At one point during my doctoral research, I became determined to become technically better at calligraphy.
That sounds like an entirely reasonable ambition.
Instead, it stopped me creating.
My attention shifted towards perfect strokes, exact spacing, correct angles and comparison with highly accomplished practitioners.
The more concerned I became with producing work that looked impressive, the less willing I became to make anything at all.
The change came when I stopped concentrating so heavily on how the lettering looked and started thinking about what I actually wanted to say.
- The words became personal again.
- The work became exploratory again.
I began thinking about this as moving from perfection towards purposeful creative content.
I often return to that experience when looking at creative work today.
- We are surrounded by polished imagery.
- Templates can create sophisticated layouts in minutes.
- Image generators can produce beautifully rendered concepts almost instantly.
- Online platforms provide a continuous stream of professionally resolved work.
It becomes very easy to mistake polish for creativity.
But they are not the same thing.
- A visually impressive outcome might demonstrate skill.
- It might demonstrate excellent software control.
- It might demonstrate an effective prompt.
What it does not automatically demonstrate is:
- a point of view,
- an idea,
- curiosity,
- experimentation,
- judgement,
- or something the maker genuinely wanted to communicate.
As polished production becomes increasingly accessible, those qualities may become more important, not less.
This is particularly relevant in design education.
The early stages of learning can look rough. Students experiment with unfamiliar tools, make poor choices, abandon ideas and learn from feedback.
That process is not something that needs to be hidden.
It is where the designer is developing.
Perhaps we need to become more comfortable asking a simple question:
Are you trying to express something, or are you trying to look impressive?
Sometimes the strongest creative work does both.
But expression needs somewhere to begin.