In this week’s episode we chat with Dustin and Lisa about their ongoing daily creative challenges. Both of your hosts have been putting out a piece of design every single day for the past few months on social media, and the results have been surprising and inspiring. On this show we talk a lot about consistency, practice and the best ways to find your creative styles. This episode shows you the nuts and bolts of exactly how to do that.
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Show Notes for This Episode:
[1:00] Dustin and Lisa have been doing a daily drawing challenge on Instagram
[2:15] You can check Dustin’s work over at @heydustinlee and Lisa’s @5minutedrawing
[3:00] Several listeners have started their own daily challenges
[3:40] Tom wants to know how Lisa and Dustin are finding this experience
[4:00] Ian didn’t believe Dustin will go ahead with his challenge
[5:10] Dustin’s first post said: ‘Ian Barnard is better than you! and ‘You should really give up now!”
[5:45] Dustin admits it’s been challenging – it felt horrible in the beginning but he feels much better about illustrating now
[6:20] Dustin does his drawings in the evening when his kids are asleep
[6:50] The social pressure has helped Dustin to keep going with his daily challenge
[7:30] He admits this meant spending less time with his wife
[8:30] Dustin likes the idea of being able to do something for 100 days and improving at it every day
[8:50] Tom mentions Mike Boyd’s YouTube channel ‘How to Learn Anything Quickly’
[9:45] The daily challenge made Dustin feel more confident about creating the Honest Designers covers
[10:15] Dustin has quickly found a style for his illustrations
[11:50] Finding your style comes from practice and after a while it will feel like second nature
[12:00] Dustin thinks finding your style will feel so natural, like your personality is
[12:30] Tom wants to know how the emotional journey felt for Dustin
[13:00] Dustin’s journey in the following: complete self-doubt, public embarrassment followed by proudness for consistently doing the daily challenge, and now it feels that he can do this
[13:40] He feels more confident about his work and has done drawings he’s very proud off
[14:15] Practicing every day changes your perspective on the things you can do
[14:45] Ian’s analogy of climbing half way up the mountain
[15:20] Lisa felt her daily challenge would be impossible due to time constrictions
[15:45] She got motivated by Dustin getting ahead with his challenge
[16:10] She put a limit on herself and this way she came with the idea of the 5 minute drawing
[16:45] Ian loves being able to see the process with both Dustin and Lisa’s drawings
[17:30] The other hosts can’t believe it only takes Lisa 5 minutes to do her amazing drawings
[18:30] Dustin’s struggle with drawing hands a Lisa being able to do one in 5 minutes
[19:50] Tom asks Lisa what were her most and least favourite things about doing the challenge
[20:00] Her most favourite things is not thinking too much about the drawing
[20:26] And breaking her subject matter into shapes
[20:50] Her least favourite thing is the task hanging over her head all day
[21:20] Every day Lisa plans to do the drawing first thing but she never does
[22:20] Tom asks what is the future of the daily challenge feeds
[22:40] Lisa mentions she had offers from people wanting to buy her designs
[23:00] The host suggest each illustration should be based on a letter and turning these into a book teaching kids to read
[22:40] Consistency and focus pay off
[23:00] Tom compares the daily challenge to a TV show with people tuning in to see one every day
[24:30] Lisa enjoys drawing just for fun
[25:00] And Dustin confirms that not having any expectations for the drawings made the challenge much easier
[25:40] He started building relationships with the people who are responding to his illustrations
[26:10] A lot of paths open when you do something new
[27:00] Committing to a daily challenge will help you improve something you’ve just been dabbling in e.g.: illustrations, drawing, lettering etc.
[27:30] Lisa noticed improvements and she is doing her illustrations much faster now too
[28:00] Do something every day but don’t pressure yourself to be great from the beginning
[28:30] Ian’s comparison to the ‘Couch to 5k’ app
[29:10] You need to do something every day and steady progress will help you achieve your goal
[30:40] The bonus of being able to do something and getting the recognition for it from your social media audience
[31:20] Tom thinks it would be groundbreaking if we could get all the listeners to do a daily challenge
[31:40] Use the #honestdesigners or tag us @honestdesigners on your post as we would to see your daily challenge
[32:15] We would like the community to follow and encourage each other’s daily challenges
[32:50] Do a daily challenge if you feel like you’re stuck and need to change something in your life
[33:15] Dustin and Lisa give a mention to @meg_ladoodle and admire how much her illustrations have improved over time
[33:45] Lisa mentions the daily process has helped her learn a lot about the skill and herself
[34:15] Ian’s ‘Forest Gump’ analogy of just going running one day
[35:00] The social media conversation will motivate and encourage you into doing a challenge
[35:30] We will be back next week and we have a line of amazing guest lined up on the show
[36:00] Thank you all for listening to this week’s episode
“A must for every creative freelancer (or those aspiring to freelance). Thank you for being so… honest! Such a wealth of information from people I admire who have ‘been there and done that’. Listening to the podcast every week feels like I’m among friends. Can’t wait for more episodes!” – AG_GD
Curse you, Honest Designers!
Here I was simply catching up on episodes I’d missed, linking to some of the most relevant for my high school design students, when I foolishly thought, “Hey, Daily Challenges would be a fun listen.”
How this is going to work when my wife and I celebrate our 25th anniversary with a 12-day trip to Glacier National Park and Banff later this month is beyond me, but if Dustin can do this with 3 kids, I’ve got no excuse to put this off.
Yeah, yeah, I’ll use the #HonestDesigners hash and live with the consequences, good or bad.
P.S. Thanks for the push. This is something I’ve been wanting to do. :)
Ha ha Mike, you got us worried there for a second. Sorry to get you in trouble but at the same time happy that this episode has inspired you to do your own design challenge. We look forward to seeing your designs and give you some feedback on them. You can do it! ?
Happy to report that I got through the anniversary trip by working before my wife woke each day. Though “working” is a bit of a misnomer as it’s been nothing but a joy. If nothing else, it’s given me a new collection of ideas for the classroom this fall.
However, I do worry a bit that it may seem I’m spamming the #honestdesigners tag with my daily experiments. Over 400 images in 28 days seems excessive, but that’s the nature of my project. Please let me know if I should cease and desist with the #hd tag.
Nothing you can do to stop the flow to my feed, though. You’ve lit an inspirational fire and I’ll be forever grateful to DC and the Honest Designers for the push! :D
https://www.instagram.com/skosign/
Hey Mike, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Well done on getting started with your daily challenge. We’ve really enjoyed seeing your colourful abstract patterns on our feed – it really brightens our day. So glad the Honest Designers Show has been an inspiration for you – keep up the great work! :)