Alana McDowell’s Talk: What I Learnt

Published: February 14, 2024

Thanks to everyone who joined us last Wednesday evening to hear multidisciplinary designer Alana McDowell share her creative journey at our first Blick Academy creative talk of the year. Alana imparted so much wisdom during her talk in a really positive and uplifting way. Modestly attributing much of the great creative work she has done for brands such as Lululemon, Vans and Nike as work she has received through good luck. I’m pretty sure Alana created this luck herself by working hard, getting involved with lots of different things and creating opportunities for herself as well as through her positive mindset and attitude.

Here are some of the key things I took away from her talk.

Starting – Alana reminded us that starting is sometimes the hardest part. Pretty much everyone is scared of starting a new business or venture. It requires you to put yourself out there and risk failure. But there are different things you can do to make starting easier. You can start with a small task to get the ball rolling, or pick the hardest task to leave you feeling inspired and empowered or involve friends, family or creative communities for support and accountability.
Do All The Things – Alana spoke of ‘Doing all the things’ as an integral part of her creative journey when she was starting out and during quiet periods. She sent out cover letters, took part in courses, joined communities and directories and basically kept herself busy, maintained momentum and kept herself moving forward in her creative business. Lots of these things she said felt like a waste of time, but actually looking back they were all tiny steps forward that led to opportunities she couldn’t have foreseen.
Trust The Process – Alana reminded us how important it is to trust the process. That it’s only when you look back on your journey that you can connect the dots. That everything that happens good or bad is a part of your journey and the process and you just have to have to hang in there and have faith it will work out in the end.
Take Time For Self Reflection – Alana shared with us the value of self reflection before starting your creative journey and how important it is to keep checking in with yourself as you go along.
Follow Your Own Dreams and Values – Alana shared her favourite quote with us.
“To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive.” Reminding us how important it is to stay true to ourselves and what we want out of our creative practice and life, not be swayed by other people or society’s expectations.
How Many Hats – Alana explained all the different roles she fulfills in her creative business. Including finance, admin, sales, marketing and social media. A reminder that it’s important to be flexible and adaptable, to embrace all aspects of running a creative business, but also to try and balance how long you spend on each aspect and where the value lies.
Getting It Wrong – As Alana reminded us, making mistakes is inevitable, everyone will make mistakes on their creative journey. It’s just part of the process and an opportunity to learn and grow. You just have to pick yourself up and carry on
Create The Kind Of Work You Want To Get Paid To Create – An important reminder from Alana that when starting out you have to create the kind of work that you want to get paid to create in the future and you then need to find a way to put it out into the world. You could simply create the work for yourself and share it on your website and social media or even better find someone (could even be a friend or family member) to create the work for, even if it’s for free or a very low fee to start with. Alana shared with us that she created a mural for a Mexican restaurant for a very low fee when starting out, but that then led to her getting a bigger opportunity with Lululemon who saw the mural online, which in turn led to other future opportunities.

We also did an interview with Alana before her talk that you can read on our website here

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