My Creative Compass

This is a very personal project created for myself after thinking a lot about all the different work I've done over the years and if there was a common thread/s between them. It wasn't about looking for a consistent theme or aesthetic, but more big picture - what is it all about really? I figured out that there are four main things that are consistent through all the different work I've done, in my personal work especially but also in the work I've done professionally for other people's projects. This illustration is my way of bringing all the threads together to create my own little place centered around my creative direction.

The four things are; story, exploration, discovery and escapism. With my recent work looking at maps, it was easy to connect the four themes to the four points on a compass and thus the creative compass idea was born. There is at least one, and usually multiple of these elements in all my personal work and the things that resonate with me the most. Unlike a physical compass which can only point you in one direction, the creative compass can point in several at once, and take you on a journey through them all. In fact a project is a better match if it does include multiple of the four themes.

It was really fun to investigate this concept, and how to represent the ideas of story, exploration, discovery and escapism as physical spaces on a map, including a few inspired by real places I've visited. I think this will be something I can use to help guide my work now, and also something to revisit later and see how future me will represent his creative compass.