As most artists and creatives know, creativity does not come easy. I think that we are all capable of coming up with creative ideas, but some people struggle with expressing and communicating them. Brainstorming is a great way to help the creative process, but a little practice goes a long way too. What would happen if we practiced expressing our creativity every day, like we practice music or sports?
Artist Elle Luna was inspired by a teacher at the Yale School of Art who gave his students a “100 Day Project.” Each student practiced some sort of creative action every day for 100 days. Elle began the project with her friends and posted her daily creations on Instagram, and soon the project went viral. Each person’s 100 Day Project is different. Some take photos, make sketches, write, act, sing…the possibilities are endless.
On April 6th, Elle launched the 2015 100 Day Project with The Great Discontent magazine. Her intent was to get the world to celebrate the creative process and the process of making. I heard about the project through our very own Professor Sue Jenkins, who runs her own design business called Luckychair. Her project involves taking a daily black and white photo of her favorite subjects—chairs! Then Professor Chris Medley began her own project by taking photos inspired by a book she is reading about happiness.
So I decided to join the fun and create my own 100 Day Project on Instagram, which you can find under #100daysofads. I got the idea for this project from an odd source: Chandler Bing from the sitcom “Friends.” In the later episodes, Chandler makes a career move into the advertising field, and tries to show Monica his skills by selling random objects:
(Photo courtesy of hellogiggles.com)
I thought trying to sell random objects would make for an interesting project, so that is what I have been doing for the past 46 days or so. Hopefully I am doing a better job than Chandler, but keeping his sense of humor as inspiration. Check out my posts on Instagram to see how I’ve been doing this.
Taking the time to sit down and make something every day has taken a lot of discipline, and hasn’t been an easy task. I am constantly making up days and struggling through the creative process, but when I finally get that good idea it is completely worth it. The concepts I am creating now serve as a giant bank of ideas that might help me in the future. Exercising creativity is important, and you can check out the global creativity going on now with the hashtag #the100dayproject.
