Creative inspiration can so often be found in the most unlikely of places. The quote above comes from former pro skateboarder Rodney Mullen. As someone who’s never followed skateboarding a day in his life, I was surprised to find that his words — likely said in the moment with strictly skateboarding on his mind —  could so easily apply to the world of graphic design. 

Dive a bit deeper into Mullen’s professional career, and it becomes clear that this is by no means a coincidence. While not the most technical or skillful skater, he was able to rise to prominence for the vast array of tricks and moves he would invent on the spot during competitions, the likes of which would be mimicked by future skateboarders for generations to come. Mullen was a trailblazer and pioneer in his respective field, and achieved such a status simply by throwing darts at a metaphorical dartboard until a handful of those tosses were bullseyes.

As designers, we are so often encouraged to embody traits of pickiness and perfectionism. We are praised for our observant eyes and can spend hours refining details on projects that the masses will likely never notice. We have studied the likes of composition, type, and color, and can pinpoint precisely what successful and unsuccessful application of these design principles look like. The overly-busy food label at the grocery store that fails to convey effective hierarchy can sit with us for much longer than it realistically should. Simply put, we have been trained to see things many others wouldn’t. And this can cultivate a culture of hesitance.

It’s a trap so many designers can fall into. Inspiration boards and thorough research are always essential aspects of the design process, but it is important to acknowledge how a hyper-fixation on these mere pieces of the puzzle won’t complete said puzzle in its entirety. As we grow more experienced and well-researched in what the design scene around us looks like, we develop stronger creative instincts that we can help guide us through our pieces. This marks the turning point where we grow from master imitators to embracers of our own individual marketable styles. 

I experimented with this montra “create for the sake of creating” in mind for a design that will be featured in The Clipse Collection, a series of apparel designs celebrating the recent release of the Hip Hop duo’s fourth studio album. I went in with only a vague idea of what I wanted my final project to look like and began creating with no definitive end in sight. 

It’s a less technical method that encourages one to turn the design process into something meditative and instinctual, no heavy stakes or final expectations attached. It allows creativity to flow out in almost as natural a way as breaths are inhaled and exhaled. Everything becomes second-nature, because you are doing what you are doing, purely and solely for the sake of doing it.

I recorded my laptop screen throughout the entirety of the creation process for this new Clipse mockup, and even the extremely sped-up version of this hours-long endeavor displays how drastically this design evolves from a piece loosely centered around a series of black-and-white images recently posted on Instagram by the duo into a larger collage piece that takes from a wide variety of source materials. The search for external reference pieces still was very much a part of this process (no effective design is going to spawn out of thin air void of any inspiration from what has already worked in the past), but there wasn’t an expensive emphasis placed on this aspect of the process. I primarily simply went with the flow and put enough faith into my creative instincts to trust that all these messy layers would suddenly all click as one cohesive piece. Evidently, in the end, they did. 

If experiencing brain fog or designer’s block, this tactic reminds us that the only way out is through. Even if the beginning stages are slow and confusing, allow yourself to create simply for the sake of creating. Pursue just to pursue. It’s how a mediocre skateboarder managed to stand out from the crowd, and it’s how designers transition from observers and mimickers to pioneering their own signature style that helps them stand out from the crowd to future clients.