This blog, written by Danielle LaPorte, has been reposted – with permission – from LaPorte’s website (look for the link at the bottom). LaPorte is the creator of The Desire Map, a communicator and business strategist.
If you’ve got an iPhone, grab it now. Or grab someone else’s iPhone (ask nicely). The home-screen function that says, “slide to unlock”… Pay attention. Slide it. Did you hear that “click” sound? That’s the sound of Freddy’s locker opening.
Freddy Anzures works with Apple. He helped develop the iPhone styling as we know it. In high school he recorded the sound of his locker opening and closing (on a cassette tape recorder, I presume.) And now, millions of us hear those two seconds of Freddy’s teen spirit multiple times a day. Slide and… ch-click.
(I did the James Victore Dinner Series workshop with Freddy and I asked him if I could tell this story. He said yes. I told him that I would think of him at least 52 times a day when I checked my phone and send him love. Freddy blushed.)
This got me thinking on the behalf of Creatives everywhere. I have some questions for us:
- What have you got in your archive that can be turned into art today? We’re so occupied with creating new and innovative that we can forget our past experiments or the ideas whose time hasn’t come yet. Remember that one idea you had…? Dust it off now and see if it’s got some glimmer to it. I’m just starting to pull together big ideas that occurred to me years ago — it feels like making a feast for old friends — very special.
- Analyze what interested you in your past. I’ve been obsessed with Jenny Holzer, Wim Wender’s Far Away So Close, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, information visualization, and every form of book-making, binding, gluing, sewing and designing. (And I went through an extensive obsession with Andy Gibb in my earlier years. That didn’t amount to much.) Point is, I can see how some of my past obsessions are culminating into what I now make in the world, and when I revisit them, I get new ideas about what to bring into my work. I also feel a deeper sense of belonging to my own life, since I can see how my interests brought me to where I am.
- Your life is content — what do you do well everyday that you might be taking for granted? The advice you give, the effortless problem solving, the way you see things, the artistry of how you live… What comes naturally to you is your greatest distinguisher.
- How can you bring your personal story into your work? Not just your personal perspective, but your actual shared experience. That’s putting your heart into it.
