By Phillip Laskaris

OD Stress

I hate to admit it, but I had my first stressed evening resulting from SCA briefs and it wasnʼt until I relaxed and did my own form of meditation that I was able to come out of the dark. Before we got there though, it was rough. It started when Rob took a good look at my idea for a placard (an idea that I was pretty dead set on). I assumed he was silent because he was examining itʼs strengths and weakness, deciding whether the right font had been picked, and if the colors were right, but then – with all his wisdom – he just said “Okay.” Not “Okay, I think this what could be improved upon” or “Okay, this is incredible youʼve peaked creatively.” Just a sole, solemn “Okay.” Needless to say, I was devestated. I respect Rob and his opinion. To see him look at my work with such ambivalence was devastating. I knew I could do better. When Marc looked at my work and reaffirmed that feeling I just knew I had to work harder. He also gave me the assurance that I would be in the shower and think of a new and better idea. So I resigned my evening to trying to figure out the perfect placard. (Which, by the way, is a term I’ve never heard. In the states we just call it a sign, placard was not in my lexicon on words until recently.) I still had a couple other things to do that evening, but on my mind most of all was this freaking “placard.” I stayed late at the studio tossing ideas around my head and the paper. Just putting anything down that made a modicum of sense. 

“Without winter when can I wear my furs” “Air Con for Antarctica” and “Melonoma” which was supposed to be a melon that looked like it had melanoma. Melanoma got a laugh from Marc, but I knew it wasn’t enough. Marc told me, after I read that idea to him, “that’s funny, but I still don’t think that’s your best.” So I spent the whole ride home with my notebook out and jotting down ideas. Anything that came to mind, I put on paper. The wackiest and the craziest ideas were granted space on my paper as a valid idea. 

Once I got home I decided I should cook. I love to cook and I think of it as a release, a meditation of sorts. So I cooked a delicious meal of cold noodles with tomatoe, mushrooms, cucumber, and zucchini (courgette.) This calmed me down a bit and I was able to focus on the other things I needed to do. Eventually, I finished those and it was back to the drawing board on my placard. I was fully stressed again. I spent the next couple hours ignoring the pleas of my flatmates to drink and celebrate, and instead worked on my placard. Soon enough, I got bored. I thought to myself “I have one idea, let’s just settle on that.” Essentially I was giving up. I got up to brush my teeth and while inn the bathroom I took a good hard long look at the shower and it hit me. Right there, in that moment, where the only thing on my mind is going to bed, I came up with my idea. Almost exactly as Marc said it would. The idea hit me. I enacted the plan, got what I needed and made it onto the media with that idea. I got exactly what I needed from an idea that came when I relaxed and was just brushing my teeth. It really taught me that sometimes, when you’re struggling with a brief, you just need to sit back and let life happen. You need to do the work too. You agreed to stress a little and try as hard as you can, because you might find it there. But if you don’t find it there, just relax, take a minute to collect yourself and see what magic happens.