5 things I learnt from Soho Create Festival
The five things that I learnt from the Soho Create Festival. My review and a few cartoons to illustrate my highlights.
Last week I was honoured to be given a press pass to attend the Soho Create Festival - the first one ever held in London, and I was blown away by the awesomeness of it. In a nutshell, Soho Create gathers together successful entrepreneurs from a variety different creative fields to talk about their experiences of creativity, their creative journey, their creative processes and the big WHY they do what they do. It was so interesting and inspiring listening to these talks and workshops from photographers, song writers, illustrators, furniture designers, jewelry designers, fashion designers, singers, interior designers, graphic designers...
What struck me most about these talks is that in spite of all the creatives being from completely different fields, (and their workshops focusing on different aspects of creativity) all their messages, thoughts and on-stage musings had very common themes.
I've decided to share the top five things that I've learnt from Soho Create -
1. OBSERVE, ABSORB. ( < epic tongue twister)
The idea of paying close attention to what is going on around you is something that was spoken about again and again and again (and again). So often these days we are caught up in the busy-ness of every day life that we fail to take in small incidents, tiny moments, little sparks of conversations we overhear, flashes of colours, combinations of shapes, lights, sounds and general "things" around us that can greatly influence and inspire our creative cogs. In other words,
Rob Ryan often has his "creative spark" moments when he is outside riding his bike, while Sir John Hegarty suggests going for a walk - connecting to what is around you, becoming an observer of life. Getting away from the computer, away from the screens, the technology, the online "socialness" (which really isn't very "social" at all) - fundamentally getting back to what it means to be human. Take in everything around you. BE the sponge.
2. FEARLESSNESS IS CRUCIAL.
The concept of Fearlessness is something that fed through many of the talks and is also something that I am slowly learning on my own creative journey. Fearlessness in being bold enough to create something new, creative and exciting, the fearless belief in yourself and your ideas and the fearlessness to take big risks and blind leaps. When the jewelry makers behind Tatty Devine were approached by Vogue and asked to present their (non-existant) product collection in two days time - they leapt right in, because they were young, fearless and had nothing to lose - which is the crux of success in the creative journey. Creativity and the (real success) paths that lead from it, are scary and it takes a really fearless person to abadon the "normal" 9-5 desk job to pursue a job in creativity -
(me, currently)
3. SELF DOUBT WILL ALWAYS EXIST
It was incredibly reassuring to hear SO many of these international creative success stories speak about self doubt. Nadav Kander (who grew up in South Africa) has photographed Barack Obama and Prince Charles, and Sacha Skarbek who wrote "Wrecking Ball" and "You're Beautiful" (James Blunt) - both spoke about the constant fear of self doubt. I found it SO inspiring to hear these MASSIVE success stories share their creative journey and hear that they still experience the same kind of creative insecurities that so many other young creatives experience. I guess that is what keeps them, and us, constantly creating. Constantly re-working, re-inventing, re-creating.
4. THE CREATIVE JOURNEY IS NOT A LINEAR PATH
The creative journey is not a straight path - there will be ups, downs, round-abouts and back-to-the-drawing boards. It's all "normal" in the creative journey. Many of these creatives such as Fashion Designer Helen David, Charlie and Lola illustrator Lauren Child and songwriter Sacha Skarbek noted that some of their favourite works evolved through a series of "Happy Accidents" - that the opportunity to simply "play" in the mediums that they love often inspired the most interesting and creative results.
(Side note: I'm totally waiting for someone to discover all my "happy accidents" that suddenly fire up into something awesome. "Um, hi world - I have the ideas, anyone there?")
5. KNOW THYSELF
Lauren Child (illustrator of Charlie and Lola) commented that her success really came when she stopped creating for the intention of others and started creating the things that she wanted to create. Things that were true and authentic to her. Novelist Xiaolu Guo - also spoke to this with regard to the concept of culturalism and personal political ideals informing the creative process. Similarly Ms Dynamite spoke a lot on the concept of "the spiritual side" of being in the creative industry. On the one hand there is the hustle and bustle of things that need to be done and on the other side is the personal side of creativity, the spiritual side, the side that connects our creative offerings to the rest of the world. The common thread being that only once you truly know yourself, are you able to offer your most authentic and creative expressions of self, and consequently, produce your most successful and creative work.
* * * * *
The two days I spent at Soho Create was a WHIRLWIND of ideas, inspiration and colourful brain-mulching. It has inspired me to keep on plugging at this little creative path of mine and hopefully someday soon the publisher of some fancy-pants publishing house will offer me a book deal, or some greeting card association will help turn indieBerries into an epic stationery and product range, or perhaps a creative agent will suddenly appear on my doorstep and tell me the best way to utilise my illustrations, weird humour and wild wit. Or maybe I will just relegate myself to a life of baked beans on toast and just continue to create for creativity's sake.
Who knows?
