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Why we should get ready to embrace change after the lockdown

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If anything, COVID-19 will leave us with plenty to learn.

In the past few weeks, the creative industry has worked hard to prove its non-stoppable resilience. From spots shot entirely from home to beautiful art made in isolation, creatives all around the world have demonstrated that not even a chaotic global pandemic can stop mankind from pursuing its needs of artistic expression.

Some are pessimistic and believe the pandemic will leave more open wounds than scars, forcing the creative industries to succumb under the weight of an economic crisis. Perhaps they are right – and I do believe there will be trouble when all of this is over. But I like to focus on the flip side of the coin as well.

For it is only when you leave your past behind that you can truly blossom. And you can only leave your past behind when you are ready to learn from its most crippling blows.

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Credit: Screenprinted Poster, by Karolina Eriksson.

Creativity often involves working around some sort of inspiration to come up with something new. Maturity is often about leaving one’s past behind. There is one simple concept both have in common: reinvention.

Reinvention is the very principle at the heart of creativity – working with raw materials to craft something unseen, something we truly feel ours. In a sense, it is a constant quest for a sense of belonging. Creativity gives meaning to what we do.

But whether we are writing a novel or designing a rebrand for a local company, some of the best works of art are the ones capable of channeling their roots into a new beginning. The creative industries themselves carry countless lessons in that regard.

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The beautiful Discovery rebrand (above), for instance, left me speechless the very first time I laid my eyes upon it. The open D allows for countless uses and applications of the new logo, while still keeping the brand anchored to its roots: curiosity, truth, and ultimately, discovery itself.

It applies to entertainment as much as brands and creative works (and you could easily argue that all entertainment is a form of creative work after all). When it comes to sequels, I personally appreciate much better the ones that dip deeper into the roots of the original idea and evolve it further. On the other hand, I tend to condemn and criticise those works that remain too loyal to their origins, without bringing anything new into the frame. Fanservice is good, but it has to be functional to the bigger picture.

There is a reason, I believe, if we keep seeing rebrands in the first place.

The pandemic will force us to find new solutions to old challenges

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Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash.

We will inevitably be different once this chaotic nonsense is finally over. We will have new issues to solve, new problems to overcome, and old challenges to face once again. We will not be the same ever again.

Work itself will never be the same again. The pandemic is forcing many employers and employees to realise that working from home is a feasible option for their organisation, which could cause a permanent shift towards more home working in the near future.

And I get it – letting go of the past is hard. We’ve all struggled with it. We’ve all had to push through difficult times and reinvent ourselves. In a way, we are all unlike a tree letting go of its crisp autumn leaves, only to rise again in the springtime.

Change is scary, and the lockdown has already brought upon a ton of change, but we all know we will be ready once this is all over. I’ve seen a lot of energy in the creative industries to rise again once the lockdown is over, ready to learn the most from this soon-to-be past and its most crippling blows.

Ready to leave all of this behind.

Header image: Launch, Grow and Change, by Third Floor Design.

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