It’s funny how all the drama around Brexit seems like a distant memory. It’s not even a year since Britain left the EU, and ironically, it needs the EU’s help now more than ever. Since the whole world is facing an invisible possibly invincible enemy, on a scale not seen for over a hundred years. Everyone’s way of life has changed whether they like it or not thanks to the Corona pandemic.
Here in the UK, we’ve been in lockdown for about 5 weeks now. It’s the first time in most people’s lifetimes that the whole nation has pretty much come to a standstill. All together and all at once.
Everything’s shut besides the essential stores. And like so many other industries around the world, advertising has been hit with what feels like slamming on the emergency brakes while cruising along in an automated Tesla.
It's the most drastic change to everyone’s freedom.
That’s never been experienced here or most countries around the world. Plus, as we all know, most people don’t like change, finding it hard to adapt to it. However, we’ve always seen change as a good thing. There have been times in our careers, and life in general, where change has been forced upon us, and it’s always led to better things. We believe this is another one of those moments.
That’s why lockdown isn’t about being knocked down.
We’ve always risen to the challenge that change brings, and this is probably the biggest yet. Since we’ve been freelancing, the last seven years have been great to us, having been lucky to be booked for approximately 93% of it. In those years, our time off has been because we chose to take holidays. We needed them. Though when you’re a freelancer holidays are twice as expensive, as you’re not getting paid for it like full-time staff are.
For us, taking a break from it all is important. Other freelance creatives often get in touch to ask how we do it, but we know we’ll get work when we’re back.
Now for the first time since 2013, creative briefs have been cut short. The phone hasn’t rung. It’s dead out there. Eerily quiet.
It’s also the first-ever time we’ve been forced to take time off work. With the 6th week of lockdown approaching, that will be 6 weeks off. But most probably 12 weeks in reality. A total of 3 months without work. One quarter of the year written off without insurance. But we don’t see it like this. To us, it’s a chance to take 2 years of holidays all at the same time, though we’re not jetting off to any exotic beach. We can’t. All borders are shut.
This is our chance to have a sabbatical. We’ve earned it.
To do all the things we’ve now got time for. As well as giving time to do nothing too, it’s healthy for mental health. We’re taking inspiration from the likes of Austrian design guru ‘Stefan Sagmeister’ who takes one year off after every seven working years. There’s power in time off.
During the last few weeks, we’ve seen countless ideas and initiatives by creatives around the world – self-initiated films of hope, positivity, staying in… free concepts and designs for struggling brands and high street shops, NHS social funding projects through walks and haircuts, solving briefs via group zoom sessions, etc. While big brands the world over have revealed their philanthropic strategies to help all key workers with tonnes of freebies. All well and good, but we decided to take a different approach.
Choosing to use this time to live and to love. It’s our time to do more.
As we’ve not had the luxury of so much time like this in forever, how could we make the most of it as we’ve never used it before? And do things that we wouldn’t usually do.
In times like this, it’s even more important to ask yourself ‘why’. So rather than do another ad idea or a selfless self-promotion piece we thought a lot about living and loving, from family to our neighbours and wider society. It’s our time to give. To discover new things. A time to support others that need it most. More time spent with family. A time to make home, feel like home. A time to apply ourselves differently. Learn more about ourselves and the world around us. So, we are going about doing just that.
Here’s some of the missions we’ve unlocked during the lockdown:
Volunteering for the Government by delivering foods and medicine to the local community
Buying essentials and doing chores for the wider family, keeping them safe by going out for them
Making weekly food door drops to most at-risk neighbours
Painting, Decorating, DIYing while keeping a social distance
Regular calls with elders in the family and the wider family network
Houseparty video sessions with mates overseas
Drive-By Birthday celebrations for the lonely
Learning about family histories and other stories
Getting reacquainted with nature, talking to plants, caring for flowers, attracting the bees - cultivating a mini ecosystem
Becoming curry connoisseurs, learning through video calls then delivering
Experimenters in all food, tastes and drinks
Clocking up enough hours on the bike to cycle around an entire country
Teaching little ones via Zoom, through stories and discovery sessions
Walks discovering new neighbourhood sights and new neighbours
Shed making, sanding, polishing, gutter cleaning and tree cutting
Mentoring junior creative teams over Zoom calls
Preparing a rent-free studio flat for NHS workers
Yoga flexing, new poses, new achievements, new calmness
Home-made barbers, learning brave new skills
Getting arty with thread, colours, charcoal and models
Photographing lockdown views, loneliness and desolate scenes
Writing short stories
Spotting social distance rule-breakers around the neighbourhood
Self-made projects to feed the creative side
The list will surely continue to grow over the coming weeks because all this kind of stuff is important to us. Learning about new skills, new subjects, topics, people, thoughts and conversations, all of which will feed into what we love to do. Being creative.
We’re not about being the jack of all trades, but instead, hopefully, masters of some more.
If you need some help during this lockdown period, from having some food or meds delivered to needing a drive-by Birthday celebration, give us a call. Or if you’ve got a creative challenge that needs some urgent attention, we’ll happily give it some love during our sabbatical.
In fact, we’ve decided to donate 5% of our collective earnings (any work we get between now and end of June) towards ‘Concern Worldwide’, to help get emergency healthcare to the world’s poorest communities.
Stay safe.
asiancreatives@gmail.com