Make time for Creativity and 4 other Things We Learnt in 2024
It's the start of a new year and therefore it’s time to be very original and reflect, take stock and look at some things we have learnt through Pickle in 2024. These are also goals we plan to take into 2025.
1. Make time for Creativity and find what works for you
Making time for creativity looked different for Liv and myself this year. I found joy in Domestika courses, expanding my skills in branding and editorial design. Areas I always thought I didn’t enjoy, but more I didn’t give myself time to explore them, and embrace the less is more mindset, which doesn't always come naturally.
I also spent time away from a screen exploring collage. I am a big composition lover within design and exploring layouts on paper, away from a screen, was a refreshing challenge. It also felt really mindful and something that could feed into my design practice as well as being a hobby.
Liv spent more time exploring different techniques and brushes on the ipad, not putting pressure on creating anything in particular. We both have different methods to unlock some creativity and it's also important to know this when working in a partnership.
2. Be Flexible- Juggling Life and Work
The freelance world has many benefits, you have control of your work, schedule and priorities. However, with that comes not being protected by a company structure when life throws you those curveballs- which it often does. Dealing with health problems of a loved one this year threw a massive spanner into the works for myself and I had to adjust to frequently working from a hospital corridor whilst Liv took on most of the client facing work.
Luckily, it didn't affect the work too much but it sure challenged how we do work and brought us back to the flexibility we developed in lockdown by adjusting to situations out of our control.
3. Use Linkedin with more Care and Effort
Linkedin feels daunting, there I said it. For a creative familiar with the visual language of Instagram, when we first started using Linkedin we mostly posted the same content on both. However, since making some really valuable connections through the site it has allowed us to use Linkedin as a place for conversation. Within both the design industry and wider eg. property and charities. We will continue weighing in on chats over there and trying not to cringe at the business lingo that may not come the most naturally.
4. Find Own Creative Work whilst Waiting
Especially when tackling projects with larger scale outcomes or multiple client partners, things can take time. We have learnt to keep a couple of fun creative projects on the back burner to pick up when things get a bit slow in the paid work department. This stops the freelancer panic and also gives you something to pop in the portfolio if you like what you’ve created, and hey, no worries if you don't.
5. Divide and Conquer (The Workload)
An epiphany happened this year when we realised not both of us need to be on every call and do every site visit. This also came as a result of point number one… This flexibility has allowed us some autonomy in the work and also frees us up to balance the meetings with the creative work between us. Sharing out the responsibilities also helps to keep us both accountable for what we have achieved which is often necessary to keep motivation going in slower times!