Christoph Niemann: How to Overcome the 3 Fears Every Creative Faces

Today I watched a talk in which Christoph Niemann discusses the 3 fears that every creative faces and how to overcome them. The talk was great and really relatable as a designer as I feel that it is important to recognise the fears that we have as creatives, but what we can do to overcome them instead of getting into a hole/creative blocks. Whilst watching the talk, I made notes on points which  I found important and useful towards me as a designer.

Christoph mentions that when he first started out as a designer, he mostly he worked in editorial and his deadlines were very short which he didn’t enjoy, but recently he’s done more self generated project- he thought this would be easier but it wasn’t. 90% of the time he sat at his desk feeling sorry for himself. This lead to him discussing the topic of fears that we face as creatives:

The 3 Fears of being a creative:

• I’m not good enough
• My work is irrelevant and soon I’ll be broke
• Im out of ideas

These are legitimate fears to have as a creative.

He mentions when you look at old work from 2 years ago and think to yourself ‘oh my god how did they let me get away with that’, I can relate to this as sometimes I find myself looking back at something I did this time last year and think the same, but I think this is a good thing as it shows that you’ve grown and improved as a designer since then.

He also mentions that when you look at other peoples work you wonder whether you can be as good as them, but I think this is also good as it gives you something to aspire to, it keeps you motivated to want to get better and better, I don’t think comparison is a bad thing personally- its part of the creative process, as long as you're not trying to be someone else.

The fact that people always judge you by your best work- you feel like you have to keep up with that and repeat the process…this is how you run out of ideas

Another point which was discussed throughout the talk that stuck with me was that if you want to, you can walk away from any job. “Knowing that you’re not forced to do anything is good because it frees you up to do much better work”.

Further notes:

• When you’re creating work, it's good to be nice to yourself but every once in a while you become your harshest critic - you have to do this, as yourself ‘does this work?’ 

• Social media is designed to mess with our insecurities, it's a bit of an ego boost but is it real? Don’t confuse it with real value. 

• Don’t make yourself dependant on your art work

• Don’t be afraid to take creative leaps! Make yourself do things that intimidate you, this is how you don’t run out of ideas. 

• The 20% rule: spend 20% of your time everyday to do something that you are passionate about- doesn’t have to be related to what you’re doing at that current time. everything has an influence on your practice

Examples of Christoph's work that I enjoyed: