From the Inspirational Thought Unit
Several years ago I was asking myself the deep questions about art, creativity, life, pursuing happiness, and balancing that against my actions, needs, and beliefs. I decided I needed to make a personal creative manifesto.
I made a video about it way back in 2015: LINK
Manifestos can come across as pretentious, so I don't think you HAVE to have one for yourself. However, it does make things a lot easier when you are in a position to decide what to do with your work as a creative type. When you're caught up in creative bliss the lines between screwing around and getting actual work done can get really blurry. Having a declared a set of rules, intentions, or motives for yourself can keep you from getting too far out in the weeds.
My creative manifesto is simply these three things, and specifically in this order of priority:
Provide a healthy, safe, and comfortable life for my family
Create work that inspires, edifies, or contributes positively to our culture
Teach others to do be able to do what I do
Ideally, the three all work in harmony, but I won't let one thing higher in the list suffer by serving something lower in the list.
I bring this up now only because I recently saw a great manifesto posted by a small publisher based in South London that does zines. They are called Colossive Press and this is their manifesto:
I think there's a lot to gain from this, and if I were to expand Number 2 of my manifesto it would include a lot of what's written here.
If you feel a little lost at times, or are ever unclear as to what you should be doing as a creator, take some time to ask yourself these questions and evaluate yourself:
What do you want to accomplish in life?
What do you like to do?
What are you really good at doing?
Then write something out that nails down your ideals, principles, and motives.
Hope that helps.
-Jake