Some Things You & Pixar Creatives Have in Common

Episode Transcription Season 3 Chapter 2

Have you ever felt stuck or uninspired staring at a blank page as designers? It is literally our job to be constantly inspired and be creative on demand, which can be really overwhelming. I know because I’ve been there feeling like my last good idea was my last good idea on Brandy. See. I’ve been designing for over 20 years.

And I believe that every designer deserves to have a process that will get them past creative block. The process I’ve developed uses a powerful words. First method. This online course will give me powerful tools to craft epic concepts, unlock your own inspiration research in new and exciting ways. And so much more the strategic process.

The Central’s course has everything you need to stop wasting time, get past creative block and create work that gets. Noticed get a sneak peek of the course@brandyc.com slash courses. Welcome to the design speaks. We’re here to empower you to unlock your own inspirations. You can take control of your creativity.

I’m your host. Brandy C joining me is my cohost Julie Heider. Today, we’re going to be talking about some things that you and I have in common with the creative at Pixar. Stay tuned for that coming up later.

hi, Julie. Hey Brandy. So I know you’re not a big Disney fan, but I know you can appreciate their creative genius, right? Yes. And they seem to like have a foolproof formula for hit animated movies, especially at Pixar and. Today. I wanted to talk about some struggles that we all have as creative professionals.

Um, but that even these magical creators have when it comes to them being creative. So we’re going to talk about that in a minute, but first I want to hear what you have been up to. What have you been working on?

So

I feel like one thing that I learned in 2020 with the whole, like being stuck at home thing is to kind of be thankful for what you have and like, Make what you want to happen happen of what you have.

Um, so yeah, so I’ve been working in our bathroom yard a lot, which we rent a house, so we don’t have a whole lot of control over that. And I’ve always felt like, um, and I just like, I can’t wait to get a bigger backyard and when we can do more stuff in, and then I realized, like, I just need to do the things that I want to do in while we have.

So, um,

my, my Italian. That having a big yard just means a lot more work. Yeah, that’s true. You might have room to do all the things, but then when you do all the things, you have a lot more that’s

true. That is very true. Um, yeah, so, I mean, I’ve been planting the garden and all that stuff, but I wanted to kind of do more.

So, um, I took some of the. Things that we already had. Like, for instance, we had this, um, I just found out it’s like some sort of like thornless rose vine thing. I don’t know exactly. Um, but anyway, it. Was small when we moved in eight years ago and it got really giant, like so giant, I had to saw off some of the, oh my goodness gracious.

Um, so anyway, like I cut that back in and go, they’re all pruned up and everything. And then I realized like, oh, I can make this into a little like climbing vine and go across our like back fence. And so stuff like that, it just kind of like. Working with what I have. Um, I’ve always wanted like the little string lights in the backyard.

Oh

yeah. Yeah. And I was always like, oh, we don’t really have a good place to hang them. And we’re never really outside after dark. And I was like, but we could be outside after dark if we actually like made it nice. So anyway, so we hung out. Yeah. And I’m getting like a, um, Hammock chair thing to fit back there so I can like hang out and read and yeah.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Like, it’s been a long slow process, but it’s kind of nice to get out there every once in a while and just work on

it a little. Yeah. No, for real. And it’s, there’s something about like, I never thought I would be like a. I used to tell Kenny, like when we’re old, I’m not going to be like a gardening lady, but it’s actually like pretty relaxing to like, be out there.

Like usually we go out because we need to like weed the garden, or like check for strawberries or whatever. I just say strawberries, strawberries. Um, And then I find myself like, oh, I’m going to just check over here. And I’m gonna like give this one, some extra water. And before I know it, I’m like, dang, I’ve been out here for like three hours, just poking around at these plants.

I

think that was one thing about last year, because we weren’t going anywhere. Especially during this spring, I would just like. Step outside into the backyard a lot more. And even if it was just like, stand out there for five minutes, like it was a nice break from work and it just feels good to be in the sun and get the fresh air.

And so now I’m going like all in, apparently

you are so, and Julie, like your thing. That’s awesome. Well, I love seeing all the pictures that you post on your personal of your, your backyard journey. Yeah.

So what has been inspiring

you lately? Oh man. So this one was a hard two. This one was hard to choose.

This is my last one of the season. And so I’ve been thinking a lot. Um, and I think I’m going to go with lately. I’ve been thinking a lot about. Planning. Um, so we’re going to be going at the end of June, which may be when this podcast is out. I can’t remember. Um, we’re going to be going to California for about a week and a half, be our first real, um, vacation.

Like we did that small weekend thing for caves birthday to Colorado, but, um, where I am vaccinated and we’re going to actually like have a real vacation, but. The inspiring thing to me has been, the planning has had to be really different. Um, and also we’re taking my parents, um, to, so Kenny’s family lives in the LA Anaheim area.

So there’s a lot of like touristy things, right? Like, yeah, like Hollywood Boulevard and like all this stuff that I’ve done before. And obviously Kenny’s done before. Cause he’s from California, but they’ve never done it. So trying to like put myself in the shoes of like, Someone that has never seen these things.

Cause it’s like, ah, Hollywood super dirty. And it’s not really that exciting. Like there’s, you don’t see any movie stars, like there’s not really, but sort of just reminded me of like, How we do things as creatives. Like we have to put ourselves in the place of the audience, um, and understand whether it’s for our own personal brand, like how they see us or how we sound, or like when we’re creating something for a client who’s.

Audience is the person we’re supposed to be designing for trying to remember, like the trip planning in that way, sort of took my mind shift from like, okay, I do this all the time in the aspect of like designing, but doing it for a trip. That’s not just for me and my family. It’s a little bit different.

Um, so for the first half, they’re going to be with us and then they’re coming back and we have the second half to do things for us, but it was, it was. Very much, like, I wonder if Julie, this, this has to be like what Julie does when she’s planning all of her elopement things, because it’s not just like, oh, I think this is fun.

And I I’ve seen this place a million times. It’s like, oh, what am I like, what are my clients want? What are they looking for? What’s their experience. So that was like a different kind of inspiration. I wasn’t necessarily inspired to like make or do anything specific like usual, but it was very much a PR.

An exercise in putting yourself in someone else’s shoes for an experience like something with fresh eyes, any tips, Julie, they are my client. My, my parents are my client right now.

Yeah. I don’t know. Just look, look for all the things. I don’t know. I always like to look at like all of the options and then kind of decide like what I think would be the best, because there’s always going to be a million things.

this week I’ve been listening actually for a little while. I’ve been listening to this song called it’s a trip by joy wave. Some of the lyrics that really stuck out to me were primarily the chorus. It says when you’ve gotten what you want, maybe I should start over. There’s nothing left to want up. And Adam, again, you don’t know what you want.

Yeah. I’m thinking it over. Just tell me what to want. Anything for me. This song kind of resonated because. I find that at times I know what I want, but when I reach it, I feel like I have to start over. I it’s like I’ve gotten what I want and now I have to start over and I don’t take the time to think about the fact that I have made an accomplishment or I’ve reached a goal.

And then there definitely comes times where I’m like thinking about stuff and I don’t. Really know what I want right now. And this song was just kind of like a, Ooh, ouch. You need to be thinking about that more and celebrate your wins and. Start looking at your goals and thinking about what you really are trying to go for.

So that’s what I love about this song and you can find it as well as all of our songs on our music from design speaks playlist over on Spotify.

so let’s talk about. Pixar. So I think there’s this perception, like I said, in the little teaser, um, That designers and creatives that work at places like Pixar and Disney have this special magic that normal everyday creators like us just don’t have. So while I was watching, I watch a lot of Disney plus, but I love documentaries.

I love behind the scenes. I love to see people’s processes just in general. So I’ll always watch behind the scenes of like literally anything. So because there was these. Short snippets that I talked about in another episode of like making of these different things with the different creators, it was like I was all in.

And so it was that one and the making of frozen. And I realized that despite what we think the truth is that we all have the same struggles as the creatives at these, at these. Places that are massive, massive leaks as heck let’s back up massively successful, apparently needed more water. And I wanted to, like, I have like a really big list and I have some direct quotes from some of the creators that were really interesting.

And I don’t know why it was surprising. I think I know in my, like in my logical brain that obviously we’re all creatives. We all struggle with this, but yeah. It’s sort of like, it’s sort of like you think Tom cruise is really tall, cause he’s really. Like popular and he’s really successful. It’s like that mental game, but he’s really short.

And in real life, he’s just like normal person, like us. It’s exactly that same thing. So I have a nice big list. So I’d like to, um, read some quotes, this maybe a little all over the place, because I just want to see how it, how it flows. But, um, yeah. Yeah.

I’m interested to hear this because I definitely think.

I dunno, it’s kind of good news to hear that that really is working in really big jobs like that deal with the same thing.

So yeah, it was a validating, we’ll say that. So Seoul is like the latest movie. And so they had like an episode per some of their movies. So. The big one that, that started the whole, the whole documentary was soul.

And the writer for soul starts at the beginning of this episode. And his quote is, uh, his name is Kemp powers and he says, being a professional writer means you have to write, even when you don’t want to, because you have the burden of the project that you’re working on and it has to be completed by a certain date.

So if you’re lacking inspiration, you better go find it somewhere. And so that. That was like the first episode of the whole series for me. And I was just like, boom, like, this is what I talk about all the time. And he like, literally, I was like, I’m in, I’m in for the long haul. Like, just talk to me. And so the first thing is that we have to be creative on demand, right?

It’s yeah. We, you don’t have inspiration. Like you have to go find it and. To hear someone that is. And so not all of these are designers and some of them are writers. Some of them are directors, which also just shows that like all sorts of different creatives have these same struggles, whether you’re a writer or anything.

So, well, how does that hit you when you hear that quote?

I mean, well, first of all, it definitely made me think of you. I mean, not just because you’re telling it to me, but like, yeah, it literally is the same things that you’re always saying, which is cool. Um, but it’s so true. Like when you’re just creating for yourself for fun, there’s no pressure.

You don’t have to necessarily be inspired so that you can just do the stuff on demand. But like, if you’re, if it’s a job at all for you, that’s just the way it is, there will always be deadlines and yeah. There’s nothing you could do about that. That’s just the nature

of having a job. Right. Especially, and it is extra hard as creatives because it’s like, okay, but your job is to be creative.

Yeah. Yeah. So if you need inspiration, you better go find it. It’s not going to come to you. And it was, it was really like, wow. I sort of thought, well, this is why they work so well. Like, this is why this place succeeds is because they know this. They know that they’re not waiting for that Instagram. You can’t.

Um, so the next. The next one is her name is Deanna. Marcel. Okay. Let’s try this again, Maurice. Uh, Leesy Marsa Gliese it’s Italian, and it’s really hard to say, please. I’m so sorry, Deanna. If I’m pronouncing that. Awful. Um, so she she’s a character art director. She’s worked with, um, various projects, but they were also talking to her about her work on that soul movie.

Um, which I don’t know if you’ve seen it or not, but it’s sort of like the big idea of like the afterlife and like what a soul is and how it’s part of our personality and stuff. So, um, she has a lot of really good quotes, but. Something that I really loved about her was that she said, you need to collect inspiration.

You need to get out into the world. Like these are all direct quotes. I don’t know how many times I paused just to like, Rewind and make sure I was getting it right. Uh, she said inspiration is queen of all things. It is your best friend. It’s my job to have endless ideas, but there are moments where I can feel stuck.

And that could be because of a blank page or a confusing note, or just the challenge of trying to do something different. There are definitely times where I know it’s in there. I just don’t know how exactly. I just don’t know exactly what it is yet, and I have a deadline. And so hearing that, the next thing is that we also have in common with these amazing creators is needing inspiration.

That overwhelm that we get in front of a blank page, feeling stuck, um, knowing that it is out there, but still not knowing what that looks like.

Yeah, I think it’s easy to assume that these people who are in what we consider like really amazing positions, creating really amazing stuff that they just like go to work and the ideas are already there and they’re just overflowing with ideas all the time and it’s, it’s easy for them.

Um, And that’s not always true. I mean, like we said, everybody’s in the same boat of like, sometimes you’ve already got it. And sometimes you got to go find it.

Yeah, for sure. Uh, something else that I really appreciated about her and I’m, I’m really trying to get her on the podcast for an interview sometime.

Um, because she, she very much has, um, the same kind of mindset. In approaching these, these problems and something that she said was if I’m approaching a design issue and it’s not getting solved that I have to pivot, I have to be agile. I have to come at it in a different way. And so one of the other points is that we have to be willing to.

Do that to be flexible and to not get so married, what I call married to the one thing, right? Like this is my one great idea and no ones going to critique it. And no one’s going to tell me anything different. And even knowing that she’s got basically like awards under her belt for her work. Mm, like huge awards that she still understands that it’s important to be, to be agile and be able to pivot.

Yeah. That’s super important in, in all things just being flexible.

Yeah. I also thought it was like, man, hearing someone say that they have design issues. In this position even is just something that you don’t hear a lot from. I’ve been to tons of design conferences. I’ve listened under, learned under lots and lots of really big design people.

And very few of them are vulnerable enough to say. They have issues. It’s just like, yeah, you’re true. Here’s this thing I did. And here’s how I did it. And it was amazing and there was no problems and, you know, and it was a good reminder to me also to be that way. So I know that my process works and I know that when it’s implemented, it works every time, but I don’t always talk about, even in the midst of the process, you can still get.

You can still stop self-sabotage and there can still be issues. And you can still have questions about is this the right thing? And so it was nice to hear like someone at this level, like all of these people level admit their shortcomings. So it was really good. Um, Something else that she said that was, was really interesting was that, uh, every time you shift into a new project, it’s a whole new education, which is another one of my points, which is needing to basically learn a new design language, so to speak with every new project and with every new client, especially as designers and like for you with.

In clients that want to go somewhere new you’re you’re basically getting a whole new education. Yeah, definitely. Every time you have a new client, which is awesome, but it’s also all got

it is it’s a lot of work, but I like that it kind of keeps you on your toes. You don’t get complacent, you don’t get like too comfortable in your spot.

And like we were talking about last episode, like it’s so important to always be learning. So. This like forces

you to do that. Yeah, absolutely. If you love what we do here at design speaks podcast, we’d love for you to become one of our regular supporters. Our patrons. Get the chance to give us input on new season topics.

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So the last thing I wanted to quote from her and I had, I probably had like triple these quotes, but, um, the th the last quote I wanted to leave with for Deanna is. You don’t have to cross an ocean to find inspiration. It’s all about how you observe and engage the world around you, which is very much what I’m always telling people.

And to notice the details and to, you know, look at your dirty fingers when you’re poking around in the, in the dirt, in the backyard and find something interesting there, um, And so noticing the details is really key. The next person I wanted to talk about is his name is Dan Scanlon. He’s a director for onward.

Do you know which one that is? I don’t, it’s a, it’s basically like, uh, a fantasy story. It’s almost where there’s like fantasy characters, like unicorns and like all these things, but they’re like walking, talking, they’re not wild. They’re it’s like suburban. Fantasy kind of, um, so he’s, he’s the director and something that he said was very, very appropriate and he was definitely very vulnerable too.

Was. When you’re trying to come up with an original idea more often than not, you have nothing, you have a blank sheet of paper. It’s tricky to figure out where an idea comes from. I have no idea how to find inspiration. It’s something I think I’m constantly trying to chase and figure out. And he goes on to say how he does that.

But just from the get-go it’s like. That was one of the first things he said during his segment too. And I loved how they, they edit, edit them in such a way that like, they start with the vulnerability. Here’s how, I don’t know what I’m doing sometimes. So his, his thing for me is relatable. Just like us is feeling like you don’t, you don’t know how to find it.

And that. It’s tricky and you don’t, can’t really sometimes pinpoint where ideas come from. And I think that we all, we all can have that happen to us. Yeah, definitely. The last thing I, I didn’t put hoot where this quote from, I, I’m not sure. I think this was this point is just, I think an overall from, from what I learned and it was that.

Sometimes you’re right. Your best ideas can get scrapped, but usually they do come out better in another form when you are willing to work and be collaborative with people. And that was something I saw throughout the process of all of these different people that were talking was very much like here was, they went through like stacks, stacks of papers, stacks, like.

Things pinned on walls that were just like trash to them. And it was like, here’s an, all of these terrible yeah. Ideas. Yeah. But we had to go through those ideas to get to the good ones. And that’s something that I definitely advocate for in the process is, which is why I advocate for sketching, a lot of things, or like mocking up a lot of things or prototyping a lot of things because you have to get right.

All of the things out before you get to the really good things. So yeah, no, go ahead. I was just

going to say, and you can’t, you can’t expect that first idea to be the one that is going to be the best to go in and you can’t be disappointed in herself because the first one or two aren’t that right idea.

Like it’s, that’s just not going to happen most of the time.

You should be happy that you’re having a lot of really bad ideas because that means that a good one is coming. So, um, just to, just to quickly recap, Um, I’m just going to go over these really quickly. So some of the things that you and I have with the creatives at Pixar is the overwhelm of the blank page, needing ideas and not knowing where to find them feeling uninspired or feeling like inspiration.

Finding is tricky. Knowing that it’s your job to have endless ideas, but not knowing where they come from needing to be creative on demand and feeling stuck, looming deadlines, feeling like you have no idea where to find your own inspiration. And like you’re constantly chasing it, being put into new or uncomfortable situations, learning new design languages and understanding that.

Your best ideas are going to get scrapped, but they’re not actually your best ideas. So I know this was kind of a quick episode. I wanted to make sure that we weren’t, uh, I wasn’t just basically. Doing the whole documentary on this podcast, although it would be, it would have been a really fun thing for me, but I highly recommend that you watch this, Julie, this is now the second time I’m reminding you.

Okay. This

is my homework is your homework. So I think that it’s also something to think about that when you’re watching. This is a whole other level. It’s like very meta it’s like meta inspiration. It’s like you’re watching something that’s supposed to be inspiring. Figure out what’s inspiring you about it and write it down.

And it helps you kind of learn a little bit about what you’re struggling with, the things that pop out to you when you’re watching things like this, something that speaks to you is something that you should keep, like you should write that you may not be a content creator. Like I am, you may not have clients like Julia and I, but if you’re watching something and something pops out to you, it’s sort of like when you’re in church and like the pastor’s talking and you’re like, that thing was said just for me, whenever he said.

He must know my life because I’m writing that down. And when you are watching things like documentaries or Ted talks or listening to podcasts, as long as you’re not driving, write these things down and kind of put them in a little encouragement place that you can go to and be like, oh my gosh, this is the worst day.

I can’t, I can’t figure this out. Like. What is wrong with me. And then you can go into your little, like encouragement folder of these things that you’ve written down and be like, oh man, the guy that wrote soul feels like he doesn’t know what he’s doing sometimes. Yeah. And he gets past it. I can do this.

Like I can do this too. Or you can just listen to this episode. Anytime you need a little pick me up. That’ll work too. That’s such a great idea though. So, all right, so that’s our episode for today. So, You should probably listen to this episode again and take notes and then go watch the documentary and take more notes.

And if one of these really stuck out to you, or if you watch the documentary and you find that something different, stick out, I am very interested in what that is because I love hearing what inspires other people. So. All right. Well, that’s our episode for today. Be sure to leave us a review over on iTunes and you can always leave us a note over at design speaks podcast on Instagram, you can find all past and current episodes at design speaks.

podcast.com. Design speaks is produced by Kenneth Niffin and Stephanie Dakota cooks. Shout out to Colin from Vespertine for our incredible theme music design speaks is a project for me, for NDC and is produced in the shadow of the watermelon pink Sandia mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico, as always.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. .