For this final episode of Season 2, Rachael and Lauren talk about creating challenges and passion projects and how the practice can be useful for self-discovery, play, and meeting creative milestones. They examine crafting prompts from both personal and business perspectives and share helpful examples along the way.
For this final episode of Season 2, Rachael and Lauren talk about creating challenges and passion projects and how the practice can be useful for self-discovery, play, and meeting creative milestones. They examine crafting prompts from both personal and business perspectives and share helpful examples along the way.
Big thanks to our audience for listening this season. Please share our pod with someone you think would love the show AND give us a rating and review! We’ll be back soon for Season 3!
In the meantime, join Rachael for a FREE Creative Challenge Webinar on March 30th! Sign up here!
Episode Mentions
The transcript for this episode can be found here!
Lauren: This podcast is a challenge in itself. We gave ourselves when we first ... When you first approached me being like, "Do you want to do a podcast?" I was like, "Yes."
We committed to doing 10 episodes, and then evaluating to see if we wanted to do more.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: So, we gave ourselves a container with this podcast.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: So, I think that's the ultimate example of, "Okay. Let's try this thing out. Low commitment. We don't have a lot of skin in the game. It's just going to be an experiment."
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I think you got to approach it as an experiment, and then see what the results are.
Rachael: Yeah.
*****
Lauren: Hello and welcome to Chaotic Creatives, the show about embracing the chaos that comes from living a creative life.
Rachael: We are your hosts, two self-proclaimed chaotic, creative gals.
I'm Rachael Renee. I'm your internet hype gal. I'm a creativity coach here to help you live a big, juicy life.
Lauren: Hell yeah. And I am Lauren Hom. Some of you might know me better as Hom Sweet Hom all over the internet. I am a letterer, designer, muralist, and most recently, a chef.
Rachael: Yay. This is our last episode.
Lauren: We made it.
Rachael: Wow.
Lauren: You made it.
Rachael: Of season two. We'll be back for season three, obviously. I've requested, though, that we go back to chairs for season three.
Lauren: This work bench was cute, but we have to reassess-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... and prioritize our lower backs.
Rachael: We're middle-aged now.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Yeah. We both had birthdays during season two. So, now it's time to care for our aging bodies.
Lauren: Yes. Yes.
Rachael: We are excited, though, today to talk about creative challenges. You've heard us talk about containers. And we thought it might be good to end this season with some actionable inspiration for creative challenges.
Lauren: Yeah. Since we'll be leaving you for a bit to take our season break, we thought this might be a good time to give you some strategies to create your own briefs, challenges. So, you can actually focus on the things you want to do.
Before we started recording, I told Rachael that I think the thesis of this podcast is, "Help! My eyes are bigger than my stomach when it comes to all the creative things I want to do with my finite amount of time and energy and life. How do I spend more time doing the creative stuff and less time thinking about how to do the creative stuff?"
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: And one of those ways that I've found to be the most effective, you've seen me do it, you've seen Rachael do it, is to come up with your own project, or challenge, and I always refer to this as, "Creating your own brief," where you are the client and the creative director where you get to decide the parameters that you're going to work within for the specific project, and you also get to approve everything.
Like, right out of the gate, and that is the benefit of doing your own personal work, and instead of just sitting down to a blank page, because we all know how scary that can be, and not knowing what to make, when you have a challenge, or a project that you've set for yourself, when you sit down, it gives you an instant focus of like, "Okay. I said I was going to draw every single one of the letters of the alphabet." Right?
For the next 26 days, one letter a day, and that just gives you a container to start, and to actually practice the skills that you say you want to get better at.
Rachael: Yeah. And I think, at least, for me, as a chaotic creative, being able to, like you said, refer back to that ... There's the guardrails. You use a lot of great terminology that I co-opt for myself.
Lauren: Great.
Rachael: Guardrails are a great one, because it's, like, you can still work within the guardrails, or the container, but having those boundaries is helpful to make progress.
Thinking about it like a go-kart, or a bumper car. Right? Like, you want to go through this winding path, and get to the ultimate goal of bettering your creative skill, or finding your style, or whatever it is, and you have to bounce off the walls to figure out how to get there, it's a winding, messy path, but if you can create those guardrails for yourself, it helps you get there faster.
Lauren: Yeah. You're just corralling yourself-
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: ... basically. And there's a time where having parameters can feel restricting, like, if they're too narrow-
Rachael: Yup.
Lauren: ... or if they're parameters that you, yourself didn't set, that someone else set for you, you might start to feel resentful of that-
Rachael: Ooh, I always do.
Lauren: ... but in this case, and I think a lot of creatives have that. Right?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: A little bit of, like, anti-authority-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... just like, "I'm going to do it my own way."
Rachael: Exactly.
Lauren: And I think that's a really beautiful character trait that creative people have, and the limitlessness of creativity can be overwhelming sometimes, because for anyone who's done any kind of creative freelance work, if you've ever been given a brief by a client where they're like, "We love everything you do. Do whatever you want," you know that turns out poorly 95% of the time, because setting a brief just sets intentions. It sets some goals for where we're trying to go. Are we going in the same direction?
And on your own with a brief, or a challenge, you can do that for yourself where you feel a little less chaotic, you have some parameters where you can express your creativity, but you're giving yourself guardrails to focus, and then by the end of your challenge, you will have this body of work, or this little nice little package that you've created where you're like, "Oh, I did that. I can see my progress."
It's almost like a little ... I've always considered personal projects, or challenges. At the end, you look away and you're like, "I curated a little mini gallery show."
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: And curation really matters, especially, in this day and age. The last episode we just talked about, why social media feels so overwhelming, because there's very few parameters.
And I think that with this, it's like, "Okay. Niche for now." Right? Focus for now-
Rachael: Yup.
Lauren: ... what is something that I've been talking about and saying that I want to do, or want to work on, but I just haven't been able to? Breaking it up into little bite-sized pieces in the form of a challenge, or a passion project is a great way to just take a step there.
Rachael: Absolutely. Yeah, and I think you need to think about ... And what we'll do at the second half of the episode is rapid-fire-
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: ... hit each other with potential skills, or prompts, and then the other one will have to come up with-
Lauren: Yeah. To set you up with-
Rachael: ... a challenge.
Lauren: ... some examples of-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... what a challenge could look like, big or small.
Rachael: Yup.
Lauren: Because you can really tailor this to how much bandwidth you have right now-
Rachael: Yup.
Lauren: ... if you're going through a slower season where you have lots of time, then you might want to do a meatier challenge. If you are really busy, and you only have an hour on the weekends, then a little bite-sized challenge.
You want to tailor your challenge to your actual available time. So, you don't end up in this spiral of, "Well, I can't do the thing that I want to do," and then you let yourself ... You're setting yourself up for disappointment by setting the bar so high.
Rachael: Yup. I think it might have been in the last season, but I tried to do Creative Play for May Challenge.
Lauren: The portrait thing?
Rachael: Yes. For myself, because I wanted to get better at drawing self-portraits, and I love this idea of having a collection of self-portraits ... Or no. It wasn't just drawing. It was any medium.
But I personally wanted to get better at drawing with different colored pencils. And I got three days into the challenge, and I was like, "I hate this," but the challenge is also if you set yourself up, and you're like, "Okay. I want to draw self-portraits. I wat to use this medium. I want to improve this technical skill," if you're really digging your heels in when you set this challenge for yourself, and you don't want to do it, one, it's okay, and, two, maybe you're just attracted to that as art to consume and not-
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: ... to make.
Lauren: And you don't know until you test it-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... out.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: That was a big light bulb moment for me.
Lauren: Ooh, and I'm glad you figured that out. I think we can approach this from ... You've done your style challenge on Instagram-
Rachael: Yup.
Lauren: ... which is a daily outfit prompt. Right? For a month.
Rachael: Sorry. My skirt is really loud.
Lauren: Real crunchy.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And I've done my own version of a challenge, which is I have two ways I've done it, I've done a creative challenge that actually was an email prompt that I would send out of like, "Here's the brief for the week."
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: "We're going to make this thing."
Rachael: Wow. That was a longstanding thing.
Lauren: Such a long thing, and also just such a long time ago.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And I've also done it in my own design career coming up with my own projects for myself. Like, passion projects where I'm like, "Okay. I'm going to use this scale, and this is going to be the topic, and I'm going to create a small body of work around this one tight topic. So, I have a portfolio piece"-
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: ... "At the very end of the day that I can put in my portfolio to show a client that I can execute chalkboard lettering across 10 different chalkboards," or something, versus just, like, one-off pieces, which are fine, they're well and good to do one-off pieces to explore, to experiment.
I have some sitting on my desk right now.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I was playing with acrylic inks this weekend, and didn't really have a goal. But I was telling Kristle that-
Rachael: But that's play.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: That's prioritizing play, and figuring out, "Do I even like this?"
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: Because if you set a challenge for yourself, "I'm going to paint tomatoes every day," it could have been like, "Oh, I actually hate this," and then you can internalize that. At least, I know I did for a while. Like, "Oh my gosh. I can draw. I should do this more."
It's like, "No. I don't actually enjoy this."
Lauren: Yeah. I think one-off, like, just playing around in a sketchbook, or trying a little bit of the thing you think you might want to do a challenge around is a good predecessor to creating the challenge, because we don't want to do cart before horse. Right?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: We don't want eyes bigger than stomach.
Rachael: Except that's how we all-
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: ... operate as chaotic creatives.
Lauren: And we're telling you this from experience-
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: ... of like, "Don't ..." You can do that, and we should all learn from experience, but if you ... Let's say this is a skill you've been dabbling in, like me, with acrylic inks.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I really only did it for a weekend at this point. And I'm like, "Oh, okay. I like this. I would love to find a way to practice this weekly."
I think it's important when it comes to creating your own brief to really hone in on what is the creative skill I'm trying to work on? Like, whether it's figure drawing, whether it's acrylic ink, whether it's curating outfits. Right?
Rachael: Yeah. I think even taking a step back, and figuring out not just what skill we were trying to hone in, but what's the goal? Is the goal to hone in on a skill, or is it to gain some insight? Is it to take some of your own time back and make creative work for yourself?
Because understanding the goal ... Like, a lot of the challenges we do, of course, are going to be to hone a creative skill, but it could be broader than that. Does that make sense?
Lauren: Yeah. So, it's you have a fair way to evaluate it at the end?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: So, you're not beating yourself up of like, "Why am I not a master level painter by the end of this challenge?"
Rachael: Yeah. A more specific example I guess, because I'm thinking of like, "Okay. I want to do a style challenge, so, that I can play more, get dressed every day. I want to understand what I feel good in, and I want to take inventory of the clothes that are in my closet."
So, that's not me necessarily honing in on a skill as far as getting dressed. It's more like utilizing what I have. So, maybe in terms of an artistic practice, creative challenge, in a comparable comparison, a comparison would be like, "I have acrylic paints. I have colored pencils. I have oil pastels. I have clay. I have this. I have all these things that I haven't touched in over a year. I want to do each of those for a week, and make the same thing. So, that I can figure out which ones of these are actually fun for me, and which ones can I get rid of?"
So, the goal of that is figuring out what's fun, not necessarily improving a technical skill, or like, "What art supplies can I donate to the arts and scraps store?"
Lauren: Okay. I see. I've been approaching this from a more professional-
Rachael: Specifically ... Oh, okay.
Lauren: ... lens.
Rachael: Sure.
Lauren: But that's also just the realm I operate in.
Rachael: Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
Lauren: I think it's-
Rachael: And mine is play.
Lauren: It's good to have both of these perspectives of you can have a challenge where, let's say, in your case, it's like, "Okay, I want to ..." Like, what is my goal?
The goal could be to get client work-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... for lettering-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... or to improve your illustration skills, specifically, targeted at editorial clients. That's one thing coming from the agency world, when you actually get a brief, often times there is a goal. Right? That you're trying ... And then a mark, like, an audience you're actually trying to market this to, or if there is someone at the end of the day you're trying to serve.
And so, is this geared towards anyone beside yourself, because if it is for personal fulfillment, or exploration, that's cool. That is the outcome you're looking for, but if, let's say, you're like, "I'd really love to get paid to design a book cover someday"-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... then that helps you orient in a certain direction of like, "Okay. Don't lose sight of these book covers should have some commercial appeal."
Rachael: Exactly. So, like, setting the goal-
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: ... I think is before what skill do you want to own? Like, the goal is, "I want to do a challenge to improve my technical skill to get client work." Does that make sense?
Lauren: Yeah. Totally.
Rachael: Versus, "I want to go through my art supply closet to figure out which things light me up. So, that I can clear space in my home," or studio.
Lauren: I think there's multiple inroads-
Rachael: Oh, yeah.
Lauren: ... like, you might want to create a challenge where it's like, "Okay. I want to use what's already in my studio."
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I've seen artists around, I don't know, spring-cleaning time talk about, "No new supplies until I clean out my studio supplies."
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And you could set a challenge where you're like, "I'm just going to create projects with the different materials." It can be your inroad is the materials. Your inroad could be a topic, but your ... Like, romance novels. Right? You're like, "I love romance novels and I just want to do something that's creative and fun," and then your inroad is, "How can I spend more time thinking about romance novels and integrating that into my art?"
Rachael: "I think I need to spend less time thinking about romance novels." No. That makes sense. Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Or it can be like, "I want to get a book cover client. So, I'm going to do book cover challenges."
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah. And then that will dictate ... You can use any mediums to do-
Rachael: Oh, yeah.
Lauren: ... these things, but figuring out that, and then figuring out, well, like we said at the beginning, how much time do you have? What is the window?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: So, for me, I went to culinary school recently, and that was a year, and that's one of the bigger I'd say commitments in terms of time. For coming up with your own prompt, or your own challenge, you might want to say like ... Hopefully, take a beat to think about what works for you. For me, I like a tighter timeline, because it actually forces me to get stuff done.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: You might want to say, "Hey. I am currently in-between jobs. So, I have a ton of time." You could do a daily challenge, but if you're working full-time, a daily challenge just might not be realistic for you. So, you might want to do a weekly challenge, or every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then give yourself the weekend off.
It can be whatever, again, is realistic for you, and then figure out for how long of a period of time you want to do that for. I think a week, a month, however long feels appropriate.
Like, in the design industry, there was the 100 Day Project where people would do one piece per day for 100 days, but most people would just front-load it, and make 100 pieces and drop them out, which makes a lot of sense.
Rachael: Sure.
Lauren: There's 36 Days of Type, which is all the letters and the numbers I believe, just 36 days in a row. So, whatever works for you.
For me, if I'm publishing something, which I, typically, like to share whatever the end product of my challenge is in real time, because it keeps me accountable. I don't know how you feel-
Rachael: Yeah. Agreed.
Lauren: ... about that, but I also think it's helpful in figuring out ... It's a good way to test out what people respond to with your-
Rachael: That's true.
Lauren: ... work in creativity too.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Because you never know if you are, let's say, curious about taking any of your creative skills into a professional realm, you do need some audience feedback just to figure out where you might fit, and where there might be opportunities to provide services, or product.
Rachael: I also think that as far as the accountability thing goes, posting live, or it doesn't even have to be that you're posting on the internet, but that's what we're talking about-
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: ... but it could be just, like, doing a live vlog entry, or posting on your Notion page-
Lauren: Documenting it somewhere I think is important, even if it's just you do one, let's say, watercolor painting a day, and you just tape it up to your wall-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... so, you can see the collection-
Rachael: See the process. Yeah.
Lauren: ... you've amassed, because I think often times it's easy to feel a little bit adrift at sea when it comes to your creative output, but when you see them all literally like a gallery in a-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... in a museum, or ... It can be a helpful reminder of like, "Oh, yeah. I made all those things, and let's look at them as a body of work versus"-
Rachael: Exactly.
Lauren: ... "Individual pieces."
Rachael: Yup. And that's what I talked to you about when I ... Because I sent out email for people to do the Creative Play with May when I did the self-portrait challenge, and that's what I talked about. Like, okay, if I can commit to doing this for 30 days, I will have 30 self-portraits.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: That is a collection of work. Like, a body of work-
Lauren: Totally.
Rachael: ... in itself, and I have been interested in, and I know you've heard me talk about this, learning more about what it takes to have a solo art show. And so, that was just me noodling on, "Okay. I'm going to start building bodies of work."
But for the posting, or however you're documenting it, I think doing it live can also help you recognize how easy it is to not prioritize it. Like, I'm thinking, specifically, of the style changes.
When I have gone, like, traveled, or gone on vacation, or something, for a time period during the style changes, I ... Lauren is about to eat her tiny banana.
Lauren: I realized that it was just sitting in-between us this whole time.
Rachael: That's a fun prop. It's just so tiny. It's, like, two bites.
So, I know that I went to New York one of the times that I was hosting a style challenge. And so, I, very specifically, had to pack things that fit into those categories for my trip, and it helped, because it gave me a container to pack in.
And so, now I always am thinking like, "What are my color schemes for when I pack?" Because it helps me approach packing a little bit more intentionally than just like, "I want to bring everything."
But also it helps us recognize how easy it is to let that practice slip when something is out of routine. Like, if I were doing a self-portrait drawing challenge that I was excited about, and then I was going on vacation, I might be like, "Well, I'll just do it when I get back," and then I stopped doing that practice.
And I think it can give us insight into where we're not prioritizing our creative practice, because it's easy to let that fall away. Does that make sense?
Lauren: Yeah, because there aren't any immediate consequences for-
Rachael: Right.
Lauren: ... letting it slip.
Rachael: Except letting yourself down in the long run. Right? Like, we have to commit to play, we have to commit to our creative practice, to honing our skill, to trying new things, to figuring out our creative voice and vision, and the only way to do that is to make work, and whatever creative work that is, whether it's outfits, or whatever.
But to commit to doing it, and these challenges help us bump it up in the priority list-
Lauren: Kristle and I just went to go see a panel of poets at the Palestinian Festival of Literature-
Rachael: Cool.
Lauren: ... and someone onstage said something about how theory is discovered through practice. And so, you can have all your ideas of what you're going to like, what you want to do, what direction you want to go in, but until you actually put in the reps, you won't actually be standing firm in that theory. Like, the theory is solidified by the practice.
Rachael: Wow. Love that.
Lauren: Yeah. I know.
Rachael: It seems so obvious, but, yeah. Not something-
Lauren: It's so tough to get stuck in your head I think, because, especially ... Sorry. I just put my tiny banana peel down.
Do you also love that you said it was two bites and I've taken, like, six?
Rachael: Just a little nibble. Not me. I hork my food down.
Lauren: But, yeah. I think it is important to commit yourself to a practice, to not beat yourself up if you miss a little bit, but if you can get ahead of it, and not fall behind, I think it's a nice vouch of confidence in yourself and saying, "Hey. I'm going to prioritize this thing, this thing matters"-
Rachael: This thing matters to me. Yeah.
Lauren: ... "To me." When you use the analogy of packing for a trip, I think that's actually a really great way to think about a challenge, or a passion project, because you are figuring out, "Hey. How do I pack for this specific trip of what clothes am I going to bring for a 10 day trip versus a 20 day trip?"
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: "How big of a suitcase am I going to bring?" Like, you're using a lot of the same thinking as you would to give yourself a prompt for a creative project.
Rachael: Yeah. What kind of weather? What activities am I doing?
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Yeah. And you're thinking through all these parameters.
Lauren: And you're taking into consideration-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And you, only you, know your situation. And so, you have to give yourself ... Learn how to give yourself briefs, or prompts that are going to be conducive to getting you where you want to go, and also are feasible with your schedule.
Like, I think one of the packing tips from an actual travel standpoint that I always found interesting from you is you'll only ever bring one pair of shoes.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Which is great. It makes it so much easier to then pack all the other fun stuff when you're like, "I'm a one pair of shoes kind of gal."
Rachael: It does. And that is a hot take to some people. And I'm not saying that everyone needs to only take one pair of shoes. I'm saying, "This is one thing that I can feel comfortable ..." That's one guardrail that I set for myself.
And it has worked out. Sometimes it's two, and that's fine. But for other people maybe it's, "I'm only bringing one pair of pants, and I wear the same pants every day." That's okay. That's just I don't feel comfortable doing that.
Lauren: Yeah. It's figuring out your own priorities, and I think you can do that through challenges, because once you come up with a little container for yourself, you will discover a lot, and you'll get to test out some of the theories that you had about, "I think I'm going to like this, I think this is the direction I want to take my creativity in," but halfway through, three days in, who knows?
Rachael: Yup.
Lauren: You might be like, "Not quite for me. Maybe I'll pivot in this direction." You can work within-
Rachael: Maybe I need to buy another pair of shoes while I'm there.
Lauren: Exactly. You can work within the parameters you've set for yourself, but I think it's a skill learning how to brief yourself-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... and to give yourself some guidelines for a project. Like, this acrylic ink stuff that I'm doing, I don't really have any container yet, because I was doing my dabbling this weekend, but maybe I will.
It would be helpful to me to come up with, "I'm going to do one of these for a week, and it's going to be on this theme," picking a general topic. For me, it helps to alleviate any of the blank page, deer in the headlights that you can feel.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And if you are stuck in a period of inertia where you're like, "I haven't made anything in a while, and now I'm overthinking what I should make," because inertia is really powerful, and to jump back in there can feel tough, grab whatever is easily available to you ... Like, make it easy for yourself-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... to get back in there.
Rachael: Absolutely. Yeah. Should we switch into doing some of the prompts?
Lauren: Yeah. Yeah.
Rachael: Because now I'm just really noodling on a lot of them.
Lauren: Yeah. Okay. So, what we wanted to do ... We thought it'd be fun to do a rapid-fire ... Like, one of us will give an example scenario of like, "I want to do this and work on this goal, or this medium," and then the other person can brainstorm potential challenges just to give you a jumping off point of how you can start thinking about-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... your own either serious, or silly big, small, whatever it might be challenges for yourself.
Rachael: Yeah. We'll try to give examples of everything. I have one ready to go.
Lauren: Okay.
Rachael: Is that okay? Let's do-
Lauren: Okay.
Rachael: Oh.
Lauren: Okay.
Rachael: Okay. Lauren, dear Hom Sweet Hom, I want to ... I don't know why I am making this scenario as me. All of a sudden, it's just, like, I'm writing to you like a columnist.
I want to work on having an understanding of a color palette that is specifically me. So, that my portfolio has a cohesive color palette. What kind of challenge could I do for 30 days?
Lauren: A 30 day challenge to figure out what your color palette is? Ooh. I would say to pick ... Since the discovery of the color palette is the important part, and the variable part, I would make sure some of the other elements are fixed-
Rachael: Okay.
Lauren: ... so, there are fewer things for you to have to think about. So, you can focus on your goal of the color palette.
So, it might be something like, "Okay. I'm going to create one simple illustration of a cat every single day, and I'm going to use a different color palette every single day." Different cat illustration, but it's always going to be a cat, and the colors will change.
So, keeping some variables fixed helps to not get lost in like, "Oh, what should it be when I sit down to do the illustration?" You know what it's going to be.
Or if you're like, "Oh, I don't know. 30 cats doesn't really feel like me," you can broaden it a little bit and say like, "It's going to be a pet. Like, it's going to be"-
Rachael: Sure.
Lauren: I was going to say animal, but animal is even really broad. You've the whole animal kingdom to choose from.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: So, maybe you choose just a genre of animal.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Just like, "It's going to be 30 days of different colored felines." It doesn't even have to be a house cat-
Rachael: Great.
Lauren: ... or maybe it's going to be 30 days of different colored fruits and vegetables.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Give yourself a container that feels like you have enough wiggle room, but it's not going to let you go dilly-dally.
Rachael: Yeah. I love that.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: That's great.
Lauren: That was my knee-jerk answer.
Rachael: Okay. I love it. And I think it's fun, because I think you and I are going to have very different knee-jerk answers.
Lauren: Ooh, I also have an addendum to that last point.
Rachael: Okay.
Lauren: I would give myself a limitation for the number of colors per palette. So, it's, like, I'm always going to work with a five color color palette, because, again, giving yourself some parameters, it'll help you to come up with color palettes that are minimal enough, but have enough of a breadth where you're like, "Okay. This feels like me. This doesn't feel like me."
Because if you just choose two colors that might be a little limiting.
Rachael: Sure.
Lauren: For your illustration, but if you choose, I don't know, five, you'll start to through practice orient yourself towards like, "Oh, I'm actually really feeling these cooler tones," or, "This warm color palette just wasn't working for me," and you will eventually land on colors that align with you.
Rachael: Love that. Okay. Fun. Thank you so much.
Lauren: Okay. I'm going to say what if I am a home cook who really wants to get better at baking bread, what is a challenge you could come up with for me?
Rachael: Oh, wow.
Lauren: And I want this to be over the course of the winter since it's cold now. So, I have a longer runway, three months.
Rachael: Three months. Okay. To take your advice from the last ... Why are you giving me the food one? You think I know how bread works?
Lauren: Oh, shoot. Okay. What about-
Rachael: No. I'm going to answer. I'm going to try and then you can make an addendum to my answer. Okay.
Lauren: Cookies. Cookies. You know how to make cookies.
Rachael: Yeah. No. I want to answer-
Lauren: Okay.
Rachael: ... the bread one, because I think it's fun for me not knowing. I assume that we'll have to choose some parameters. So, I think you should pick a different bread type for each month. So, one month you're going to do sourdough, because you probably have a starter, it's going, you can tweak different things, and that one feels like it's easiest, because I feel like a lot of people who are easing into breadmaking start with sourdough. No? Okay. Quick, yeasty-
Lauren: Yeast is-
Rachael: Okay.
Lauren: ... a little more accessible.
Rachael: Well, you're above yeast. You're interested in refining your bread skill. So, we're moving beyond yeast.
Lauren: Yeah. This is not beginning baking. This is refining.
Rachael: Yes. This is refining.
Lauren: Trying to be a better breadmaker.
Rachael: Yes. So, I think you're going to choose a different type of bread for each month. That's number one. And then for each week, you make the same thing with different tweaks.
So, maybe you're changing that type of flower, maybe you're changing the temperature. I don't know. I like breaking it down by week, giving yourself the same goal for each day of the week, so, that you can have a ... Like, you're doing this broader challenge, but each week is focused on a specific parameter that you're changing.
Lauren: Interesting.
Rachael: Does that make sense?
Lauren: Yeah. That's what you do with your style challenge. Right?
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: Okay.
Rachael: Yeah. Tell me-
Lauren: I'm so sorry. I gave you such a bad question.
Rachael: It's okay.
Lauren: Why don't I ... Hold on.
Rachael: You answer that question.
Lauren: Let me give you one that is more in your ... I don't know why I was like, "I'll ask her one that's related to me."
Rachael: It's okay.
Lauren: Okay. I was going to say, let's say, I am someone who has been following a lot of people online, and quilting seems like something I'd like to get into. I've never quilted before. What is a challenge I could start with to not overwhelm myself, but get better with quilting. I have a nine to five job, no kids. And so, I've got, let's say, two nights a week to dedicate to a quilting thing.
Rachael: I love this.
Lauren: What would you recommend for a never quilted before person?
Rachael: Okay. Perfect. This is a much better question for me, because I already have an answer. Okay.
Lauren: Cool.
Rachael: So, quilting is ... There are a lot of different steps. Figuring out your fabric, cutting the fabric, attaching the fabric, ironing. There are a lot of separate steps that make it really easy for you to very slowly over time build a quilt.
And I would recommend for someone that's starting to focus on rectangular shapes, but building a quilt block, and trying to do a block, or two each week.
So, you could find a quilt block pattern. It could be as easy as a checkerboard pattern, but all quilts are built from smaller blocks, and then you build bigger, and then maybe you have five, and then you sew them together, and that's your row, and then you do five more blocks.
So, you can experiment with getting really nice seam allowances, or if you're like me and you don't really care about that, you'll start to find through very simple block building the things that spark your interest in quilting, and the things that you don't care as much about.
But I think if you only have two nights a week, a couple hours maybe a week, once you choose your pattern and your fabric, you would be able to do your cutting, and then assemble one block, and then iron it, and then maybe assemble another one in a night.
Like, it's a pretty streamlined process. So, I think doing maybe a different quilt block each week would be a fun challenge to get more into quilting. You could try different quilt block patterns to see what you like.
Yeah. I think having a couple nights a week quilting is totally doable, assuming that you have a sewing machine. Even if you've never quilted before, if you have access to a sewing machine, quilting is just straight lines. Like, it's very straightforward.
Lauren: Oh. I thought you were going to say potholders.
Rachael: Oh, potholders are, kind of, hard actually, because-
Lauren: To me, as a novice, I'm like, "They're small."
Rachael: They are mini quilts.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: But in my head, that needs to be so much more precise than a quilt does.
Lauren: Oh, yeah.
Rachael: Even though, that's not true. Like, it can be imperfect. But, yeah, a potholder is a mini quilt, or a placemat.
Lauren: I think if you're a beginner, and you want to give yourself a challenge, the goal has to be to just practice the skill.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Like, you can't set like, "I'm going to make a quilt that is giftable to my mother-in-law."
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Because you might be setting the bar a little too high, and then you will beat yourself up. So, I think having a couple projects at the beginning of learning any new skill, and giving yourself a lot of leeway-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... to make something wonky.
Rachael: I think even for this hypothetical, "I'm interested in quilting" challenge, I don't even think it needs to turn into a quilt. I think just making the blocks to try ...
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: I'm making an amendment as we go. Trying a different quilt block every week gives you an introduction into piecing colors together-
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: ... into piecing different pattern shapes together. And then you get to figure out like, "Ooh, I really like making these stars." Like, I think I mentioned-
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: ... in a previous episode I figured out how to make a star.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: I could have followed a pattern, but I like just figuring it out myself.
Lauren: Yeah, and you were drawn to that shape before.
Rachael: Yeah. Yup. Yup. And so, there are a lot of classic shapes, and I feel like that would be a really fun way to try quilting, and see if you can get the gears turning in your brain of like, "Ooh, I'm really enjoying the assembly line process of a checkerboard quilt," or, "I really like the intricacies of paper piecing," which it's ...
The processes for different quilt blocks are a lot different.
Lauren: Got you.
Rachael: Yeah. Thank you for giving me a different question.
Lauren: Of course.
Rachael: Okay.
All right. So, next one for you, I am a ceramic artist, and I'm interested in photographing my work to use ... I'm like, "I'm multifaceted, because I'm a chaotic creative."
I like using my ceramic pieces in my graphic design work, and I want to get more client-based work that incorporates my clay and my design. So, how you incorporate food into your work, I want to incorporate clay. What could I do to build a portfolio?
Lauren: Ooh.
Rachael: Was that too broad?
Lauren: You want to bring your ceramics into your design work, or you want to bring design into ceramics?
Rachael: Ceramics into design.
Lauren: Ceramics into design? Ooh.
Rachael: So, like, maybe I'm designing a book cover that has ceramic letters as the cover.
Lauren: Ah, I see.
Rachael: Can you tell that I'm like, "What do graphic designers do?"
Lauren: No. So, this is a ... The only reason I'm struggling is because I actually can't pull any mental examples of this, but I've seen, let's say, people who do more artisan craft things. Like, let's say, if you were taking a ceramics class, and then you were like, "I want to bring this into my design."
I've seen people who do needlepoint, or embroidery, who then start to create design treatments, but incorporate some stitching into it. With ceramics, it's tough, because you do have to photograph it, but I suppose that's the same thing with food that I'm doing now.
I would honestly just ... Yeah. Give yourself a brief of do your best guess as to where do you see this fitting into your design work? Is it the typography? Is it a background for something? Is it in your photo styling for something?
And try to look for examples of maybe ... Even if it's not the same thing as ceramics, like, are there other ways that people have brought physical objects into design? Where is this work being commissioned? That could give you an idea of where to orient yourself, whether it is something, like, editorial design, or maybe you see it being used in advertising, or you just make up your own stuff.
I think that you could just create ... Book covers are interesting. You could, basically, just choose some kind of commercial format, even if it was just an Instagram series of like, "I'm going to maybe reimagine some of my existing designs even as ceramic pieces. I'm going to take five of my favorite designs that I've done and make them out of clay." That could be cool.
Rachael: That's fun. That's fun.
Lauren: I'm trying to think of a lower effort lift of because I know how much work ceramics is, and that is something I always tell my students of, "When we say the word passion project, we start to think of all the possibilities, because it's the passion, but you have to be realistic about if each piece is going to take you 40 hours, you need to give yourself grace when it takes you a month to complete a piece, if you have a full-time job already."
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And so, I always try to do smaller versions. So, I can create a wider body of work. So, for something like a challenge where you're like, "Okay. Maybe I'm going to create ..." Maybe there were even just, like, you choose one ceramic form, and then one design application. Like, "I'm going to create a little figurine out of ceramics, and then illustrate on my iPad around it," or something like that.
I think this is also big. I'm so sorry.
Rachael: No. It was a very weird and specific prompt. I think that makes sense. Like, you just have to really envision if you're wanting to get commercial work out of this. Like, how would this apply?
Lauren: Yeah. Like, there are so many inroads, sometimes you just have so much inspiration and conviction, that you're like, "I'm just going to do this thing, and see if anyone bites." That is valid too.
If you know you want to get commercial work out of it, let's say you're already a working artist and you're like, "I'd love to see if someone would pay for these things," then it makes sense to do a little bit of research to just take your best stab at getting it in front of the right people, but there are plenty of times where people just make a thing, and then it gets put on the internet, and then companies want to commission it.
I've seen it work both ways-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I was just thinking about this one account that I follow ... Do you follow Symmetry Breakfast?
Rachael: Uh-uh.
Lauren: This guy just used to cook breakfast for him and his husband every morning, and would just plate both breakfasts as if they were symmetrical. Like, mirrored images of each other. And people loved that.
And so, I always bring that up as a reference with my students, because I think he ended up getting a book deal. It's, like, the things organized neatly, people just like-
Rachael: Oh, yeah.
Lauren: It's, like, graphic porn. You're just like, "Ugh, that looks so nice."
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And so, I think just coming up with a format even for your ceramic design pieces, just a consistent format is the bare minimum, and for anything that you do. Like, you were saying with the quilting different squares ... Is that what they are?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Patches? Squares?
Rachael: Blocks.
Lauren: Blocks?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Blocks. Yes. Like, then you can have a whole wall, or table full of these different blocks that you've made, and you can ... Similar to if anyone went to art school, or you've ever been in any kind of creative class where you do a critique at the end, it's so nice to in a group look at a body of work, or to look at a piece of work, and to be able to then have dialog about it.
When you're working on your own, you have to do that for yourself where you lay out all your work, and you do take a step back and you go, "Oh, what am I gravitating towards? What parts did I like? What parts did I not like? Now that I see in full view all the things I made are there any natural through lines in my work that I wasn't cognizant of when I was making it, but now that I step back I can see, "Oh, I actually really love the handles that I put on my mugs," or, "I really love the pointier shapes in my quilting blocks," or, "I really like this part," then you can distill those down into your next project, and you're, basically, refining your vision, and getting closer to "finding your voice".
Rachael: Yeah. I love that. Yeah. The whole theme is always reflection. Right? You have to do it, whether it's how you're feeling about Instagram like we talked about on the last episode, or how you're feeling about the work that you just created. Like, taking time to look at it, or sit with it, and reflect and refine.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: That's life, baby.
Lauren: Okay. I was going to give you one, but I think we're coming up on time.
Rachael: That's fine.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: I feel like we really gave each other chaotic ... The quilt one was not chaotic, but the ones I gave you I feel like were a little bit chaotic, but I think the ... Some rapid-fire examples that we could do, like, the style challenges that I've done, like, monochrome outfits for a week, or pattern mixing, or all thrifted, maybe do you have some food-based ones that you could rapid-fire? I'm just trying to actually give people some actionable ones instead of those specific examples.
Lauren: Like, tiny little challenges?
Rachael: Yeah. I really put you on the spot. I'm sorry. I can keep going.
Lauren: It's tough, because maybe we should have talked about this before we started recording. I can only come at this with a professional lens, because I don't do-
Rachael: Right.
Lauren: ... challenges personally.
Rachael: Right. That's fair. That's fair.
Lauren: So, please keep firing them off.
Rachael: Yeah. I think if we were to use cooking as an example, like, "Oh, I want to incorporate more vegetables into my meals. How can I create a sauce this week that has two more herbs in it?" Or, "I want to use three different colored vegetables in every meal."
Like, giving yourself just little challenges that ... I have to trick myself into eating vegetables like a child. So, I'm like, "Oh, did I have three today?" Maybe if there's an orange one and a green one, I'll be more excited.
So, doing that, or drawing a cat every day. I think using a challenge to just build up the habit is one thing that I really advocate for for people who are working to prioritize more play, and more creativity into their life. Like, you don't need a lot of time.
Yes. If you're trying to build a portfolio to get professional work, absolutely, you should devote more time to it, but if you're just trying to better your skill, or find more time for creativity, can you do a five minute doodle every day? Or can you cut out letters from a magazine once a week and then at the end of the month make one collage?
Lauren: I see. Like, bite-sized things to build habits.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Like, it could be something like, "Okay. I'm going to draw a 15 minute still life of my coffee, or breakfast every morning."
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: And you set the container.
Rachael: "I'm going to take a picture of my breakfast, and mirror image it every day." Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: "I'm going to take a picture of my cat waiting for its food every morning." Like, it can be little silly things, but it's about being intentional with, "How can I make my life more creative?" Or more playful.
So, two different approaches to style ... Not style challenges. To challenges.
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: Which can include style challenges.
Lauren: Yes. Exactly.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: This entire episode is, basically, giving you some ways to think about coming up with prompts for yourself. I think often times whether you're a professional, or a hobbyist, it's easy to look for other people's challenges, or other people's ... Yeah. Other people's challenges to join into, which is great.
But I do think it's a next-level skill, and something that's helpful to hone at any stage in your creative practice to learn how to give yourself those challenges, or those briefs, because then through that, you'll get more done than just being like, "What do I want to make this weekend?" And you have no way to orient yourself.
This happens to me all the time still. And so, giving myself some parameters just helps me sit down and actually put pen to paper, or make small steps towards the thing I say I want to improve.
Rachael: Yeah. It helps giving yourself the path to take action-
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: ... which is something that we've talked about a lot is just, like, "Okay. I have all these ideas. I'm excited about all these things. We're all chaotic creatives listening and speaking, and we need to understand what tools will help us actually create the work and get it out in the world."
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: Whether it's just for play and personal fulfillment, or if it's for building your creative career.
Lauren: Yeah, and it helps keep you in tune with what you want and need right now.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: That's the ultimate question is like, "What do I want to make?" And then-
Rachael: "What's inspiring me right now?"
Lauren: Yeah. Absolutely.
Rachael: "What can I learn from this?" Yay.
Lauren: Yay.
Rachael: Oh my gosh. Okay. So, we're wrapping up-
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: ... episode 10 of-
Lauren: Wow.
Rachael: ... season two.
Lauren: Thank you for joining us for season two. That's what I was going to say, the fact that this podcast is a challenge in itself. We gave ourselves when we first ... When you first approached me being like, "Do you want to do a podcast?" I was like, "Yes."
We committed to doing 10 episodes, and then evaluating to see if we wanted to do more.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: So, we gave ourselves a container with this podcast.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: So, I think that's the ultimate example of, "Okay. Let's try this thing out. Low commitment. We don't have a lot of skin in the game. It's just going to be an experiment."
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I think you got to approach it as an experiment, and then see what the results are.
Rachael: Yeah. I think the experimental lens is really important for a lot of, at least, my challenges.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Because it's, like, what can I learn from this? How can I refine how I'm living my life, how I'm spending my time, what my creative processes are? And when we get too focused on the outcome, like, maybe, "Okay. I want to do a style challenge so that I have a really clear understanding of my personal style," and then I don't because the prompts weren't quite right for me, then I'm frustrated.
So, it has to be experimental. Figure out what resonates with you, and ditch whatever doesn't resonate with you. Change the prompts of the challenge if you're two months in, and you're like, "I hate this," or two days in. Maybe give it more than two days.
Lauren: Yeah. We chose a number of episodes and a theme.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: And that was it.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah. It's great.
Rachael: Fun.
Lauren: If we can do it-
Rachael: So can you. So can you. Yes, you can.
I'm going to do a plug for leaving us a rating and review.
Lauren: We would love that.
Rachael: We would love that. And maybe season three is the season that we open up a Patreon.
Lauren: That would be cool.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: We would love to be able to give you more, and also, I don't know, more access to some of the ramblings that are behind the ... I know we ramble, I ramble, you don't ... You're very concise and clear in your language. But, yeah. Leave us a rating and review, and we'll noodle on some stuff for season three.
Lauren: Yeah. We're going to be reassessing, reevaluating, figuring out what direction we want to-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... take this in. It's just forever iterating-
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: ... on something.
Rachael: Yeah. What our guardrails and container are-
Lauren: Ultimately, it's fun-
Rachael: ... is.
Lauren: ... for us to do, which means we're going to keep doing it.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Yeah. That's the goal-
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: ... is we're having fun. Seems like you're having fun listening to us, and we appreciate you.
Lauren: Yeah. Thank you so much. See you in season three.
Rachael: Yay.
Lauren: Yay. Bye.