Issue 33: Focus Up
On attention, power, and the blur that is life.
🙃 It’s the end of the world as we know it
Happy Monday everyone — or, if not a happy Monday, then certainly a Monday. I don’t think I’m alone in finding the world very overwhelming right now, and I haven’t made things easier on myself with my choice of distraction. It feels like every 30 seconds I hear a news story that makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry, and by the time I’ve processed that one, there are 20 more I need to catch up on. Meanwhile, I’ve chosen to begin this year by redecorating over half the rooms in my house. The fact that this project is overwhelming in its own right has, I fear, made it all too tempting to recede into a hole. It’s oddly comforting to replace screaming at the wall because I feel powerless with screaming at the wall because on the third try, the mirror STILL ISN’T HANGING STRAIGHT ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I believe it’s critically important to stay informed, and I also understand why so many people are having a hard time engaging with the news. When everything feels too much, it’s easy to feel like there’s nothing you can do, and so running away is the only logical choice.
In the weeks since the inauguration, I’ve seen a few great posts about attention — how it can be manipulated, and how we take it back. If we’re not careful, the direction of our attention is often curated for us — by the president, social media and more — and the overwhelm we feel from that is no accident. Indeed, it’s a strategy. It’s tempting to focus on everything from LGBTQ+ issues to immigration to tariffs to the environment to healthcare, because it is all critically important. But the more we attempt to react to every single thing that happens, or allow ourselves to jump from issue to issue, the less ability we have to zero in on actual effective action. The truth is, we have more power than we realize, but that power depends on focus. This principle comes up in my design work all the time. So often a project will have a million potential communication priorities, and it can be hard not to emphasize them all. But when you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing. The most powerful thing we can do is take back our focus, and commit to making a difference where we can.
That’s why this week we’re looking at design through focus. We’re figuring out what matters most when everything matters, we’re losing ourselves in the music, and we’re resisting the temptation to do it all while recommitting to doing what we can. Read on for all this and more.
📷 Moodboard of the week
This week’s moodboard is a blur, just like life right now. But it’s taking steps to focus where it can — even when that focus is imperfect or untraditional — and also recognizing that it can’t take on everything. Click here or below to view the full board, with original images, on Pinterest.
🔍 Question of the week
“For freelancing, what are some determining factors for your personal client number and work load?”
As a freelancer, this is one of the most challenging questions, because the temptation to try and take on everything is high. There are 24 hours in a day and I love my job, so why not attempt to do it all? But of course, this is impossible, and it’s a disservice to both me and my clients. My commitment is, first and foremost, to do the best work I can for everyone, which means both having time to do that work, and time to keep my mind and creative energy fresh.
The best way I’ve found to do that is, and this is not a joke, by vibes. I’ve never been one to gauge my client load by number of clients specifically, because it’s a weirdly unhelpful metric. Different clients have different needs regarding both deliverables and urgency, and different projects require different levels of attention. It can be next to impossible to predict exactly how many hours something will take and map it out precisely, and if I try to micromanage my workload, the system falls apart if I misjudge even the slightest thing. But one can generally get a sense of overall intensity, and whether the cumulative effect is in balance. This system allows for flexibility not only in how hours are planned, but in how priorities are managed. Urgency can shift, as can intensity, and keeping a constant-but-flexible eye on my workload helps me adjust in real time, and assess if I can take on new work or new clients at any given time.
That said, I do have some overarching guidelines as to how I take on clients and work. I feel very strongly that I be aligned with the people I work with, both in that I think it’s important that I resonate with the work they do, and in that we need to work well together. Regarding the former, I’m very conscious of the power my work has, and I want to make sure my design is only used to promote things I believe in. Regarding the latter, client-designer relationships tend to be long-term partnerships, so it’s critical that we communicate well, share general working principles, and get along. While I’ve found that the way I run my business tends to attract work that meets those criteria anyway (particularly since these are also things most clients care about!) I still keep those principles front-of-mind. When you’re focusing on taking on work that’s a good fit for both you and the client, I find that the workload settles around where it should be. None of it is a perfect science, but I find that when I keep my priorities front of mind, and commit to flexibility and open communication, I’m able to keep things at a level that excites me, and allows me to do my best work, while always making space to learn and improve my systems the more experience I get.
🎧 Soundtrack of the week
If there’s one thing I know, it’s that no amount of music is going to help you concentrate if it doesn’t resonate with what’s going on inside your head. So we’re going to ease ourselves into it. This week’s playlist begins as a wild ride, but before you know it, you’ve Lost Yourself In The Music™ and by the end you’re getting to work, and you don’t even know why. Preview below, or click here to listen to the full playlist on Spotify.
❤️ My Favorite Things
Barrio Drive is a queer, immigrant-owned design brand selling clothing, art, and more that uplifts marginalized voices. I came across their Instagram page this week after they shared a “Know your rights with ICE” poster they created went viral.
Often work like this can look very utilitarian, and to me their work exemplifies the importance of good design. Design doesn’t always feel like a priority in situations like this, but when critical information is beautiful and easy to engage with, its reach is exponentially increased, making it all the more important.
You can check out Barrio Drive on Instagram here, or at their website (note – their website is closed today in observance of A Day Without Immigrants, so be sure to check it out tomorrow!).
🌱 Touching Grass
📖 What I’m reading: I began 300,000 Kisses, an anthology of queer love stories primarily from Ancient Greece, Rome, and (I believe) Egypt, combining commentary with source text and poetry. I’ve read a few novels in this vein that took a lot of liberties with plot and perspective, and I find this book’s commitment to the source material really refreshing, even when it’s messy and uncomfortable. So far it’s fantastic.
🐟 What I’m eating: Salmon with blueberry chermoula, and tamarind-rose agua fresca.
🎧 What I’m listening to: I keep my car on top 40 radio so that in the 30 seconds before my CarPlay kicks in, I get a quick sense of what’s popular right now before I move on to music I actually like. So thanks to KC101 for cluing me into Gracie Abrams. I get a very early TSwift vibe from her, and I’ve really been enjoying getting to know her music, albeit somewhat belatedly.
📺 What I’m watching: In the vein of this week’s theme, I’ve been on a drive to curate my own news feed more intentionally (rather than letting Instagram do it for me). I’m particularly digging Ground News as an aggregate source, but even then it’s hard to catch everything, and I’ve been finding the NPR morning news roundup does a great job of filling in the gaps.