Negative Space is Your Friend
Welcome to the new Cool Your Jets Design. While this site is intended as a creative snapshot of my professional work, it is also an outlet for creative and emotional thought, as evidenced by the Fresh Friday project.
Since I created "Cool Your Jets" back in 2011, I've used the tagline "Negative Space is Your Friend." This expression has multiple meanings for me. On the surface, it is a compositional foundation in which design fundamentals are built upon: giving the viewer room to breathe is integral to any impactful design, whether visual, interactive, or aural. According to Miles Davis, "It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play."
All of that is just fine and inspiring and, blah, blah, blah.
The "Negative Space" that matters more to me is the darkness in which I clumsily navigate, creatively and personally, at odd times throughout the year. This is where everything I do/say/create is never good enough or lives in deficit of my expectations. I have always seen this "attention to detail" as a strength, but as James Victore bluntly (and accurately) states: "We can give it a fancy name like 'true perfectionism' but I prefer 'self-hating narcissist."
But we live in the Age of Narcissism. The pressure in our society, particularly for creative leaders, is to be positive all the time, pressured constantly to see things through the "right" lens, never showing vulnerability or a crack in the perfectly curated façade we amplify over social media and at work. This mentality is not only exhaustive, but also puts a disingenuous veneer over any creative endeavor in which the artist shies away from exploring the darker parts of her/himself. We present ourselves as finished, curated projects instead of the experimental mess that lies beneath the surface of each perfectly worded Facebook post, tweet, or perfectly composed Instagram photo.
And this approach is strategic - people gravitate toward things and experiences in which they find comfort and ease. Treading the waters of sadness or discontentment is easier than diving deeper and exploring the dark and unpleasant parts of ourselves that we hide from others or even from ourselves. Even better (or worse really) is when our darkest impulses are celebrated instead of confronted and dealt with, plainly on display during the last election cycle and over the last year. While I work to confront these negative impulses within myself, in matters of everything from race to love to parental responsibility, the façade is kept up for fear that revealing my "true self" will drive people away and endanger my career.
But the shitty irony is that true art (art that persists over time) is honest and authentic. It's why Stanley Kubrick's work (of which I'm a huge fan) will be studied and revered for centuries, whereas Steven Spielberg's work (of which I'm a huge fan) will be viewed on a lesser scale. "Clockwork Orange" and "The Shining" just go to places where "E.T." and "Jaws" fear to tread (pun intended, winking face). More importantly, emotional fulfillment (deceptively branded as "happiness") can only come from self-realization and self-acceptance, legs of a journey in which I've yet to reach.
So as we enter a new year, I hope to be more vulnerable and authentic - to embrace the "negative space" in new creative ways, and to not fear rejection or failure.
And if I don't, then fuck it, we're all works-in-progress.
Happy 2018, everyone!
