It is currently the day after my birthday. I am officially in my late 20s. 26 to be precise. 26 is such a weird age.
Did I feel like celebrating this birthday? Not really.
Did it feel like I have jumped into the next chapter of my life? I guess.
26 is the age that at least the people I've been around look to as the next big milestone after 21. At 26, you're officially on your own. Over the past 26 years of my life I have been privileged to be able to have strong healthcare under my parents. Now, I don't have that. Perks of living in the United States of America, amiright?
Now, I don't want to get political on this, I mean I might, but just right now I don't.
Luckily, I'm healthy and have been healthy so I should be okay for a bit.
This is a time where I truly have to reflect and wonder what I should be actively doing in my life.
I feel like I've finally got a handle on what I want to do, but I don't want to waste my time on things that aren't going to be pushing me to where I want to be.
So where do I want to be?
If you ask me what I see myself doing this time next year, it's this. I want to work on Simplex Minds and I want to bring value to the creative community. Choosing to be a creative as a career is tough and grueling. If I can help create some sort of safe haven for creatives to allow themselves to learn and disconnect from the societal pressures of "success" and "failure" and just objectively see progress, then that's what I want to do.
How can I turn that into a career?
Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out. There needs to eventually be some sort of sustainable cash flow inwards in order to at least support myself. But that's not the goal. The goal is to be able to support myself and be able to hire/contract different creatives so they can develop their creativity.
I have so many plans for this platform, with the goal to push personal creativity.
The main thing I need to focus right now is just establishing this platform and creating a strong base to build upon. The money will come. But if I want to do this right I need to build this correct. That means no shopping to bigger companies to try and sell partial ownership for quick money. I just shouldn't take any quick money from people or companies that don't align with the Simplex Mindset.
I don't know what I'm trying to say in this post. I just feel like I should be talking about something right now. There's so much clutter in my head that has been elevated with the thought that one freak accident can just destroy my life financially.
I just want to keep working on this project because I see so much potential in it. I can see all the good this kind of platform can do for the creative community. I just feel like there isn't a true platform out there that gives a voice to those that are going through it and haven't figured it out yet.
How come we're always asked what we want to be every year of our life ever since we we're able to write a singular word? How come we have to figure out what career we want right out of high school when we have no education in grade school that actually allows us to know what different professions do? Just kind of have to hope that the major you choose is what you want and live with it.
It's taken me until now to understand what I want to do. I just turned 26. And what I want to do right now isn't even a job. It will be, but it isn't right now.
So what do I do now?
Idk man.
This has just been a word vomit of different things. I'm 26 now, so there's that.
I just want to keep working on this and create something that benefits the community. I just want to create something that I feel like is going to be needed since a lot of the younger generation want to go into creative fields. Creative careers are tough. Your mental health when going into these career fields will suffer. You will be questioning your ability consistently. You will be comparing yourself to others consistently. Your journey is your own personal journey tailored to yourself. You go through different things that others don't go through and they go through things you don't. You can see their work, but you don't what happened behind the scenes.
I may seem like an overprivileged millennial stressing over a problem that could be solved instantly if I just get a "normal" job. There is truth to that, but I still want to do what I want to do. I don't want to get so close to something I feel can be something great and just give up on it because the system is set up against this kind of "career path".
I believe in my ability to create. Whether that's a video concept, an organization, an opportunity, or whatever. Whenever I have decided to create something, I have been able to do it my way and put myself in better situations because of it.
Welcome to Simplex Minds, Season 1.
For the past couple of months I, have had the honor of working with 3 other talented creatives and now writers who are going to bring you into their creative world. In the coming weeks we will be introducing the team that we have been working with for our initial season. After the introductions, we will be posting our personal journals on different creatives we believe are making the complex look simple and try to explain to you all why we think so and what we can take away from their work.
Through these posts we will be challenging ourselves to expand our creative knowledge and understanding that we could potentially implement towards future projects. We are all young creatives trying to make it in the creative space. There’s a lot we know, and a whole lot that we don’t. It’s time to understand the complex.
The purpose of this initial season is to try and teach y’all something you might have not known of beforehand. To try and understand something that we might’ve not taken the time to fully understand. To develop a stronger relationship with process and learning.
Throughout the first season we just want to introduce you to different creatives you might have not known of beforehand or bring a different perspective to those that you already know. We’ll be diving into many different types of creatives who work in different mediums. Hope you all enjoy this season as much as we have had working on it.
We’re really excited for this initial season. Make sure to sign up for our mailing list and follow our Instagram to stay involved. We’re going to have fun with this. Excited to get y’all involved.
Alright, so I ended the last portion of this with saying that we didn't need a color palette.
Well...
I backtracked that thought... lol
Color is pretty important to the branding of a company/platform/brand/whatever.
I was talking to Carissa about brand aesthetic in general, but more specifically mood boards. I told her how lost I was with that.
Like what tf is a mood board anyways? It's a visual to describe a certain mood. How the hell am I supposed to portray a feeling? and do it in a way that conveys a non-visual feeling??
I've tried mood boards before and boy was that rough. Here's my initial attempt at one in 2018.
I tried to explain that whole visual vomit to her and attempted to explained to her my thought process through that. Which was, put different vibes down on the board, have visuals I thought that represented that mood, and just put them on the board and see what I get from that. I made that in 2018 when I didn't really understand what I was trying to do. I'll tell you I left that exercise more confused than anything lol.
After going through all of that I told her about the whole process I went about in the last colors post with trying to understand the technical portion of color theory. (Hue, value, saturation, complimentary colors, tertiary colors, analogous, just so much shit). And how I just got hella lost in the sauce and decided to just not have any colors whatsoever.
So after all of that mind dump, we decided to take a few steps back and understand the voice of Simplex Minds. What did I want it to feel like? What did I want it to say? What did I want people to take away from the design?
I told her that I wanted Simplex Minds to feel personal. I wanted it to feel like you're working with us. I wanted it to feel inclusive. I wanted it to feel unfinished. As if we are still working on the project together.
We then went through different visuals I felt attracted to when it comes to the Simplex mindset. One photo that really felt connected to this project was this photo.
I loved how this photo made me feel. You see different sections of the creative process within this photo. You see one person getting her tools together. You see another taking a picture of what she plans to paint. Then you see another in the process of painting and creating a piece of art. It feels so serene and peaceful. The only thing going through their heads at that moment is painting and putting what they see onto the canvas in front of them.
I also fucked up on editing that photo and didn't notice until after I posted it on IG lmaoooo whoooops. Also wish I got a better angle on this shot, but what can you do.
After that she just tasked me to create a folder of visuals that I feel connects to Simplex Minds. Well first she tasked me to make a mood board and she showed me the one's she makes. Which are professional af and that overwhelmed me so I didn't have anything to show the next week. After that she told me to just make a mood folder. Not to lay them out in a Photoshop file and to not stress about actually portraying the mood in a singular piece. That made it much easier for me and took a lot of weight off my shoulders. I was very overwhelmed with the thought of trying to convey the mood I wanted in a singular coherent visual piece. As you can tell from the "Mood Board" above, I wasn't very good at it.
So this is the folder I came up with:
These visuals just felt right.
I chose the first photo because theres a calming feel to it. A sense of observation. We're peering into a moment that we aren't sure what's happening next.
The next one I described earlier.
And the accompanying picture is just another perspective of the same scene.
With more context with what she was trying to paint.
In the 2nd row, I took that cinemagraph in 2017, I believe. I just like the simplicity behind it and how my world is still, but there's still energy. It's like how I feel when I'm zoned into a project.
The next two for the handwritten aspect and feel of it. I just like how personal viewing handwriting is and how just by the way something is written it can add a lot of personality and depth as to who wrote it.
In the bottom row, I really enjoy the simplicity and framing in the Japanese director, Yasujirō Ozu's films. Each frame is just so calming and beautiful even with such a simplistic set.
I chose the lofi girl because of that work partner feel. We want you all to feel like you're working with us, like you do when you pull up that stream.
Then the last one is a still from Childish Gambino's "Feels Like Summer" music video. The colors in the shot and the emotion in Gambino's face gives you a real look into his mood. There's this strong feeling of intimacy that you feel in that still that feels raw and like you can understand him at that moment.
I went through that whole spiel with Carissa and she asked me if I've seen how my old roommate, Emerson, does his mood boards. I told her I didn't and then realized that he samples the things he gets inspiration from and uses those in the pieces he makes.
So then she told me to do the same. Sample colors from the pieces I chose and create color palettes through them.
So that's what I did.
Also, follow Emerson on Instagram. He's a dope footwear designer. A high-end designer from one of the top designer brands once called him the Lebron of shoe design while applying for a footwear design opening, but they went with "Steph Curry" instead. Obviously can't disclose who or what brand, but trust me. I saw the email. You better hop on and follow before he's designing the shoes you can't cop on SNKRS lmaooo. You'll be able to say you were an og fan.
So here's a few color palettes I created/sampled:
I'm pretty happy with them. The first palette we will be using is the first one. The initial photo that connected with me when it came to Simplex Minds.
I took that photo in Japan in 2018 when I was visiting with my friends. We went to see the cherry blossoms bloom and I took that opportunity to just take pictures. I loved seeing how different people spent their day with the seasonal cherry blossoms. It was amazing to see. Some people took that time to do a photo shoot and get new pictures of themselves. I saw some newly grandparents spending the day with their grandchildren, pushing them around in strollers. I saw a grandpa with his point and shoot camera just taking pictures of the cherry blossoms. Saw a group of friends take the time to have a picnic with each other. And I saw this group of three friends deciding to spend the day painting the cherry blossoms. Looking back, that was a pretty beautiful day.
So each color that I chose was picked off each of the three women's tops. It's crazy because in the last post I decided that a dark strong blue is what I wanted for Simplex Minds and little did I know that the blue I'd be so happy with would come from a picture that connects me to this project so dearly. So that light blue, dark blue, and pink are going to be this season's colors.
This next one I feel like is going to be the fall color palette. It could change, but I just love the feel of it for the fall and winter. I love how the lofi girl is everyone's work buddy and how so many of us can connect with these colors because of that stream. Also I'm not sure on how copyright works with colors and stuff like that so idk what the legalities are there. So we'll see if we can use it or not.
I don't know when I would use the Childish Gambino one, but I just wanted to add it in. I had hella fun with this exercise. Eh fuck it, here's two more I did lol.
So yeah, after deciding to not have a color palette, I decided to make a color palette lol. Well I did say that we would develop one eventually. I'm glad it was developed this way instead of the other way I was trying to go about it. Man, looking back I was really complicating things for myself. To me at the time it felt like I was making it easier for myself by trying to understand each element and working my way up, but I was doing way too much and overwhelmed myself. Too many things to consider. Wayyyy too many things to consider.
Things aren't as complicated as you make them. I went into these conversations with Carissa saying how I just don't know how to visualize what I wanted it to feel like. Like I could describe it, but the visual portion was slipping my mind and just couldn't grasp it. Little did I know that I understood the look the whole time and just psyched myself out because this was all just foreign to me.
I'm super happy with the aesthetic we are going for with Season 1. It has all of the elements I wanted in it. It feels personal. It feels like you are reading from us. It feels very accessible and welcoming. It feels raw and unfinished. It feels like I'm passing a note to you or you're reading a journal entry from us.
Alright, well if you read all of this I'll just spill the beans on exactly what our look is going to look like for season 1. I'm so hyped for the look and it just feels so right.
So without further ado, here's our initial Season 1 graphic
Pretty sick, huh? lmaoooo
I'm excited to start releasing the content we've been working on. I'm excited for you all to meet the other creatives that have been working on this project with me. Without them, this wouldn't be nearly as amazing as I feel like it's going to be.
I'm so glad that we've figured out Season 1's voice. I hope you guys enjoy this first season. It's been a long journey to even get to this point. Everything is falling into place. I can't believe we're getting close to release. It's so surreal.
The journey is only just beginning and I'm so excited for how things will turn out. We got a damn brand aesthetic. We getting professional out here 😤