Accepting Imperfection

Perhaps it was the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented me from traveling internationally, but for some reason I recently felt the urge to go digging in my design vault for this old project. Inspired by a summer graphic design study trip to Amsterdam, this poster makes me smile every time I see it and reminds me of just how far I’ve come in my progress as a designer and as a human. I was quite early in my design training at this point, and as a result, I was riddled with insecurity about my abilities. I never doubted my passion for art and design, but I often doubted my drawing skills. So, determined to both strengthen my skills and get over my fear of making bad drawings, I vowed to create a sketch diary entry each day of my trip.

The drawings were quick, spontaneous sketches of the buildings I saw, the foods I ate, and the experiences I had. While I didn’t become an expert draughtsman in the process, I did have a lot of fun and ended up with a pretty amazing memento of my trip. The process of drawing and the resulting pages solidified memories of such minor but precious moments that otherwise would have been lost to time. Some real gems emerged from these drawings, particularly the horrible bike that I drew on day two of the trip. It is harder than you think to draw a bicycle from memory! In order to truly face my fears of imperfection, I not only stopped myself from tearing up this page, but I made that wonky bike the centerpiece of the poster I made when I got back home. To my surprise, the world didn’t stop spinning just because I made a weird drawing, and my journey towards embracing character and imperfection in my work truly began. I look forward to hearing how you have embraced imperfection in your work as well.