I was asked to design 6 postcards to describe the outcomes from Community Led Support for NDTI. I remembered that a while ago I had done a set of interconnecting postcards representing the work of John Stepper. Rather than trying to remember where on my hard drive and what the heck did I call that image, I took the quicker and easier route to ask google: ‘WOL postcards’ and clicked on the images tab. What came up surprised me.
It was a copy of MY postcard set signed by PD! My first thought was its bloody awful - not even acknowledged it was a copy of my drawing. But my thinking deepened as I reflected on this initial response.
Shouldn’t I be glad that someone was taken the time to re-create that image?Shouldn’t I be glad for another contribution around a great principle of Working Out Loud?
But perhaps the biggest reflection of them all is don’t compare. I say this so much in when I’m training people to be graphic recorders. We are just different and it’s that diversity that makes visual recording such a great thing. Be yourself and do not judge what you’re doing by the artwork of others.
I need to be more in tune with my reactions and in the words of Brené Brown; comparison kills creativity; and just as important she said: “don’t puff up, don’t shrink away, stay in your sacred ground”.