I Have 47 Unfinished Projects and I'm at Peace with It
I counted them last week: forty-seven. Half-built... Stuff. Logo concepts that stalled at round two. A new logo for my business I swore I'd finish in November. Of 2022.
I counted them last week: forty-seven. Half-built... Stuff. Logo concepts that stalled at round two. A new logo for my business I swore I'd finish in November.
Of 2022.
Some of those projects taught me something I needed for a completely different project, and some were stepping stones to a better version of an idea. Others were just fun for three hours on a Tuesday night.
As humans, we tend to treat unfinished work like failure, as if the only thing that counts is completion. Completion is one outcome, of course, but learning is another. Exploration is another: discovering you don't actually care about the thing you thought you cared about is a huge a win, not a loss.
I've built a career on finished work - we all have - sort of. But I also built it on the 47 things I didn't finish, because those projects showed me where the real ones were hiding. I think of them as wayfinding signs guiding my way towards retirement.
Keep reading
On Throwing Things Away
Confession time: there's a greater than zero chance I'm a hoarder. Every scrap bin, every shelf, every drawer stuffed with leftover vinyl and orphaned hardware is a decision I'm avoiding.
Fifty Things I've Learned in Thirty Years (That Nobody Taught Me)
Thirty years of making, fixing, explaining, and occasionally losing sleep over signs. These are the things I had to learn the hard way. Some of them cost me money, some cost me time, a few of them cost me relationships.
Good signage starts
with a conversation.
Every project is different. Let’s talk about yours.