I Can’t Draw
People often tell me they can’t be creative because they can’t draw but I call bullshit! Just because you can’t draw, doesn’t mean you are not creative. Just because you can’t draw, doesn’t mean you can’t design. Just because you can’t draw, doesn’t mean you can’t learn it.
Don’t Believe in Hustle Culture
Workin’ 9 to 5 / work hard play hard / good things happen to those who hustle…Let’s file those statements under “things I no longer believe in”. In the last 3 years of building my freelance business, I’ve realised how damaging hustle culture is and how that has changed things.
A Motion Designer’s Portrait
As entrepreneurs we make decisions in which direction our business is going. The paths might change throughout our careers, but often we know the destination. I have known early on, that I wanted to be a motion designer. My mission, however, has only become clear, since I started my freelance business.
Creative Brief as a Freelance Designer
Confession: It’s been 6 years since I’ve worked on a client project from start to finish. Honestly, I was losing confidence in my ability to conceptualise, design and animate a whole motion graphics explainer video by myself.
Why Should I Listen to Trees?
I have recently discovered drama podcasts, or what the Germans call a “Hörspiel” 🎧 I was never a huge audio book listener, because I often drift off when the narrator is reading the book. There is something about drama podcasts, that keeps me engaged and this one is on a whole new level.
Why I niched down
I have always liked animating GIFs and creating short snippets of larger animations. I would share them on social media to create excitement for a particular project. It never occured to me that making GIFs could be a whole job in itself, instead of just a fun side task, until I started making animated stickers.
When unexpected events happen
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein.
I am someone who has a structured work schedule. I plan my days and weeks out in advance and like, when things go according to plan. When my schedule gets thrown out of balance by unexpected events, this can cause some inner turmoil.
Why I don’t follow trends
I love sharing what I’ve learned, no matter how obscure it is or how small the target audience may be. Because at the end of the day, I make what I am interested in. If I can’t find a solution to a creative problem online, there are bound to be other people who have the same problem. I want to be able to offer a solution.
Why I am an online teacher
When I was little, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I remember that I would spend my time taking sewing classes and going to extra curricular sewing clubs. As you might have guess, I didn’t become a fashion designer but a motion designer instead. What stuck from that time, however, was having a passion for a craft, wanting to become really good at it and finding ways to learn.
Reflecting on 2020
Everybody has difficult years but a lot of times the difficult years end up being the greatest years of your whole entire life, if you survive them.
– Brittany Murphy
Why it’s important not to get stuck in a loop
When I finished my first Sticker Pack, I wasn’t particularly happy with it. Frankly, I thought it sucked. I thought I sucked. Reminding myself of the “Done is better than perfect” mantra, I released it anyway. This helped kickstart a whole new mental state and project phase. I was able to enter the focus testing and feedback stage of the project.
Why it’s hard to complete a project
As a creative I have multiple plates spinning in the air at any given time. From personal projects to client work to admin and marketing tasks. There is always something stopping, starting or on hold. Sometimes, I abandon projects and I have started contemplating why that is.
If you don’t design, are you a motion designer?
I have specialised in motion graphics pretty early on, during my studies. I got my first job as a motion designer, right after uni. But I always fared better, when working in a team of creatives, coming up with ideas together and executing the animation. At my first junior role, I discovered the term “artworker” – someone who executes designs, rather than comes up with them.
Why I make edutainment content
I’m a Philomath: a lover of learning. I revel in consuming and creating educational-entertainment content. So, when a TEDxTUM speaker Lutz Kettler asked me to animate a visualisation of a neural mechanism for his talk, I was all in.
Pivot When The Occasion Calls For It
As a freelance designer I am taught to regard social media as the target marketing strategy. Post quality content, post regularly, post often. As many of you, I have been pushing forward to build an audience on Instagram and other platforms. It feels like, one is constantly fighting against the algorithm. Trying blindly what works, not knowing which of the parameters were the winning ones, that got the post to succeed or underperform.
How to create accountability
I would like to thank Stina Jones for allowing me to animate her cute little character. It was a lot of fun! I love collaborating with other artists, as it gives me the opportunity to bring their designs to life in the form of animation. But how do you create accountability for yourself on solo passion projects?
How to build a community
Being part of a community of like-minded people can be very enriching. You can share successes and pitfalls, especially in a professional setting. It is however important to surround yourself with people that not only share your interests but also your socio-economic circumstances.
How do you stay balanced
I have always struggled with mental health. I am quite an anxious person and also suffer from bouts of depression. In recent years I have found techniques that helped me stay balanced. 風は吹けども山は動ぜず – “Though the wind blows, the mountain does not move”. With inner strength, outside influences will not shake you.
How to start a collab
This is how I took a surface pattern created by Lara Mascareño, my creative partner in the #DistantCollab Instagram Challenge, during the first 2020 lock-down and transformed it from a static design to a looping animation.