Adaptive Path | hinman@adaptivepath.com
Who hasn’t felt the post-project blues? The emotional journey of any creative assignment is eerily similar: The initial thrill of beginning a new and interesting project, the excitement of digging into the process and subject matter and inevitably becoming consumed by the design problem, and then losing your sanity in the pursuit of excellence. Toward the end you feel the fatigue and disillusionment of the final death march, the joy of the finish, and ultimately the hollow sense of emotional loss once it’s all over. Regardless of your role—consultant or in-house creative—I’m convinced any designer worth their salt has been through this emotional cycle countless times.
Sketches by Rachel Hinman
I was suffering through a bout of the post-project blues after rolling off an exciting eight-month mobile design project that focused on envisioning the future of mobile interfaces. The project was thrilling—by far the most interesting work I’ve done. But it came at a cost. I lost myself in the project; it consumed my thoughts and held me hostage for months. Once it was over, I felt an enormous amount of sadness and loss.
A good friend shared with me his belief that all good designers
are obsessed and addicted to the thrill of the mental and creative engagement. He claimed that obsessive behavior is the hallmark of a real designer.
I wondered if that was true. I wondered if all designers are just junkies for the thrill of creativity? Is the feeling of loss at the end of a project the price we pay for the thrill of being mentally and emotionally connected to our work? Can we find a cure with a more disciplined approach while striving to achieve some semblance of work/life balance? Or are we doomed to this emotional cycle of obsession and loss?
I discussed my dilemma with some friends who were in recovery from alcohol addiction. They shared feelings—at first consumed and obsessed, followed by a feeling of loss— that were eerily similar to my experience as a designer. During the early stages of alcohol recovery, attendance of 90 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 90 days to begin dealing with addiction is recommended. The theory is that through the daily ritual of AA meetings, alcoholics learn to understand their relationship to alcohol and can then develop the skills necessary to cope and deal with their addiction. My
friends suggested I “dry out” with a creative “90 Mobiles in 90 Days” endeavor to recover from my project addiction.
So began my creative recovery. Starting last year on June 20, I began to think about, sketch, draw, and prototype ideas about mobile design and user experience. I posted the ideas to a blog each and every day. Like folks recovering from any addiction, I didn’t know what I would find at the end of those 90 days, but I had faith that something good was on the other side… and there was. Here is what I learned.
Creative Outlets Addiction is the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice, so much so that cessation causes severe trauma. There’s a razor-thin line between addiction and passion, and I started this project questioning if I had crossed that line. My biggest fear was being identified as a workaholic: a person with no sense of self outside of my vocation, because I lacked the discipline to enforce boundaries between my personal and professional selves. I thought I just might be addicted to my work. Instead, I discovered through this journey that I am just pas-
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