My #morningwalk—recorded on Instagram for 3 years—is a visual discipline. This slow, micro practice of seeing has started my day for over 1000 consecutive mornings. It has informed life in ways I would never have expected. From new friendships (started by a simple comment on a photo), to collaborations with incredible makers and doers, and perhaps — most importantly — to a profound awareness of the often overlooked.
Frequently, I am walking the same loop. Out the front door. 4.4 miles. 7000 steps. Same barn. Same path. Same river. Same headwind around that last turn. Yet. Different. Every. Single. Day. I take a picture every day, often of the same thing each day. To get better at something requires practice. Discipline. For me this is the same joyful discipline I feel as a Creative Director.
“The Things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done — that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual.” — Buckminster Fuller
But it’s not a feeling limited to creative directors. At Mechanica everyone is a “creative”. Sure, we have some business cards that say Creative Director, and on others the word “creative” isn’t anywhere to be found. Yet in every meeting I think you’d be hard pressed to identify who is the CD and who isn’t. Creativity is really all about connecting things. Stepping into a place where no one else may see what your seeing. Creativity is messy, there are no rules, the best you can hope for — if you really take the time to look — is to “see the things that need to be done”. And then, do them.
Libby DeLana (@parkhere) is a founding partner at MECHANICA, a next generation branding development agency based in Newburyport, MA. solves problems and creates opportunities for restless marketers. Mechanica employs twenty strategists, creative directors and brand directors pioneering a new approach to creating compelling, profitable brand experiences. Current and recent MECHANICA clients include: Communispace, Nuance, Spanx, Kripalu, LuckyVitamin, AeroFarms, Simrad, Art Science Labs, PTC, Kronos and Bit9.