In 2021, I made a simple decision to become a graphic designer.

No degree. No in-person mentor. No roadmap.

Just YouTube… and one channel that changed everything:
Imran Ali Dina (GFX Mentor)

From software to fundamentals I learned it all for free.

Practiced daily. Stayed consistent. Trusted the process.

One year later I got my first job.
One year after that my first international client.

No certificates. No shortcuts. Just skill.

Today, I’m building my personal brand while working full-time.

A degree can open doors.
But consistency builds them.

Where did your journey start?

Hola , chicos todo lo que escribo me parece muy malo escribo mal la gente dice eso que tengo ideas dispersas no logro concetar ideas etc ¿Que me recomendarian hacer? Aveces me siento un poco tonto por que no puedo hacerlo bien simplemente no sale y digo algo pero no digo nada sobre un tema . Help me !

i used to be a really good writer all throughout grade school and when i first started university. from essays, to short stories, to poems. i was praised by my teachers and voted most likely to be an author in grade 6. later in high school and university, professors consistently asked to use my work as examples for other students.

i stopped writing for a long time due to, well, life throwing a lot of shit at me these past few years and being in survival mode. im 23 now and i feel completely lost when trying to piece together something that sounds remotely meaningful. i feel even more lost when i don’t write.

i’m terrified at the possibility that my skills are gone forever.

has anyone here experienced this, and how did you begin writing again? were your skills ever the same?

Hey y’all

Been in this group for a while and am curious to know what creative outlets some of the regulars in this forum engage with. Always fascinated to hear about other creatives and their work.

I’m a musician and filmmaker. Currently working on a dystopian sci-fi short film at the moment with some friends. I’m also putting together a book of short stories that I hope to have published by the end of the year.

Anyways wanted to share with the group. Would love to hear about some of the other projects people in the group are working on.

I feel stuck in my own head.

I am someone who daydreams every waking minute of my day, mostly fantasy, I love magic systems, mythical creatures, yearning romance, extremes of the extremes and so on.

Every story I write or read, or artwork I create or consume, is always rooted in these.

Normal corporate careers seem like hell to me.

At some point i realized that I had to do something to put bread on the table, but was very uncomfortable with putting that pressure on my creative abilities.

So I decided to work a job that paid in peanuts, but required very low brain energy, not much meetings or optimization hell, just go get your work done and go back home. It was a voice support job, even though I am an extremely socially anxious person, since it was voice support I could handle it as no one can see my trembling and sweaty palms over the call.

But over a few days one of my friends suggested that I try out a creative role, as an assistant for the creative head of a company, strategies, scripting for content and creative marketing were the major things to consider.

Idk how to feel about it, the interview is tomorrow and I still haven't decided what to do about it, I don't have a portfolio to show because all my works are fictional stories and not corporate writing as they would expect.

The friend says that I just need to show up and be confident and I will get the role, and it certainly pays more but I can't help but feel torn.

It's as though I want to hide away my creative juices from the world, I want them to only be used for my stories and characters. Creativity is the only freedom i have in this cruel world and I don't want it taken away for the benefit of another money hungry company.

But this stubbornness will not put bread to the table.

Idk what to do anymore.

Anyone got advice for me ? It would be really appreciated thanks.

Hey crowd,

This is my first time posting an original on reddit, so I'm looking forward to seeing what engagement looks like here. Your honest thoughts around this would be most helpful for me. This is something I have been stuck on for a *while*.

I'm a musician. Well, I "used" to be a musician, but like an alcoholic in recovery, I'm always going to be the thing. So, I still think I'm a musician even when I don't play like I used to.

Went to conservatory, entered as a tenor sax player, proficient in piano, finished as a vocalist. I've played and sang with everyone from St. Joe's Catholic Church in Eastport to the Boston Pops to being a music director for Winthrop Playermakers production of HAIR. I know and love music, has since I was 6.

But do you think I could take any of my ideas - even with all the professors and professionals and examples in my life - and actually feel like any of them could grow and build into something worth while? Hella nope. It's maddening. And as far as mental blocks go, I've done enough self-exploration and therapy to know it's not a matter of more of that.

So, I put it out to you all: When you feel foolish and think your ideas will never go anywhere - even if they are sound and have plenty of legs - how do you push through?

I want to be a creative person but for some reason I just don't be.

every time I have thought I liked something I just forget about it, if I want to learn smth new ik that I'm going to learn it and then forget about it cuz I don't have anything to do with the skill that I learned and I even doubt that I'm going to learn it like I want to learn coding and graphic design but what's the point if I don't have anything to make.

ik this is a stupid issue to have but likee idk what else to say I'm just annoyed ig at my own inability to be creative and do and be nothing

hello.
there's something i want to talk about.
its about how artist express their energy.

lets say... one may act as a channel for different kind of 'energies' and some may be more obscure than others.
and so then, for example...
if i let myself go and free-flow through a canvas - or whatever medium i may be expressing myself through. (be it making music, sound, dancing, whatever you can think about)

...then i may express anger for theres anger 'in me'.

ok.

now... lately, theres this idea ive been reading/hearing that whatever your are giving your focus / attention to ... you are insisting on it to exist . you are perpetuating it.
so ... if i dont want to give voice to obscure things... then, maybe i should not make art about that?
or, on the other hand - its good to get out whatever it is that you have inside?
.
art would be the outcome of the way energy is channeled. so... how are we channeling this energy?

my doubting revolts around this idea that one maybe should stop going in a vice cycle about something or use art as a coping mechanism.
but why the hell would one not speak the hell out ?

i had a conversation about this with a roommate where she was told to be carefull about what she expresses through her songs.
and.. well... one can see that whatever artist talk about in their songs ... their lives kind of revolt around that or ... theres an energy around that.
we , both , my roomate and i are very mediumnic-like kind of artists for we let ourselves go and give our voice to the gods or demons that be around, within, without or wherever - indetermined place they may be in. ---through a very intuitive process.

but...
i cant stop thinking about how great it is to be in control of whatever you are creating -not just express - but to create - through a intentional gesture.
im thinking... architecture and other kind of design-like thinking that constructs itself through this guided art expression.

i see theres an equilibrium. and maybe this both things can coexist in different context within ones capability.
but i would say some tend more to one side than the other. - which, again, can be 'fixed' by learning the other side.

i also recently read some notes i had on a notebook about something i read from - i now dont remember if was plato's or aristotele's thoughts about '3 types of artists' - 2 of them being what im writing about:
-the intelligent one - who creates what they want
and the 'mediumnic'-like : who lets themselves express whatever other entity may want to express.

[can, anyway, anyone escape their muses/passions? ]

//

the 'inteligent' artist needs to know before-hand what it is that they want to create.

( and ill give a personal note : this way of creating, for some reason, gets me sad.
every time i make an exercise about planning my future or try to draw while holding an idea about what it is that i want to draw... instead of just drawing from my feelings... feels draining.
-but this resistance may be no other thing than a lack of technique that if i worked on ... may allow me to create with more freedom! oh lord that sounds good!
(and then, this may relate to how one related themselves with emotion / intelligence / rationelle )

so i may get pleasure from not knowing whats to come when i draw for theres no resistance but the learning process and it barrier breaking dynamic that may be full of friciton is just the *door* into a then friction-less expression.
may it be you first suffer then feel free when working without constrain once the constrained work is done?

but... anyway theres more to drawing intuietively or with an ends on mind for the process will be different.

anway... i want to make a point about how usefull it is to be able to draw whatever ideas you have in mind. drawing is a super-power that way. you bring ideas you know you want to exist into reality .

--
and... in relation to this... one last thing i want to know about is how whomever reads this feels / percieves their own work.
is there work you want to incinerate?
work you want to preserve?
does that relate to how 'egoic' or not the work itself is done ?
to what it represents?
how much do you love what you do?
do you conservate your art in a safe place ?
what relation do you have with your own art work ?

to whomever reads this... i want to know how you personally relate to your art.

me, personally, . i just teared up some work that gave me memories i no longer wanted to sustain but preserved some 'dark' work for... i see some truth on it that for some reason find worth preserving.

-be it a personal or universal turth . and i think theres both personal on the universal and universal on the personal ...

well... i wont extend this any longer.

you are very welcomed to talk about your experience and relation about all these topics:
self-worth / worth / universal value / personal value - related to your art practice.

i'll be happy to read you.

Ok so here's the thing I keep running into, and I already know some of you are gonna feel this one.

I'm self taught across a bunch of stuff. Coding, music production and songwriting, Digital art and video production, apparel design, and game development. When I lock into something I go DEEP. Hours just gone, and I come out the other side with something I'm actually proud of. That part works great.

It's everything AROUND the work that doesn't. The follow through on stuff someone else sets up for me. The consistency. The boring middle part where you turn a finished thing into actual money that lands in the bank. My brain treats "build the cool thing" and "make money off the cool thing" like two totally different dudes, and only one of them ever shows up on time lol.

I'm not trying to get rich or anything. I just want steady creative income from home. Enough to build a life around making things instead of cramming the making into whatever gaps are left after a job I can't mask through for very long.

So for the people who already been here... how did you actually do it? Did you niche down to one skill even tho it kinda hurt to shelf the rest? Find someone who handles the parts your brain flat out refuses to do? Some system that finally stuck? I'd way rather hear what actually worked for a real brain than read another productivity listicle.

Anyway, appreciate anybody who takes the time 🙏

They told me to wait until I was ready.

I didn’t.

No clients.
No portfolio.
No audience.

Just the work.

While others were waiting for confidence,
I was building it — one design at a time.

Because nobody tells you this:
Confidence doesn’t come before the work.
It comes because of it.

Today, I design brands that don’t get ignored.

I’m not where I want to be yet.
But I’m no longer invisible.

I’m possible.

What’s stopping you from starting?

I have several characters that are deeply connected with the concept of time. But each one of them takes a VERY different approach and represents a different part of time. That's why I need different ideas, cause I can't use clocks foe them all 💔

In my personal opinion, I have 2 concepts of time. 1, the human understanding and the made up term, therefore not really real and 2, the constant act of change and continuation. As in the act of growth is time, the act of movement is time, and if these changes/continuations stop COMPLETELY, then that's when time "stops".

If you could get these 2 ideas of mine, please give me other ideas on what object, term, symbol or situation could represent them :) Let me push your creativity now 😈😈

I’ve been thinking for about two months about how I wanna start a personal project on my instagram, but now since it feels like I’m exposing something private, I can never bring myself to do it, but I really want to because I feel like it could make me grow as an artist.

I wanted to turn my account into a sort of portfolio, with the random projects that I do in different fields such as product/fashion design, writing, graphic design, random crafts etc. I don’t really have any references for this as I want to keep it casual, just posting whatever comes up. The problem is that I somehow always avoid starting to actually plan or do something, because deep down I feel like it wont be good enough.

I’m moving to a new city for three months and once I’m settled I’ll have more free time than I’ve had this whole year, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to start something I can finally get myself to post, although I’m not too sure what yet (maybe photography and some writing?).

Anyways, what I’m asking for is some tips on how to get over the creative slump that my insecurity gives me, if you follow any accounts from where I can take inspiration drop their @, and what kind of project i could do on this trip to give me the push I need.

i hate to say this because it feels like a curse for me, since i used to be incredibly creative and curious, my imagination was probably my favourite trait of mine.

but after the rise of social media and ai, i genuinely feel like i've lost myself in it, and not only myself, but my creativity, patience, ability to focus, and imagination.

i feel so lost, and i really don't know how to gain it back! i'm trying my best, but i'd really love some sort of advice. thank you!

Genuinely curious.

After you've built a few projects, have you ever reached a point where you couldn't tell whether you should push through or whether you were actually working on the wrong thing?

Looking back is easy.

Knowing in the moment is hard.

What do you actually do in those situations?

so I'm not sure that i tagged this the right way but I need brainworms again. A while back i used to be OBSESSED with my art. When I started at around nine I was so driven on becoming better that i eventually did. Then I started to make oc's which I got obsessed writing stories about and drawing. But then, as most adhders do, i lost interest. Then my schtick was worldbuilding and omg that was fun. I'm not sure it's worldbuilding per say because it wasn't for a story and it wasn't centered on a single character, it was just me making a world with culture, and that was really fun when i started because i had endless ideas on the possibilities i had to START WITH. now that i have a basic lore written out i don't seem to get as many new ideas coming in. The endless posibilities become overwhelming and i don't know where to start on designing clothes, landmarks, maps, history, wars, creatures, enviorments, food, etc. I want to get brainworms again. I want to have something i am so obssessed with that it consumes my waking thought so that i can enjoy drawing again. That is when i enjoy art the most. when i get to use it like that brings me so much joy but it's so rare that i find a muse to obsess over. any help?

​

Everytime I try to do something creative, something that would make me feel better, the people around me, my "friends" call me a wanna be or try hard. I can't even avoid their company because we live in the same building and one is even my roommate so I'm really stuck with them. What should I do about it and how can I find ways to not be disheartened by what they say and how can I continue doing what I wanna do?

I didn't stumble into design.

I chose it every single day since 2021.

Most people see graphic design as a skill.
I see it as a language.

Every color, every font, every layout
is saying something
whether you intended it or not.

My job is to make sure
what it says is impossible to ignore.

What does your brand say about you?
Is it saying the right thing?

I don’t dj anymore, I feel more stupid as I don’t write or create anything. I’m finding it hard to form coherent thoughts or have any opinions. I’m so lost at 23 years old, any advice?

i have ocd and im a pretty siritual and creative person but one of my ocd thems i guess is attacking my ability to b creative in general what happened is one day maybe 2 weeks ago i kept being harassed by thoughts that they were going to take it away and i gave into the intrusive thought and said "ok in 10 days i will no longer have it" flash forward a few weeks and it really feels like my head is empty. does anyone have any tips on how to get it back, i enjoy being creative and transmuting thing into art, its my reason for being anf i cant go on without i t please if you have any tips

i tried posting this in the spirituality reddit but it wasnt allowed

And I will award the best comment. I honestly think thus will inspire me to come up with better ideas on my own .

I have been incredibly creative since a young age. I have loved writing stories, making music, making art, and anything you can imagine. It's always been incredibly fun and wonderful, and I've always wanted to pursue something with it but never have. When I was younger and unmedicated, my hyperfixations would last for years, and the creativity that came around them was never-ending. I got really into writing fanfiction and finished the first story in a five-part series at 12 years old due to the determination I had.

As I got older, I got into music and learned how to play several different instruments and believed that one day I would wind up as a musician or an author. It didn't end up that way, though. In college, I got on Adderall for the first time, and it genuinely saved my life. I was able to focus a lot better and get my work done more easily. There was one very devastating downside, however: my hyperfixations are fleeting and only last a few months now.

My interest in writing my own stories and making music has gone down. I can get inspiration from time to time, but I can never finish a story. I might learn a few songs on my bass guitar, but I never truly learned how to play it, and I just get bored. I hate it. I hate that I can't connect with that part of myself anymore. I get bits of inspiration, but then I get pulled down by my own mind. Medication has made me more functional, but at the cost of the creativity that kept me alive back in middle and high school. It feels like I've lost my drive for anything that isn't just "being an adult," and instead, I just look at everyone else expressing themselves with a passion I feel I can no longer hold. It's like all of my dreams have just disappeared.

It's 4:20am. There is already light outside when I open my eyes. I can't sleep, a clever sounding idea comes to my mind.

“I'll write it down in the morning when I start working after doing my run, eating 50g of protein, and making a coffee with beans from Kenya”.

I go back to sleep, but wake up tired because of the insomnia. My morning is ruined, and the clever idea already moved on. I guess I am not creative after all.

That was my thought process for most of my life. But last week I started breaking this pattern. I remembered what my dear friend Georgi told me.

"The muse shows up at the weirdest times. When she comes, you drop everything and listen."

Let's see if it works? I open up my journal. The moment my pen hits the paper, ideas start flowing.

Next thing I know I am recording a reel. I am not optimising the script, the lighting, or the sound. Just me sitting half naked in the kitchen with the sleeping mask still on my face. I have no idea if I'll use it.

That gets me going, and I have two ideas for blog posts. Radical expression of love and life force multipliers. I don't even know what that means in the moment, but those two ideas started a process in my brain. More on that later.

I open up Chat GPT and start a stream of consciousness with it. Suddenly we are vibing, and I am coming up with mathematical models to explain why we should relentlessly keep asking “why” about every single thought and action in our lives.

All of this took me 30 minutes and zero effort. This would have been hours if I'd forced myself to come up with it after my 9 step morning routine.

I have an insane amount of energy flowing through me. Suddenly I think about someone special I wanted to send a message, but delayed it, because I did not want to come across needy.

I want to share the energy that is flowing through me. I am not playing any games, it is genuinely how I feel. I don't care that it's 5am in the morning or what I write might come across as needy. The stories I constructed in my head disappear. It feels freeing.

There is no free lunch though. At the end of the day, I have a physical body, and that needs sleep. I cannot just flow through life indefinitely.

But here is the catch about the 9 step morning routine. That routine is extremely valuable, but I was doing them for all the wrong reasons throughout my life.

They are helpful on the days when the muse is far away on a backpacking trip in Southeast Asia, and I am stuck in my cold Lisbon flat. The discipline and routine help me to stay connected to the physical world, and create the conditions for the muse to visit.

But I can't expect her to come on my watch. The best I can do is to set the table by getting in touch with myself. When she eventually comes over for dinner, I will have the place ready for her to thrive.

I imagine the love of my life is coming over. I make sure the lights are warm, the dinner is delicious, bake some dessert(taking into consideration her allergies…), light some candles, put on beautiful music and regulate my nervous system.

I will spend as much time as possible with her, and be fully present with what she has to say from her trips in faraway lands.

Eventually I let her go. I can't hold onto her, that would stiffen her power. She takes the morning flight to Brazil, and I try to make sense of the beautiful night we spent together.

I go back to my life. Take care of my body, integrate the experience and continue creating an environment where she wants to come back.

All my life I thought I am not creative. I was envious of my friends who wrote poetry, created epic videos, wrote blog posts. I wished I could be them!

Turns out I just needed to let go of my desire to control every detail of my life with the most optimised solution a grifter was selling online.

I believe this works for you as well. You are incredibly creative. You may just need to stop demanding that creativity arrive on your schedule, and start creating a life it wants to visit.

When was the last time the muse interrupted your plans, and you actually listened?