A headline I thought I never would write. But hear me out on this one! Inspiration, ideas and strait on knowledge comes from all directions. Magazines, blogs, podcasts, movies… and Netflix. Now you are thinking how can Netflix help me in my work? Well, I recently realized it myself, how binge watching a series actually can help me.
Last week I started watching the series LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS on Netflix. A series of a total 18 short stories that include the theme love, death or robots. We get to follow robots visiting earth as tourists long after us humans have perished in self-caused natural disasters, or farmers on another planet piloting robots defending their crops against invading aliens, among many other stores. Some more bizarre and some incredible well animated.
And here is why it helped me in mine line of work:
I started watching and was completely hooked after two episodes. I binge-watched them all during my breakfast and lunch breaks. I could not wait what the next story would bring to the table – I just wanted to see more and more. After I had seen all episodes that Netflix had to offer I started to think about why I got so hooked. My conclusion was that it wasn’t the stories or the plots, but that every new story Netflix so kindly served me was presented in a new unique artistic direction. Every story had their own art direction. From extremely well animated to the brink of realism to more cartoonish styles and some with real actors.
Several layers of glue
The variety of the episodes made it interesting, to see what that next episode looked like. This way Netflix made it sure that my attention was on them by keeping me interested using several layers of clue, so to speak. Often when you follow a series, the level of interest goes up and down depending on the story and plot of that specific episodes. If it’s a weaker episode you take the chance to use the bathroom, scroll through your social media feed or in worst case – stop watching. In this particular case Netflix made sure I was still on the other side of the screen watching by both using story and plot together with a new direction of design. No chance to escape when dual layers of super-glue is holding you down.
How you can adapt it
The same goes for you and the way you work. By keeping you line of work diverse, you will keep your own curiosity and creative lust on edge to always creating new work.
This goes for potential clients as well. For example, if a marketing manager is looking for a photographer to help them visualize their brand, you don’t want them to see only the exact same kind of images in your portfolio.
I don’t mean that as a photographer you should display every discipline there is, such as portraits and cars, when you market yourself as a nature photographer. This only creates a sprawling impression that will confuse. But as a nature photographer you can display all different sides of nature photography in a different artistic approach such as minimalistic, black and white artsy portraits of leaves or portraying a national park only using a certain technique. This way you will deliver every story in a unique artistic direction, but you still keep within your field of work, such as LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS on Netflix.
Love,
Johan, Creative Visualization