SCABs

Inferiority, it’s complex – By @charlesfare

By Charles Olafare

 

Inferiority, it’s complex

 

We’re now at the fourth week of SCA. We’ve covered scamping, straplines and about a billion creative techniques. We’re not quite at the meat of the things we’re supposed to be doing here, we’re at least closer to the bone than we started.

 

It’s nutty though, even in this relatively short time, I’ve experienced a veritable roller coaster of emotions. There have been days when I’ve felt completely in love with the idea of being a “creative”. Others I’ve felt like I just wasn’t getting it.

 

The hardest part has definitely been the daily scamping sessions we powered through last week. There are few things more galling than spending the better part of a day trying, struggling, toiling to make an engaging piece of advertising – using only a Sharpie, several reams of paper, and incredibly shoddy draughtsmanship – only to see someone approach a brief from an angle you could never have dreamed up and absolutely nail the execution, too.

 

Honestly, it’s a complete head-fuck. As soon as those bits of A4 paper (or videos) start popping up on the wall, the enormity of just how much you have to learn smacks you dead in the face. It leaves a fucking mark like you couldn’t believe. The kind that enters your head and follows you into sleep. I remember one night last week waking up in a fevered sweat and thinking to myself “Oh God, I’ll never win a Pencil…”

 

Imagine that. The rational side of me knew this kind of black sky thinking is utter bullshit and useless to boot. It’s stupid to be developing an inferiority complex so early in the game. But my far more fragile emotional side had the wind taken right out of its sails. I spent the rest of the week wallowing through a muck of bad vibes, self-doubt and self-defeat.

 

Anyways, fast forward to today and I’m back to my usual sunny self. All smiles, hearty laughs and high fives!.

 

Why? Well. While working on our agency name brief, I managed to teach myself the simplest little piece of typography in Photoshop and use it as part of our logo. Now I feel amazing. So amazing in fact that I’ve chartered a private jet to Cupertino, California. I’ve got my MacBook in hand ready to kick down the front doors of Apple HQ and declare myself their newest creative director.

 

All hail your new king! Tremble all ye at the might new found design skills. Humble yourself in the glow of my laptop screen.

 

Actually, I think that’s just the pints talking. All I’m saying is that at least one of the things Marc’s been telling us has proven itself true: hard work does best talent. And the rewards of said work are a heady, empowering brew.

 

In the time it took to read a tutorial, take in what it taught me and do the work, I’ve gone from maudlin to megalomaniacal. Imagine how I’ll feel if I keep this up ’till Portfolio Day?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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