Creative Play
The first thing that most people think of when you say ‘Play’ is children (believe me I asked). Children can play endlessly. A piece of string is a snake, a big box can becomes a home, a pen is an injection. Children let their imagination run wild, cook up stories and make believe worlds.
Adults are party poopers. We want to live in the real world. Play is ‘childish’.
My professional life has taught me the that the biggest differences between being a design learner and design professional is play. Design school encourages learners to think out of the box, imagine things, build with your hands. It exposes you to what I like to call Creative Play.
Creative Play is when you create something for yourself.
It could be a poem, a piece of art, an article or anything as long as it requires you bringing an idea into the world. Creative professionals of any kind are fuelled by Creative Play. This is also partly why so many of us end up feeling burnt out. Jobs saddle you with constraints, and more often than not there is no space or time to play.
I have realised that when I am doing passion projects on the side beyond my ‘day job’, I am happier. Exhausted yes, but happy. So maybe it’s time to reimagine the age old saying -
Work hard & play harder.