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I had zero expectations walking into the movie theater to see Barbie. If anything I was a little nervous because the director, Greta Gurwig, is one of my favorite directors of all time and I didn't want to be let down seeing her fall into the brutal pit of mass consumption that movie franchises so often cater towards. Some may say she already did this by signing up to direct the movie in the first place, but to me I think she handled the entire movie to perfection. I can continue to watch Frances Ha, Lady Bird and Little Women on repeat with out any notion that the woman behind the film let me down. So how does all this relate to the topic at hand? You might have the initial thought that it was the unique set design, the color pallet or the fact that there was no CGI used in Barbieland that has pulled me out of my design rut, but we are going to unpack this movie a bit more. After all, this is a long format email. And while I used Barbie as the headline of this email (clickbait much?) there are two more things that have changed my recent design process that I would like to share. I’ve recently read the book “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” and while I wrote endless notes on most of the book the one line that has stood out to me is “ This is beginner’s mind - one of the most difficult states of being to dwell in for an artist, precisely because it involves letting go of what our experiences have taught us. Beginner’s mind is starting from a pure childlike place of not knowing. Living in the moment with as few fixed beliefs as possible. Seeing things for what they are as presented.” I saw someone online ask their followers “what is something you do that makes you happy. This activity should bring you happiness by bringing you into the present moment.” And for some reason I stopped scrolling and actually thought about the question for a long time. Sure, I like going to gym or running because I’ve always found that puts me in the present moment, but other than that- I came to the realization that I’ve really stopped doing activities outside of work that bring me joy. Yes, I love designing, but recently it’s been turned so much into a job that I haven’t been inspired to design just for fun or to bring me joy. Billie said it best “things I once enjoyed, just keep me employed”
So, how does this all connect? Well, confession, since starting this newsletter I’ve seen Barbie a second time. After seeing it the first time I went into a rabbit hole on the internet reading and watching everyones sentimental montages of their childhood. Women were talking about very specific memories they had as children- one showed an old VHS home video of her playing Barbies with her mother, another wrote about planting a tree with her grandmother and watching it grow as they both grew up. All of them were incredibly touching and I loved that these women were embracing the beauty of girlhood. For so long it felt like we had to grow out of that and stop playing, stop being imaginative and move on because suddenly Barbies were not cool anymore (but men still buy lego sets???) Anyway, in this rabbit hole post Barbie, women were reminiscing, embracing girls nights that are just crafting parties and just by all account living their best life. Then I saw it a second time and this time I left thinking only of how incredible it was that Greta Gurwig and everyone involved (costume designers, set designers, etc.) in this movie created this story that transported us to these lives we used to live yet also spark heartfelt conversations that are relevant today- it really is amazing what great design and storytelling can do. Now, for the sake of keeping this email as straight forward as possible- let’s call this Barbie experience the cone of the ice-cream scoop. And this next section the actual ice cream. “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” is a book that I strongly recommend to any designer or artist. It really does challenge your design process and the way you think about creating. I started reading this book because I decided to take a social media break after that girl on tiktok convinced me that I don’t take part in any activities that bring me joy! Wow! What a week I was having! So with Instagram on hold I actually sat down to read- but wait, I don’t want that to sound like “oh now that I am not scrolling I have the time to read” But instead I think it speaks more to the fact that our brains can only hold so much information and retain so many thoughts, so to me- taking a social media break has freed up my head to actually slow down and take in new ideas. Instead of just being fed a design technique or a color pallet that has been done and redone a million times over I am actually going out and looking for techniques and processes that I am interested in as a designer. This leads me to the sprinkles (I hate cherries) on top. With the bandwidth, the reflection of girlhood at an absolute peak and the inspiration to look at the creative process from a childlike state of mind, I have been able design, sketch and paint solely for the joy of creating. Just as it used to be.
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