140 Days

Made a poster everyday from the 9th of January 2023 - did not miss a single day until the 7th of May. It was a period of big change in my life - and in some ways the posters were a welcome sense of stability and routine for me.

I found It powerful to make a commitment to myself, with no other goal than 'just one more day' and see how far I would get.

Key Findings:

I became better at my job - It's very valuable to have a daily creative outlet to make something exactly how I want it, with no deadlines, or small print. the projects I work on day to day have limited scope to explore different styles and practices visually. Its refreshing to make something that just looks cool, for the sake of looking cool, to not get too caught up in jargon or metrics or context.

Instagram is Bullshit.

Instagram favours trending content. It's just how it works, you need to make a reel everyday using trending sounds or text to speech captions for the algorithm to truly push your stuff. I found this to take away from the creative process.

Routine is good - to a point.

apparently it takes 3 weeks to form a habit. I can't say for sure how quickly the routine formed for me, but it was soon. Passion helps a lot with this, the instant validation from instagram is a worryingly strong motivator. There were definite peaks and troughs throughout the process, times where i'd wake up enthused and make the poster straight away - and times where i'd come back from the pub tired and think 'ah fuck i've got to do a poster now' and i'd knock one out in 20 mins (see mr potato head poster).

This acts as a metaphor for you life, you can't always control how you feel, you can't control your levels of energy or motivation all the time. But you can control what you do anyway. a lesson in consistency, whether you want to or not, show up.

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