The following is an interview I recently conducted by email with Jonas Buntenbruch, whose DONE experiment, located at http://www.jbunti.com, has been a huge inspiration for my major project.

Introduction from the DONE site:

DONE is my personal daily design workout for 2008.
Every day I will flex my design skills by creating one piece in 30 to 60 minutes. The presented works range from scrap and sketches to photos, typographic experiments and random creative masturbation.

DONE is also a challenge to test if I can produce visuals on a daily basis. I hope to gather ideas and sketches which otherwise would be lost to preserve them and to provide inspiration.

Certainly DONE is also an online sketchbook. And just like the analogue counterpart, the quality may fluctuate a little and collaborations will be done. Have a look!

1. What made you undertake this experiment?
Before I started DONE I did not produce much visual output besides the
work I did as a freelancer or for University projects.
However I still had all these – mostly small and oftentimes silly -
ideas and concepts floating around in my head that I just could not
fit into the previously mentioned projects. Very often I used to see
good ideas and concepts that I had thought of myself but never got
around to actually execute them let alone publish them on a blog or
portfolio.

In consequence I decieded that I need a platform that allows me to
publish all the visual ideas I have. In order to stay focused I wanted
to challenge myself by doing this on a daily basis.

Personal projects and experiments are an important foundation for
every aspiring designer to keep the juices flowing and to
develop an individual style and personal visual language.

2. How did you decide on what to produce each day?
In the beginning it was mostly about finally producing all the ideas I
already had thought of. Things I always wanted to do but never
got around to due to a busy schedule. This helped me a lot to get into
the flow of doing a personal piece every day.
Sometimes a piece would automatically give me an idea of what I wanted
to do on the next day and sometimes an idea was good
enough to be deveoped into a series.

What also played an important role in this is the time I spend on the
subway each day. Getting to work or Uni is a 45 minute commute for me
and when I did not read I already thought of the piece I am going to
do. So once I got home (in most cases) I already had an idea of what I
was going to do.

3. Did you set yourself a specific time limit for each composition?
An important part of the original concept was, that I would work 30 to
60 minutes on each daily piece. I quickly noticed that I am too much
of a perfectionist to go through with this.
Showing each piece on a public website just creates more preussre than
doing things for yourself in your sketchbook. I then decieded to work
an hour on the idea and reserve another hour for the technical
execution so the quality of my visual output would be up to par with
my personal standards.

4. Initially (in the first 3 months), how did you find the task of
being creative daily?
The first month it was quite easy since I already had a supply of
ideas and things I always wanted to do in my head. It became harder in
the second and third month since my supply of ideas was used up quite
quickly. I decided to give each month a theme from February on in
order to stay focused on being creative. A distinct structure really
helped me to explore and dig into certain styles and ways of
expression. The freedom to be able to do whatever you want may sound
promising at first but if you are not disciplined enough the results
will become more and more random. Limiting myself by, for example,
making February the “Analogue” month or March the “Typographic” month
really helped me to stay creative on a daily basis.

5. How did your perception of being creative change over time?
Good ideas need time to evaluate and think over. That is something I
did not have with my daily design project.
On the other hand being creative also takes dedication and practice.
With DONE I had a platform that allowed me to play creatively. It
became easier to draw inspiration from things and to formulate visual
concepts. However I must say that I never managed to establish a
creative routine – probably because “creative routine” is already a
contradition in itself.

6. Did the task ever become a chore to you? I.e. Did you wanted to stop?
Yes I did want to stop. The hardest periods were one fourth into the
project and one fourth before it was finished.
I remember sitting in front of a blank screen and not having the
slightest idea of what to do only too well. Each month I had at least
one or two periods – which lasted about 2 to 4 days – during which I
felt really unproductive and uncreative.

However I have always managed to overcome those phases by thinking
simple or by doing technical exercises. Again structure helped me to
get through. The fact that DONE was intended to be a one year project
and I had to publish something on a daily basis created the right
amount of pressure for me to keep going.

7. Did your daily design workout become easier for you?/Did ideas come
more freely?
Yes and no. I managed to establish a good flow of ideas and dedication
about 6 months into the project. I had to learn that quality takes
time and that I could not create perfect pieces every day. I also had
to realize that small steps will also produce good results in a long
term view. It is impossible to exploit creativity since it depends on
inspiration and keeping your mind open – it cannot be forced to come
to you. Practice and dedication helps but it is by no means a
guarantee for creativity.

8. How has this experiment helped you as an individual?
It has helped me to work more structured since I had a daily deadline
to meet. I have learned that creativity comes from keeping your eyes
and mind open as well as allowing it to breathe by not overproducing
results. I have also learned that I am still capable of improving
constantly by doing something on a regular basis. And the project also
made me realize how important structure is to me.

I think this is a dilemma a lot of designers have to deal with once
they graduate from school or university. There is always a strong
structure behind education due to homework, papers and examns. Once
you get out of school and you intend to work on your own (for example
as a freelancer) all that structure is gone and after a phase of
enjoying your new freedom it is quite easy to fall into the depths of
dismotivation.

9. Do you believe your undertaking has helped others? If so, can you
comment on any feedback you have been given?
I certainly hope so. The project was also intended to provide
inspiration to other designers. The feedback I got on the project
itself was overwhelming. A lot of people wrote motivating E-Mails as
well as stating that they want to start a daily creative project next
year themselves and I gladly provided them with tips and hints from my
own experience.

The feedback on the quality of the daily pieces was really helpful. If
you indulge yourself in an intense project you lose the ability to
rationally evaluate your own work over time. I always had an open ear
to feedback since it tells you how your work is percieved and you get
to know in how many different ways it is and can be percieved as well.

10. What would you say is the most measurable impact of DONE?
Personally I have learned what I am capable of and also how constant
practice and dedication helps you to progress.
Never hesitate to challenge yourself. Creativity needs structure as
well as freedom.

A big thank you to Jonas who kindly dedicated some of his time to responding to my questions, and for undertaking such an experiment.