Having experienced a continuous string of projects that have needed focus and tight on deadlines, at some point or another, designers may feel a need for a breather to reignite their creative fire.

I was at a space where I felt I was going on autopilot mode and there wasn't enough space, time and environment for creative play to explore freely and discover effects or ways of doing things, and just the liberation from rigidity, perfectionism and seriousness of the every day at work.

Hence I looked up on ideas that are simple to do and that takes minimal time to execute so I can honour my creative side and incorporate that into my work day.

I remember coming across an article by designer Namika Hamasaki where she challenged herself to create daily graphic patterns for 30 days. That, along with other articles suggesting such similar design activities really inspired me to do my own version of it as well.

I decided to do a daily challenge of graphic art for 30 days. The art would be done on a small piece of digital canvas, which I call a squircle, and spend about 15 minutes on it per day. It would be the time where I could play, explore creatively and at the same time, build consistency to commit creative time for myself over time, which I find is truly essential for designers, artists, creatives alike.

Here are the first 10 daily squircles I've created :)

Created on Figma, I explored various effects as well, just so I would familiarize with them and explore some of their possibilities as I have been using the software more often in recent years for UI projects as well as some light graphic work.

I allowed myself time and space to explore various fonts, colours as well as effects that usually wouldn't have been applied as freely in UI design and its systems. That felt quite liberating and expansive, and I'm glad I heeded that intuition and dedicated this time and space for myself, as a creative ♡

I'll be posting the rest of the series over time, so do look out for it in the upcoming posts :) 

Till then, take good care and continue to feed your creative fire ❤️‍🔥

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