100 Days Project – One thing. Every day. x100.

100 Days Project 2013, 100 Days Project 2014, Graphic Design, Illustration, Maori & Pacific Design, Real Talk

The 100 Days Project is simple. Choose one creative exercise, and then repeat it every day for 100 days. Record each daily effort and see what evolves in the work and in yourself over time. The project gives anyone a framework and the permission to be creative. It challenges you to dig deep into your creative reserves, to rely on your readiness to work in order to achieve creative breakthrough. It can be an end to procrastination, and the development of resilience. It takes a lot of energy, and yet the rewards can resonate for a long time after the 100th Day is over.

In 2011 Emma Rogan decided to start a 100 Days Project after reading about Michael Bierut’s ‘100 Days of Design’ class at Yale. She invited others to join her and word of the project spread. Since inception hundreds of people have participated in the project.

I began participating in the second iteration of the 100 Days Project in 2012 after being invited by a friend, Laura Cibilich. Laura was at the time conducting a similar exercise where she used various media and materials in creating the day’s date every day for a whole year! Check out her awesome project at www.mydailydesign.com

After joining and beginning my first 100 Days project of creating a tiling pattern inspired by everyday objects or items around me, I realised that perhaps I had been a little over-ambitious with the scope of my project and had underestimated the time it would take to create each pattern from concepting stage through to producing a vectorised tiling pattern square. Unfortunately I ended up bowing out of the 2012 exercise at around Day 14 with my pride a little bruised but having learned some important lessons.

The following year I came back with renewed vigour and determination to complete a new project in the 2013 iteration of the 100 Days Project. Initially my goals was to get back in touch with my long lost drawing skills by completing one doodle a day for the next 100 days. After a few days I realised that I spent too long trying to decide what to draw and so I ended up refining my goal to give it more limitation and focus and to save myself hours of indecision. My updated project goal became; to sketch one of the 100 most influential people of last century each day. This will give me an opportunity to learn more about these individuals and what they were known for. The 100 individuals are taken from the collection by TIME Magazine and information taken from Wikipedia.

Having these added limitations freed me from over-thinking the project and gave me a pre-populated list of individuals to draw. I proudly completed every day of this project and I am currently posting up some highlights of the 2013 100 Days project here on my blog.

If you would like to view the whole project you can see it here – 100 Days Project 2013

100 Days Project 2014 – Changing Faces

My goal for this years iteration of the project is to literally change the face of social media and rid our visual, social landscape of tacky and unflattering profile photos, one person at a time.
I will do this by composing, shooting and editing a head shot portrait of one lucky individual each day for 100 days. At the same time I am hoping to further develop my composition and photography skills in capturing an accurate representation of what embodies the individual.

The 2014 project will begin on July 11, 2014. You can stay updated with my project here on the 100 Days Project site and as there are still a few days left you can still register. Join me!