Thursday, August 4, 2011

Art & Copy

Somehow, even in the 90-95 degree weather we've been having lately, I caught a cold. A sniffly, sneezy, sore throat, nasty cold. And summer colds are the worst. It's so warm and sunny outside, but all I want is to curl up in a blanket and drink tea. For dinner last night, I made Chris eat grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup with me. Yeah. It's that bad.

So I spent yesterday at home, tissues by my side. Between naps, crafting, and random bouts of housework, I was able to knock two movies off my Netflix queue. One of them I've had in my queue for a good year now: Art & Copy, a documentary about creativity and the world of advertising. Have you seen it? I don't know why it took me so long to watch it... I really enjoyed it. One of my favorite quotes, from the opening scene: 

"The frightening and most difficult thing about being what somebody calls a creative person is that you have absolutely no idea where any of your thoughts come from, really. And especially, you don't have any idea about where they're going to come from tomorrow."

You said it, Hal. The film explored a few real-life Mad Men (and women) and focused on their efforts during the 60s, 70s and 80s to bring advertising to life as a form of creativity and art. I enjoyed hearing a few interviews from the creators of campaigns for Volkswagen, Nike, Apple and other huge companies. Although I wouldn't consider myself in the "advertising" business, I really enjoyed this film as a designer and a creative. It was a good reminder to constantly strive for creativity, beauty and innovation in my work. Thank you, PBS, for your inspirational films. Definitely check it out if you have a little free time.

2 comments:

Kate said...

LOVE!!

I really need to watch this!

lizzie said...

Art & Copy was amazing...I loved that quote as well...I heard one recently by Ira Glass that sparked pretty true with us as well -

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple of years you make stuff, it's just NOT THAT GOOD. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your TASTE, the thing that got you into the game is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it's normal and the most important thing you can do is DO A LOT OF WORK. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece. It's only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's gonna take a while. It's NORMAL to take awhile. You just gotta fight your way through." - Ira Glass


I hope you feel better!