This is a sort-of response blog post to Jack Howard and Tom Ridgewell's (somewhat) recent videos about being creatively down, combined with my emotions of being on my six week mid-year holiday from university.

Tom talks about Post-Upload Syndrome (a name he proudly says he made up) where he speaks on response to a completed project that you release into the world. The critique and feedback that you can get from your peers and the general public can be so overwhelmingly positive, but it's just that one person that says it's not good/bad/crap and for some reason your mind decides to be drawn to this person, that one percent that tells you you're not good enough. Because that's quite often what you, yourself think. And that's why you pay attention to that one person.



Jack speaks about how sad he gets upon completing a project and how difficult it can be to create after finishing a project. His thoughts are similar to Tom's discussion on criticism, however Jack talks about the self-criticism that he gives himself. When your mind tells you that you'll never create something as good ever again, that what you just made is actually rubbish or that you're pretending to be good at what you do when you're really not.


Currently I am on my mid-year holiday during my final year in my design degree and I am feeling all of these emotions that Jack and Tom have spoken about.

I got some great grades in my projects from the start of the year, building up my hopes that I could be well on my way to obtaining a First Class Honours qualification at the end. However, one of the assignments that I handed in is solely what gives me the Honours part of my degree, and if I fail that dissertation I wrote, then I can't continue into the second semester and not get Honours. Even if I pass this paper with honours (edit: I got a B-!), if I don't get an A average grade for the whole of this year I wont be able to get First Class Honours. I have put this overwhelming pressure on myself to get First Class Honours that even if I get Second Class Honours I have failed myself, despite getting Honours at all is a huge achievement.

Then there's the issue of being on holiday and not having to create for a month and a half. Luckily, I have gotten a design internship which goes until the day before I start semester two, so I will not be completely devoid of creative projects. I have also set myself the goal to start creating an online store to sell some of my typographic designs that I have created, which I have had in mind for almost a year now, except finally I am getting my a-into-g and doing it!


I guess, what I am trying to say here is that the post-creative stage can be a really tough one. But the great thing about being a creative is that I don't have to stop being creative when I don't have university or don't have an internship to do. There's just so many things that you can do to get those creative juices flowing.

I can re-design my blog, create some prints, give myself a project or a "thing" to create... there's just so many things I can do!

I hope the mid-year blues haven't gotten to you, but if they have, I hope you're tackling them well. Just get out there and DO something, and you might just find a new project to start!

- Louise x