It’s been a pretty big week so far with adding the final touches to the journal before handing it over for a sample to be produced. I feel like this marks quite a large milestone in this journey, and it’s something I definitely could not have achieved on my own.

In the lead-up to having the journal ready to go to the printers, I had a couple of unexpected hurdles appear along the way. I mentioned this in a previous blog, but one thing that I wasn’t expecting at this stage of the process was to switch designers.

The first designer I had did this truly amazing job of getting the journal almost print-ready. We went through various rounds of feedback and they went from taking my rough mockups of the journal to this beautifully designed piece of work. They had included stunning illustrations, used a colour palette which corresponded well with the brand and it was clear that every bit of detail they added to the design was done with nothing but love.

I was (and still am) extremely grateful for the work they had put in as it really set the way for the journal it is today.

After a few discussions about getting the file print-ready, we both agreed that it would be best for me to take the near-completed designs to another designer to finish them off. It was a tough decision but we made it together, and it came from a place of us putting the journal first and coming up with a solution that best fitted its needs at the time. So now it meant making quite a large change to the project rather late on.

And this change is completely fine.

It speaks to a post a created on Instagram last week about knowing when to pivot or stay the course. In this particular case, it was necessary for me to pivot.

I spent quite a bit of time interviewing new potential designers, but it proved to be quite challenging. I was so fixated on the creativity and love invested by the first designer. Unknowingly, I was letting this cloud my judgment as I was unfairly comparing others to this individual. For me, it felt like their boots were too big to fill. The way I saw through this problem was to keep in mind the reasons why I was looking for a new designer. It wasn’t because I needed someone to redo the design, it was essentially to get the journal ready for printing, so in reality, there wasn’t actually a need to compare skillsets as the reason I was switching designers was because we were having difficulties getting it ready to be printed. The way to best view the situation is that there was a need for collaboration.

You have to love serendipity

A few weeks ago, I went out for dinner with some of the gang from my previous work. I always love seeing these guys, and it offers a nice break from my mind which is generally just busy with thoughts around journal. The dinner went really well, and it was great to catch up with them all. One thing I wasn’t expecting would happen was to find the designer who would take the journal over the finish line with me.

Sunil, who I used to work with is a very talented designer with an extremely sharp eye. He’s organised, patient, and when he starts something, he commits himself fully. I approached Sunil a few days after the catch-up to see if he’d be interested in helping out, and he said yes!

Keeping an open mind

I sent Sunil the design files and what I naively thought would be just a couple of tweaks here and there and required quite a bit more work. It turns out that getting a 200-something page journal ready for printing is a little more involved that what I had initially thought. While getting the document print-ready, Sunil had also made a couple of subtle but effective changes to some of the design.

At first, I wasn’t too sure how I felt when I saw some of the changes. And I’m not even talking about large changes. Small, delicate and refined tweaks that complement the original work, and when I look at the journal now, I absolutely love it.

The issue I noticed when I was first looking at what Sunil had done was that I was so engrossed in the original design that I couldn’t see how any changes to it could be a good thing. I caught myself clinging onto the original design as it was the first design I had for the journal, and so naturally I had developed a certain anchoring bias to it. It was quite a dangerous move on my part as it was stopping me from taking a more objective view of his designs.

Once I noticed that I was clinging onto the original designs, I tried to remove myself from the equation a little as I didn’t want my bias getting in the way of the project. I called in the assistance of others to review the designs and I slowly became more open to the idea of the changes.

Doing this is probably one of the most important things I could have done at that stage as when I now look back on the two versions, I can see what Sunil has done, and it’s really taken the journal to the next level. I’m just glad that I didn’t let myself get in the way and prevent this from happening.

The sample has now been ordered and I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help of both designers. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had these two amazing people work on the journal. It’s going to be a product of love, creativity, dedication and effort, and I can’t wait to share it with you all.