In over my head
6.15.2008
Everyone who's known me for any length of time would agree that I'm a detail-oriented person. Like, to a fault.
Back in my school days I was the kid that always took charge of group projects and assignments, meaning that I typically ended up with a huge headache since I was the one up till the crack of dawn the night before, stuck with 90% of the workload. And the bad thing about it was that it wasn't necessarily that the other kids didn't do their share of the work. Instead, it just didn't fit my vision for what it was supposed to be. Seriously, I am (and always have been) a control freak.
I'd say 7 times out of 10 it's a bad thing to be so anal about stuff. In the case of school the worst part of it was the self-induced stress, but in grown-up life, it means that I often step on other peoples toes when they're not doing something the way I feel it should be done... It's an illness I tell ya! But I'm working on it...
Now, as for those other 3 times out of 10, as in the case of running my own business, being this crazy about details and perfection-izing everything is actually great. Because basically, it means I'm not satisfied with something until I have disassembled and rebuilt it a handful of times. I try to see it from every angle in my head, anticipate every possible problem, and make adjustments where I see fit.
A great example of this is this new project I'm working on. See, tshirt designs are one thing, because it's a path I've run a gazillion times and I know exactly what the steps are from start to finish. It's just a matter of coming up with a fun style or image, doing the design, and prepping it for my printer. But new products are a completely different beast because there are so many unknowns! They're a ton of fun to do because everything is fresh and exciting and different, but they kind of scare me to death. This one, especially, makes me nervous just to think about it, because I'm literally going to be involved in every stage of production, as in, the actual manufacturing of the product. That being the case, I'm putting in 110% to making it a super unique product with all sorts of extra details. And those details pop into my head randomly, go onto a sheet of paper in my notebook, and distract me constantly from the task at hand (that of doing the actual graphic work!) So, sadly, after sitting at my desk in front of my computer for nearly 6 hours, I've accomplished a tiny percentage of my design goal for the day (which was doing 2 more characters).
The good news is that I've got a page full of little notes and sketches, new ideas that I think will make this project even more unique and exciting...
posted by Mr. Linty @ 12:13 AM,
