A few years ago, I was thrilled to be asked by the makers of the Paddington TV show to create a balloon version of Paddington Bear. The challenge was to create a 1 minute video of the balloon being made to help promote the new series of the Paddington cartoon. I had always loved the character, so I jumped at the opportunity.
I knew that designing and building this Paddington bear was going to be a challenge however there were some rather unique challenges I had to overcome and 1 in particular which is what this blog post is going to be about.
You see when I agreed to do the job I received an email from the client filled with important details such as which colours to use, items he could be holding, sample photos from the TV show and so on, all of this information I find invaluable to help me plan and get the design looking perfect. It was the last sentence of the email which caused me the problems - "Here are some photos of Paddington balloons we have found on the internet, please can you make sure he doesn't look like these as we don't like them".
Why was this a problem? let me explain, I am a member of several balloon themed Facebook groups and there is something I see that happens a lot, it goes something like this - "Hey guys, I need to make a balloon panda next week, send me your photos of balloon pandas for inspiration", Now there is nothing wrong with this, I am not complaining about using other peoples work for inspiration, I used to be that person, always searching for balloons on the internet looking for new ideas.
Here is the problem with that, Alfie makes a Panda, Brenda copies that panda but due to it being made by a different person it is slightly different. Charlie then makes a panda based on Brenda's panda, and Denise bases her Panda on Charlies, the process continues through Edmund, Fern, Gary and eventually by the time we reach Hannah no one remembers what a panda looks like and we have a panda that looks nothing like a panda. Subtle changes made to each panda affects the design more and more.
A while ago I developed a new way of working, I stopped looking at other peoples work, I unfollowed the Facebook groups and stopped looking through countless photos of balloons. I wanted to build on my own style and work on coming up with my own designs and the only way to do this was to stop looking at other peoples work, I now rarely look at photos of balloons because I do not want to get influenced by them. If I need to make a balloon panda and need inspiration then I will cut out the middle man and look at a photo of an actual panda, that is what I will base my balloon on.
So back to Paddington bear, here I am sat at home not wanting to look at any other photos of Paddington balloons and my client has just sent me 8 images of Paddington balloons which I must NOT copy in any way. It is a bit like me telling you NOT to think of a pink elephant wearing a sombrero . . . . now all you can think of is a pink elephant wearing a sombrero yes? Well all I can see in my head are these photos of Paddington balloons most of which I actually rather liked.
How did I come up with a suitable design in the end? Well it took a lot of focus, I actually made a rough quick version first, I wasn't thinking about detail, this quick version was all about getting the shape and colour in the right place. Once I had this quick version I used it as my inspiration and eventually built 3 or 4 other versions until I got it right. I then had to make 2 more identical versions for the filming process.
The reason I am telling you this little story is because I believe everyone should be working on building their own style, coming up with their own unique ideas and pushing their creativity. I am not saying you should stop looking for inspiration, I think this is VERY important to ALL artistes and you should be on a constant search for more inspiration, I do however believe that you need to think twice about where you look for inspiration. The internet is full of these so called influencers, what happens if we all start doing the same as an influencer? we all become the same, what a boring world it would be.
So, go out there and get creative, unfollow those influencers, stop looking at other peoples work and start looking at the world around us instead, inspiration can be found everywhere, you just need to open your eyes and look.
“I'll never be like other people, but that's alright because I'm a bear” - Michael Bond
The Paddington video link
Hi Rob, I'm really enjoying the blog - and this one's had me thinking loads since reading it a few days ago!
ReplyDeleteWhat you're describing is exactly where I want to be. I'm always proudest of the designs I do myself. And yet when a new job comes in, I still go straight online to see what others have done. Having given it a bit of thought, it's not a time saving thing (as I initially thought)... it's a confidence thing.
My worst fear is that a display will fall apart or pop to pieces after I've delivered it (which has happened exactly zero times). Somehow pictures of other people's designs give a (totally unintended) promise of being well made, transportable etc. Compare that to the straggly, tatty v1 prototype of my own designs, and it feels safer to just go with someone else's proven design. Yet I know my v2 will be stronger, and by v4 it might even look pretty smart.
I might not stop looking at other people's designs because I find that really interesting, but this has really motivated me to make my own stuff my default. Thanks for the nudge :-)
I am glad you are enjoying the blog and I know exactly what you mean, there is nothing wrong with looking at other peoples work but yes, have confidence in your own abilities :)
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