Over winter break I felt a lot of the word “difficult”. It’s not a pleasant feeling, but I’m not here to complain, I’m here to appreciate.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass
You hear this kind of blanket-statement so often that it really isn’t something you believe, rather, something you just acknowledge is believed. At least, this was the case for myself.
The Difficulty of a Stick-Figure
I own a website development business (technically it’s Digital Agency since we make more than just websites, but the only things we’ve made to-date are website), Gold Fox Dev. Since I make websites, I’ve had clients ask me if I could make their logos as well. Sadly, I have about as much illustrative ability as someone’s 7-year old child… I take that back, they still have more talent than I do.
I told myself that I wanted to make an Emblem, which is the actual art-bit in the logo (consider the “swoosh” is the Emblem in the Nike logo), and I wanted this Emblem to be for a fake organization that gives art supplies to impoverished families. I had the idea of wanting it to include a stick-figure, since that’s always one of the first things we draw as kids.
Boy. That stick figure kicked my *ss.
The Infamous Stick-Figure
Here’s some initial phases I documented as I went about creating this stick figure. Quit a large time gap between the third and fourth (final) image.
So, how do I feel? It was difficult, and frustrating, and fun, and somehow degrading? But the end result, even though I’m not satisfied, has left me knowing that with a lot of practice, I can make logos.
The Stick-Figure Kicks Everyone’s *ss
Maybe you can draw this in 30 seconds, but everyone has a Stick-Figure; Everyone does certain things easier, and struggles more with other things. No one’s perfect, and I’ve found that comparing myself to others can be really toxic… Comparing my work to other work though, can be exciting. I see other logos, and I see other website designs, and I see how quickly/well people do x/y/z and instead of criticizing myself, I’m now starting to see it for the difficult, but possible, journey that it could be. “I can get there. I just need to journey down that difficult path”.
So, yes Frederick Douglass: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
