Create Yourself.

This weeks Artistic Fling was somewhat last minute. My school's AIGA chapter is doing a poster contest. I haven't really made a poster that I'm extremely proud of so I wasn't planning on entering the contest. Today while I was working on homework I remembered that tomorrow is the deadline for this contest. So in the spirit of procrastination, I took a break from my homework to make a poster for the contest.

 I knew that I wanted to work with a quote. I really didn't know which one. I started by looking at my Facebook info page under the Favorite Quotes section. Now, there are some good quotes listed on my Facebook page but they we're all Marilyn Monroe quotes about being a woman or quotes that are paragraphs long. So what's the next step I take? I googled "famous quotes." Yes, google can be my muse at times. So I came to a website (http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/life) that listed a fair amount of pretty good quotes. The one that stuck out to me was “Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” by George Bernard Shaw. I picked it for a few reasons. 1- I'm making this poster for a design contest. Designers will completely resonate with the whole "create yourself" thing. 2-This just spoke to me and my current state of mind.


So right now I am just weeks away from graduating. I have no plans, no jobs lined up. Despite the fact that I've had several jobs while going to school I had to quit my part-time job at The Gap in order to work at my unpaid internship. Now I don't even have a part-time job that can help pay the rent after graduation. When people ask me what I plan on doing after graduation I just shrug and say something like "I'm trying to find a paid summer internship right now."


See, I'm not the kind of person who just sits around waiting for fate to set me up with a great gig. Yes, I do believe in fate but I also believe in working hard. There should be a balancing act between the two. I've always had to work for the things I have. I'm very independent and being so makes this part of my life difficult. Every time I fill out an application or send a resume and portfolio link I feel like I'm playing the lottery. I hate the fact that I can't do this by myself. I want have control but I don't. I just have to be patient and hope that my resume and portfolio speak to the creative recruiter on the other end of the email.


So back to the poster... 


When I read this quote it was like a wake up call. I keep saying I'm trying to "find" something. I'm trying to "find" a job, internship, or whatever. I keep saying I feel like I have no control in the whole process. What am I talking about!? Of course I have control. This is my life and if I want to be an art director, a designer, a creative, I am the only one who makes that decision. I don't need to find an opportunity I need to create one. 


In my past few months of searching for a career I've noticed that in order to find a job in the creative field you have to be, well, creative. Since January I've been attending more networking events, creating more, talking more, collaborating more. Design isn't about sitting in your room staring at the computer for hours, it's about discovering new ways to communicate with people through design. These are the baby steps in creating myself.


Here's the poster.

I wanted to show the confusion of finding verses the natural way of creating. I wanted the poster to have a maze like feel. The maze curves around the portion of the quote that talks about finding. People are always trying to "find" something. Sadly, we're in a society that believes we can never be happy until we have that car or that job or that boyfriend. When we find these things we are left disappointed because they didn't leave us happy so we try to find bigger, better things that we believe will make us happy. It's hard to find something if we don't know what we're searching for. This quote says that trying to find yourself can be like a maze.

The part of the maze after the "create yourself" is highlighted in orange. This path is brighter in order to show the ease and friendliness that this way of thinking can provide. When one stops trying to please others and following their own path that they created, life can be a lot easier, or at least more enjoyable.