of a stale mate unfortunately..but instead I just said oh well to myself and then continued to help my partner with flat & job hunting.

My Facebook Page

I am not missing my Facebook Page at all, it is lacking in real fans and to be honest for those kind of things it is better to use many other social media platforms for designers such as Behance an online portfolio tool.

Advancing skills

Now I am planning to practice some Photoshop and try and read a bit more about psychology, whether this is because I am not on Facebook as often or simply because I am more aware of the time I am spending doing things and what kind of things I am doing is debatable.

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I guess after day 2 what is quite clear is that people like Facebook because they feel it gives them a voice to the world and keeps them connected to close ones and brands they love. Every human being on the planet wants to feel important or they can offer something of value to the world…no one wants to be the grey noise, everyone wants a purpose in life and connecting with others ,even if it is only friends and family you know, is one way of giving your life, or more specifically, your thoughts more meaning and purpose than if they were just in your own head. A dangerous thing to think about really when the world is so diverse with good and “bad” thinking, for those with both positive feelings to improve the life of all and the others with negative emotions to try and ruin others…my experiment continues…

missed day 1? Read it here