Advice on Advice: Take It or Leave It
There’s a tonne of advice out there for juniors wanting to break into the industry — books, blogs, and people wanting to give you their two cents. But advice comes from experience, and experiences are personal. Which means there’s a lot of conflicting advice out there. In a regular column Lauren Ami MacDonald tries to make sense of it all.
Keep your mind clear of influence
This is something I really struggle with: the line between inspiration and influence. Everything that the brain processes creates a new path in the mind, and these paths make up a library of sorts that you’ll consciously and subconsciously reference thereafter. Meaning things go from something that’s not related to you, to something that is now part of you. The more I take in, the more I am the collective of Other. Which is great when I need to write something, or think like someone else, but horrible when I need to be “original”, and think like myself. I find that taking the time to look over things I did before getting into advertising, at a time when I was a little less exposed to Other Creative helps. And, for some reason, thinking about what sound a pterodactyl would make. Which probably won’t work for you. Which is the point. It’s your mind, and your way, remember?