I am no musician.
I’m not trying to be humble, but merely to tell you that despite being moderately okay at three instruments, being able to read music, and having a respectable recording studio hacked together in my basement office, I am really just dabbling in what most people would consider proper musical creativity.
And I’m okay with that.
I am trying to learn, strapped for access to resources and time and patience, at least the kind granted to a guy in his late forties who most people feel should either already be good at this kind of thing or should stop “acting like a kid” and do something more serious than compose jittery jams in his pyjamas.
I used to recap an essay[1] I once read about the font Comic Sans. You know it. It’s the most hated font in the design world, the free comic-book-ish font that came with Microsoft Windows long ago and shows up on “fun” corporate posters designed by people who don’t design for a living. I defended that font: people who use Comic Sans, I said remembering that essay, are thinking about design. They are arguably, well, just not great at it… yet.
They are no designers.
But they are trying…the same way I am trying with music, art, and a dozen other creative pursuits. And rather than make fun of anything designed with Comic Sans, perhaps we should be thinking of it instead as a teaching opportunity. We should be thinking of it as made by someone who’s mind is open to the possibilities of creative expression.
References
- ↑ . (2010). In defence of the Comic Sans font. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/20/in-defence-comic-sans-font.
Terms FROm this POSt
- basement office
- Every creative person needs to have a sacred space where they create and reset. For my own part, nearly twenty years ago I claimed the dark, cold corner of my suburban home’s basement where I have stacked the shelves full of books, covered the walls in inspirational colours and objects, set the mood lighting just right, strung audio cables to every corner, and given myself ample mental and emotional space to make. When I mention the basement office think of it like studio space or a creative hovel.
- corporate
- Having worked in many desk jobs, I tend to think of the corporate mindset and anything related to it as a kind of collective brain of capitalism and the search for profit. It is a core piece of the culture, but personally I’ve found it to be the antithesis of creative spirit, and often use the word as a pejorative in this sense.
