Tomorrow marks two years since I started working on Love Football Hate Football. When I look through my work from 2013 to now, I can see the steady improvement in my skills that I had hoped this project would bring. I've grown a lot as a designer and along the way I learned things - either directly by doing this or from other sources - that can be applied to design or any other creative fields.

What exactly did I learn?

1. Build your pack

I'd be the first to admit I'm not the most technologically savvy person around. I'm a quick learner when it comes to software but that's where it stops. Not great because if I didn't hold as much contempt for things like social media, I could've had a larger reach than I have in the last two years but operating in a vacuum has its benefits too.

Work like this can be quite polarizing so it's difficult to get any real constructive criticism when the feedback is generally nothing more than an outburst of an extreme emotion. That's why it's important to develop a close set of level-headed people whose opinion you trust and who you know will provide you with completely unbiased critiques to help you along the way.

2. Reps, Reps, Reps

I'm an avid reader but two books in particular have had a big impact in how I approach practice.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography goes through his bodybuilding, business, acting and political careers and to some it would seem inhuman how one man could achieve what it would take a few men a lifetime to. Others might not even bother looking past his recent transgressions. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and it taught me one very important lesson: everything is about repetition.

When you're at the gym, the amount of sets and reps you do are designed to break your muscles down and build them back up to be stronger than before. This has just as much of a mental application as it does a physical one.

For example, when Schwarzenegger was to make big political speeches whether at the UN or his State of the State addresses, he practiced them hundreds of times. He would draw a line at the top left of the page for each time he got through the speech and he would have perfected it by the time the lines reached the other end of the page. It was that kind of work ethic that made him successful in everything that he decided to take on.

In the second book, Mastery by Robert Greene, the author describes the journeys of various masters throughout history and goes into more scientific detail about repetition. Without getting too deep into neurobiology, through intense repetition the brain essentially becomes hardwired to perform certain tasks at an instinctual level. Cristiano Ronaldo scoring goals in the dark is great proof of this.

Thanks to these two books, I've found myself more willing to try out new software (Cinema 4D and After Effects) so that I can create even better content for the site.

So every time you get sick of practicing just think "reps, reps, reps", you'll be better for it.

3. Copy other designers

Similar to writers and musicians who copy their idols to learn from them, designers can too. This isn't an invitation to plagiarise anyone but copying someone else's style serves a good purpose. You grow and learn their techniques while incorporating your own style. And if you haven't found your own style yet, you definitely will by doing this on a regular basis.

This technique also goes back to the point above, where through repetition and a bit of experimentation you can greatly improve your skills and evolve as a creative person.

4. Live to fight another day

Perfectionists will often run themselves into the ground trying to get each pixel in the right place but sometimes you just end up burning yourself out. After hours of working on the same project you're likely to run out of ideas or become too overcommitted to be open to changing things up. Sometimes you might just want to get it over with and decide the project is over when it could really be improved even more.

So it's a good practice to let something sit for a few days, a few weeks or maybe even longer. With a clear mind, you might end up scrapping the entire project and starting from scratch but you will definitely be happier with the result.



5. Just get started

People constantly say that they need motivation or inspiration to work. I used to refuse to do any sort of creative work without it but in the recent past I decided to just start on what ever it was that I was working on and let the motivation come during the process. It worked.

I took a lot of satisfaction out of getting over the first few hurdles of starting a new project (what to do, how to do it) and that's what ended up sparking my motivation. We live in a world full of instant gratification but buckling down and getting through challenges will add up to create long term benefits that will bring more joy and motivation to your work.

But you can't get started until you get started.