Embracing Limitations

Sometimes I have to remember that’s why I’m here in the first place.

Some Context

Recently, I submitted a brief that became more challenging than I anticipated. At first, it was an exciting brief because it was something different than what we were used to. Instead of a written project or something digital on Illustrator or Photoshop, we were tasked with creating something physical, analogue if you will.

I first found that to be really exciting as I figured it would be a throwback to the old days of arts and crafts, something I don’t do much of anymore with all the digital requirements of life, studies and the full-time job.

To kick the project off, I had designed a short brief for myself with background context, brief requirements, milestone deadlines and all the other great stuff that goes into those wonderful documents. Writing this brief meant information had to be secure and finalised before the actual design work began. But as soon as the latter started, I ran into problems.

My project entailed designing a poster that I would eventually cut out of a linoleum block and then pressure-transfer onto cloth or a paper for a commemorative poster. A great idea and exciting in its design, but as soon as I started carving part of my design I realised that it wasn’t going to work. The scale at which I had designed some of the elements were far too small for my skill level to be able to carve out. A laser cutting machine maybe, but not my average lino-cutting tools. I hit a rather large wall.

I had passed a point of being able to reconceptualise the entire project, doing different research and redesigning a completely different commemorative artwork. There just wasn’t enough time. I had to find a way to make what I had work.

This meant that I couldn’t include all the information that I originally had planned to cut out, because my content had to be larger while I still had the same surface area of the lino board. This meant some aspects would have to be left out. This was a problem because I had already summarised that information (from my research beforehand) and couldn’t really narrow anything down much further without sacrificing context and therefore the viewer-understanding in the final artwork.

I was faced with a choice. Either I could create a crap artwork and have all the info, or create a more aesthetic one with less info. Both had their pros and cons.

I was incredibly frustrated because with the lockdown and commercial printing shops not being available (at least to me where I was at that time), I had to rely on my original plan for the printing process. I wasn’t going to get help with my accuracy from professionals. I had to find a way to make my limitations work.

A Conversation

I was scared to bring this up to my lecturer because that would mean two things. One, it would mean I would have to admit defeat in my original concept and that I was not happy with what the end result would be. And the second is that I would likely get feedback that would encourage me to redesign from the beginning, throwing the new work I had done out completely.

It was not an attractive situation, and that terrified me. I knew that either way I wasn’t going to win. That was until a lecture we had involved a discussion about embracing stubbornness and just diving into something.

That discussion gave me the courage to request a meeting with my lecturer and actually talk about my challenges. It was incredibly daunting at first, and I even told her that I was apprehensive about having that meeting. Happily, however, the meeting ended with me being more driven than ever with a brand new idea.

Diving In

The thing is that when we are faced with challenges that we can’t see the solutions for, we fear what that will mean. Does it mean we have to scrap the whole thing? Or does it mean we have to change the outcome from what we originally wanted it to be? Either way, we’re scared.

What we don’t often realise, however, is that when we open up to outside ideas and perspectives, we find solutions we would never have thought of on our own. Different people have different experiences, and different experiences will foster different solutions.

I entered that meeting knowing I had a problem with two solutions, neither of which I enjoyed, but figured I would have to just pick one and deal with the consequences. If I hadn’t taken that step and embraced the fear of opening up about it, surrendering to the criticism and advice, I would never have come out with a third solution that bridged both my first and second ones.

I now had something that took the best of the first solution, and the best of the second, to create a third that ticked all the boxes and resulted in an end-product that I could now be proud of.

Imperfection is a Good Thing

I will admit, I can be a perfectionist on occasion. And this can be both good and bad depending on the context. In this situation, it was bad.

I had this grand idea at the beginning of the project and I kept trying to find a way to make sure it resulted in what I wanted in the end. The problem with that thinking is that we don’t always foresee the challenges that we will face, the hurdles we’ll have to jump over, or the potholes we’ll have to drive around.

We don’t see them until they’re right in front of us and now we have to find a way to deal with them. Sometimes we can, and other times we can’t. Either way, we have to make a plan.

I don’t like deviating from my initial plans because I get attached to them. I have this vision of what I want and I don’t want to accept anything besides it. That isn’t realistic though, because if I knew everything then I wouldn’t be in this course. I wouldn’t be trying to learn and I wouldn’t be writing this sharing my experiences. I would already have everything figured out.

Fact check: I don’t have everything figured out, and I never will. But I can enjoy the process of trying to figure it out if I allow myself to. This time, I didn’t allow myself to because I was so attached to the idea of what I thought would make it perfect, ignoring the potential for failure.

Embracing the imperfections allow us to play and experiment, and to try things we otherwise wouldn’t have. We can be brave and dive into something we’re scared of, with the goal of coming out having learnt something.

And embracing our limitations allows us the opportunity to be creative with what we have at our disposal. Do you only have a few weeks left for something? Scale down the end-product. Do you have to rely on your own skills and not a professional? Accept that it won’t be perfect and focus more on the process than the result.

Either way, what needs to get done will be done, but the difference is that you will have something to show for it. You will have learnt. Sometimes I have to remember that’s why I’m here in the first place.