The other day I was using Adobe Illustrator to design a logo. Normally, I pass on this work to one of my go-to graphic designers (always a good call) but this was a special project and I had a strong idea of what I wanted.
I’m not a bad designer, but I’m a slow one. Seriously, I’d make about $1/hour if I did graphic design myself. You have to know what you’re good at, right? I can whip out a press release or a case study in no time, but design – nope, I belabor every permutation.
As I was working on the logo, my 5th grade daughter sat down next to me and asked if she could play with the logo. Sure! So I handed over the computer and watched as she randomly just hit buttons investigating what every little thing did. In no time, she had found all these cool new features that I didn’t know even existed. Here’s the logo she created:
(Don’t you love the tagline?!)
OK, so her logo is a little busy, but I love how she just jumped in and looked around. I would never do that!
I wondered. When did I become so careful? Why do I look in the help files before just messing around with the program? But I think it’s just my nature. Whenever I get a new gadget, I’ll sit down with the manual and read it cover-to-cover.
I hate doing things wrong, but sometimes there is no wrong. There’s no consequence. The best thing is to just dive in.
I think the lesson here is to watch and learn from others who are different than you. Look what I learned from an 11-year-old. Amazing!
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