Stop Resisting & Starting Creating - Just Do!

Sometimes stepping out of ones comfort zone to achieve a certain dream, goal or even a simple idea can be extremely daunting to the point where you put it off and then eventually never act on it. In a nutshell this image/quote summarizes the tension I was experiencing for a duration of time at university up until actually not too long ago. A few months back I was watching an encouraging TED Talk given by young fashion designer, Mary Katrantzou. In her talk she narrated her creative journey and how she achieved success as a designer. She described what I and many other designers, artists, and creatives had also & often still do experience. Her creative journey spoke of overcoming self doubt, fear of failure and the challenge of moving an idea on from a thought into action. In my case, I had quite a few ideas and goals for creative projects, but for a number of reasons I found myself either holding back or not acting on them. This was mainly due to a knock back in creative confidence, along with doubt and worries of making mistakes. I realised, all this was doing was prohibiting creative growth, and needed a reminder that a huge aspect of being a designer is not being afraid to fail (Edwin Land ref) or get your hands messy. Being experimental and making mistakes is all part of the creative process and sometimes great work and outcomes are achieved from it. Over thinking and over analyzing an idea or goal can become a hindrance and work against any productivity. There are times when you just need to 'do'. Try things out, experiment, get creating and push your creativity!

Be encouraged :)...

Technology & Fashion

With most things converging in our visual culture, digital and information age, it's interesting to see what type of developments arise as different fields combine together. Cultural Studies writer Pamela Church Gibson, finds that in order for us to gain a better understanding of our time, it is necessary for scholars and theorists alike to take on a ‘sideways’ view on cultural phenomena.

In this case pop star Nicole Scherzinger, was rocking this LED dress, aka 'twitter dress' last week, at EE's 4G mobile network launch in London; how relevant. I suspected that it may have been a new Hussein Chalayn piece, as he is renowned for incorporating technology in his designs (see this post), but the dress was actually made by fashion design company Cute Circuit. The dress is eight meters of French silk chiffon, infused with Swarovski crystals and over 2000 LED lights. When people tweet with the relevant hash tag, the LED lights on the dress display the tweeted message; pretty cool huh?

I doubt people are going to start walking around in LED dresses and suits (or will they? o_O ), but it does make me wonder how future developments and innovations like this could potentially change and open up more ways to communicate. I can definitely see something like this working in an advertising/PR campaign, well is this not one. What are your general thoughts?