Creative Endurance

Description

A must-read guide for any creative, Creative Endurance offers practical advice and inspiration for staying motivated and achieving your big-picture goals.

Are you experiencing creative burnout? Using the effective strategies for creative endurance developed by creative director of Fast Company and accomplished marathon runner Mike Schnaidt, you can remain imaginative and inventive through any tough situation, throughout your life and career.

Featuring inspiring stories from designers, astronauts, illustrators, ultramarathoners, chefs, photographers, and an Olympic Gold medalist, Creative Endurance provides a unique combination of practical advice, in the form of 56 “rules,” alongside inspiring examples to help you overcome creative obstacles and thrive.
 

• Learn from graphic designer Sagi Haviv, the creator of the US Open logo, as he shares his experience of generating over 6,000 sketches for the iconic design.
• Join photographer Peter Yang behind the scenes of his most memorable celebrity shoots, including with Barack Obama.
• Hear from astronaut Jeanette Epps, who went from a Ford Motor Company employee to a member of NASA’s space crew.
• Get tips from celebrated cookbook author Molly Baz on crafting compelling recipes.
• Discover the mental preparation strategies of Olympic Gold medalist Billy Demong.
• Learn expert tactics and advice for maintaining focus and motivation in your career from endurance racing legend Hurley Haywood.

With lush illustrations across four sections of increasing time increments (Your Day, Your Project, Your Job, and Your Life), Creative Endurance will guide you through the daily grind of work to the big-picture goals of your life. Learn how to overcome obstacles in your daily routine, develop focus and imagination, and establish a sustainable practice. Refine your creative process, pitch ideas to clients, and handle negative feedback and massive projects. Discover practical tactics for hiring, budgeting, and navigating career challenges, along with advice on finding your creative voice and making a lasting impact in your industry.

Each chapter concludes with an interactive and inspiring spread of suggested activities.

Creative Endurance is the ultimate guide to achieving your goals and thriving in your creative career without sacrificing your well-being.Mike Schnaidt is a designer, educator, and writer based in Jersey City, New Jersey. His first book, Creative Endurance, offers practical tips to help creatives overcome their biggest challenges. As Fast Company’s creative director, he leads a team of art directors and photo editors who create visual content for the brand. Schnaidt has designed a variety of publications covering pop culture, fashion, food, and science, and has won awards from the Society of Publication Designers, Advertising Age, and Art Directors Club. He holds a Master of Science in Communication Design from Pratt Institute and teaches graphic design at Kean University.FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
PACK THESE TOOLS
WHO’S WHO
Your Day
START MOVING, KEEP MOVING
CARRY A NOTEBOOK
SLOW DOWN YOUR RESPONSE
TEDIOUS TASK? HIGHER PURPOSE
BREAK A BORING ROUTINE
RACE THROUGH DISTRACTIONS
THE PITCH DOESN’T NEED TO BE PERFECT
ONE (AND A HALF) THINGS AT A TIME
DON’T TRY SO HARD
UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVE POWER SUIT
REST FOR GREATER SUCCESS
END YOUR DAY ON TIME
DON’T ALWAYS END YOUR DAY ON TIME
SPRINT FASTER BY THINKING LESS
Your Project
BEGIN WITH RESEARCH
COMBINE YOUR BEST IDEAS
JUST. SAY. YES.
BUT WAIT. DON’T ALWAYS SAY YES.
BREAK BIG PROJECTS INTO SMALL PIECES
SET SIMPLE GOALS
THE CLIENT ISN’T ALWAYS WRONG
THE CLIENT ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT
REVISIONS AREN’T THAT BAD
PUT YOUR ERRORS ON TRIAL
LEAN ON SOMEONE ELSE
GIVE HONEST FEEDBACK
MAKE A CASE FOR YOUR WORK
PLAN FOR A WRENCH
Your Job
BE YOURSELF IN AN INTERVIEW
NURTURE YOUR NETWORK
NEW JOB? FRESH START
BE DIRECT WITH A TOUGH BOSS
PRESENTATIONS DON’T HAVE TO SUCK
TAKE THE SCENIC ROUTE TO YOUR DREAM JOB
HIRE PEOPLE YOU CAN HANG WITH
DISCOVER YOUR CREATIVE HERO
IMPOSTOR SYNDROME IS FUEL
SMALL BUDGET? BIG OPPORTUNITY
SPEND ALL YOUR MONEY!
YOUR A-TEAM NEEDS AN X, A Y, AND A Z
IT MIGHT BE TIME TO LET SOMEONE GO
LOSING A JOB CAN BE GOOD FOR YOU
Your Life
TRUST YOUR TEAM
CULTURE IS YOUR SUPERPOWER
FEED YOUR VALUES
ONE-UP YOURSELF
RECRUIT A CREATIVE COPILOT
DON’T TAKE LIFE SO SERIOUSLY
LISTEN
DEFINE YOUR MEASURE OF SUCCESS
BUILD A SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY
REACH FOR THE PAST
YOU DON’T HAVE TO WIN AN AWARD
EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING
BE PERFECTLY IMPERFECT
MAKE AN IMPACT
CONCLUSION
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 "Full of examples from Schnaidt’s clients, plus ample actionable tips for anyone interested in flexing their creativity muscles to build long-term strength, rather than sparking occasional episodes of genius followed by periods of creative blockage."—Library JournalA stunning and inspiring meditation on design by an insightful practitioner. Schnaidt's take on creativity will delight your eyes with a breathtaking design and stimulate your thinking, offering a unique guidebook to fuel your work and personal best.—Robin Landa, Distinguished Professor, Kean University, and author of The New Art of IdeasBang! Kapow! Zowie! I cannot imagine a more knockout, more energetic, more useful, or more rewarding guide to building a creative life than this beautiful book. I just wish I had access to all of these stories and insights and anecdotes a whole lot earlier in my career. But I have it now and that helps me sleep better. Bravo, Mike.—Brian Collins, COLLINSA serious compendium of thoughts, advice, personal stories, and complicated rituals that enable a broad group of designers to cope with those moments in careers when a good idea seems illusive. Every designer experiences this, and every designer can relate to both the struggles and satisfying solutions that are recounted within this book. Also, as a bonus, it happens to be beautifully designed.—Paula Scher, Partner PentagramReading Creative Endurance is like having a supportive, design-savvy friend at your side to help work through creative roadblocks. Schnaidt’s advice is supported by essays and interviews with art directors, photographers, and illustrators as well as race car drivers, marathoners, and a host of others, taking a wide view of how humans summon their creative powers. The book’s beautiful page structure and information hierarchy draws from editorial magazine design: It’s fun for a reader to hop around between the smaller bites of information and longer passages of text. Each section is color-coded, making it a snap to separate the content into easily-absorbed lessons. Type-nerd alert: The typography is stunning!—Angela Riechers, Program Director of Graphic Design at University of the ArtsMike Schnaidt does the impossible: He teaches you how to crush your goals while moving the mountains in front of you with wit and insight. It's like The Power of Positive Thinking meets The Little Engine That Could for creative people.—Anthony Giglio, author, sommelier and motivational speakerI've borne witness to the author's best work emerging in the crucible of a midnight magazine close and consider him to be a creative partner of the highest caliber. This tome distills the ethos and impulse behind that regal beard and driven mindset—and applies it to conversations with an equally captivating cast. A must-read for anyone ambitious looking to chart a path through the sometimes messy, often exhilarating world of collaborative art.—Matt Bean, SVP Content and Performance, TonalCreative Endurance is conceptually unique and it keeps you hooked throughout. The layout, stories, and knowledge in it are a great source of inspiration to all. I personally love how this book celebrates creative individuality and embraces patience and perseverance as key values. The creative industry is not a ‘one size fits all’ scenario and this book understands that! This charmingly honest read is a must for your bookshelf.—James Martin, author of Made by James: The Honest Guide to Creativity and Logo DesignIn Creative Endurance we see that creativity isn't just developed through hard work and discipline, but also by keeping an open mind, experimentation, and play. If your creativity seems trapped in a cage, Mike Schnaidt provides a key and, if you're like me, you come to understand that the door has been wide-open the entire time.—Dean Karnazes, NY Times bestselling author & ultramarathonerCreative Endurance is sui generis: hard won wisdom, never before collected, directly from the minds of some of the most successful creative talents of our age.—Cliff Kuang, author of User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and PlayCreative Endurance is the rare book that is equal parts style and substance. It's as informative as it is pretty, and let me tell you: It is dang pretty.—Tim Leong, author of Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book UniverseCreative Endurance is an absolute must-read for anyone, in any field, who wants to be as generative at the age of 62 as they were at 26.—Brendan Vaughan, Editor in chief, Fast CompanyLucky reader, you are the beneficiary of Mike Schnaidt’s insatiable curiosity. I can’t think of many other books about creativity that include interviews with a nine-year-old and a seventy-six-year-old, a Black woman astronaut and a bank vice president. In Creative Endurance, Mike offers practical, digestible tips to help reenergize creatives—and just about anyone else who is feeling a bit blocked.—Stephanie Mehta, CEO, Mansueto Ventures"Answers the question many creatives have: How do I succeed at my goals, manage the daily grind of life, and still take care of myself?"—COLOR Magazine

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