I’ve been thinking about doing this for years.
A website/YouTube channel/Instagram/whatever of my own (not my business). Somewhere to write about the things I make, things I like, the things I’m learning, and the parts of creative work that occupy my head.
I’ve bought the domain. I’ve had ideas for articles and/or YouTube videos. I’ve planned what I could make, how often I could make it, and who might want to watch it.
Most of my thinking eventually ran into the same question.
What’s it about?
I used to have a blog. There was also this version many years ago (like 20+. Holy moly). It was fun. I enjoyed writing it and mucking around with Movable Type, which it turns out is still a thing.
It didn’t have a purpose as such or a niche. I was a designer, it was my blog, and I wrote about stuff that interested me. Design, travel, music, just typical early 2000s “cool stuff”, really.
When my kids were born, I had another blog, Say Noodle. This one was the most fun, but even that sort of felt like work at some point. So the question remains, what is it going to be now?
Fast forward to today and there are platforms galore. Socials, YouTube, TikTok, Substacks, Patreons, and on and on. There’s tonnes of advice on YouTube (my distraction of choice) about specialising. Finding your niche. Building an audience around a subject. Becoming known for that thing.
This is all cool. Like seriously, whatever floats your boat. Go for it. But I think what has continually stopped me from actually starting something is that it all seems like work. Work with the purpose of growing your audience, and then when you’ve got an audience you can monetise. Then you can shill your course or community or whatever. I’m always waiting for the conversion funnel to show itself.
So it might be…
I guess this is going to be a blog (without a posting schedule). I might write something, draw something, link to something, make a video about something, explain something, or question something.
It won’t have a niche. It will be informed by my taste but will act like a blog of old.
How many hot takes are enough?
Why no niche? Having a niche means specialising, means locking into one topic area and trying to speak to that so that the fucking algorithm puts your hot take in front of someone who’s just watched a bunch of other hot takes. It’s all so fucking beige.
I’ve spent more than 25 years doing the opposite of specialising.
I studied illustration, then fell into digital and website design, Flash and animation, before I moved to London and fell into advertising. Illustration came back into my work there. I spent my days with markers and layout pads, drawing scamps for ads, websites, microsites (they were a thing) and campaigns. Art direction led to creative direction, leading teams and eventually running agencies.
These days I run my own small studio. I am a one-man show.
Last week I was designing/illustrating drinks packaging. Today I was in project management mode. Recently I’ve been working on SEO strategy for an accountant and content strategy for a building certifier. I do a lot of work with a craft brewery where I might spend one day thinking about an advertising campaign and another working on a membership program and fulfilment for their taproom.
On the project management front, I’ve been living in Notion since 2018. Lately I’ve been building a client portal in Notion with Claude and Codex (vibe coding is cool as fuck).
A while ago I art directed a video game for a toilet paper company. We made it out of craft materials and the lead character was made out of a toilet paper roll. The whole thing was cardboard. I really like making things out of cardboard.
I’m also playing video games with my kids and teaching my eldest to drive. I want to start a veggie garden. I’ve also recently been diagnosed with Alpha-Gal Syndrome. (That’s fun.)
This is how I live and work. How do I niche? I’ve got something to say or contribute to all kinds of things.
Variety is the spice of life
(I wrote that, you can use it.) It keeps me interested. It keeps things interesting. It also makes the usual advice about creating content difficult to follow.
If I started a YouTube channel about design, I’d want to talk about SEO at some point. I could make a bunch of videos about Notion, but I don’t want to be another Notion Guy. I could document an illustration from sketch to finished packaging, then make something else. I spent a lot of time setting up my office and enjoyed figuring out how I wanted that space to work, so I could definitely make a setup video (literally aesthetic desk setups or deskporn is a niche, with cozy as a subgenre, PLEASE!!!).
Then there’s everything that happens outside actual work.
I think a bit about frustration and burnout because, well, it’s the modern world. I’m interested in productivity, particularly our (ahem, read my) obsession with it. I think about getting older and what I want from the next part of my life.
At 51, I just can’t be bothered caring about a niche or being a Content Creator.
I love making things. I love new things (Ooooh, Shiny.) I like playing with new tools. AI has opened up a world of ideas and opportunities I wouldn’t have dreamed possible on my own, and mucking about with that is loads of fun. But do I want to spend all my time talking about it? No. Also. It all changes so fast it’s exhausting.
Speaking of exhausting, sometimes it’s hard enough to just get through the day with lunchboxes, laundry, client meetings and creative deadlines. How do you become an internet superstar while doing all that? I care about where my time goes and that makes the idea of becoming a content creator feel like the wrong way to go. I can spend an hour filming myself making something, and the rest of the day obsessing over editing it. Or… I can spend that time making the things.
Like, seriously, filming myself walking into my own studio for B-roll is a waste of everyone’s time. (I may have once done this.)
So why bother?
I used to like it way back when, and I think I still like it now. I’m sure there are other people whose lives look a bit like mine. They’ve moved between careers or disciplines. Their interests are varied. They don’t really fit a niche. They enjoy making things, learning things, and fixing things. Maybe they’ll stumble onto this at some point. Or not. Doesn’t matter. Either way, I think I’m finding it therapeutic.
In short, I don’t know what it is, but it’s mine.
I can write about the work on my desk. Or… make a video. I can share something I’ve learned. A bunch of links I liked. I might write about creativity, work, getting old (because F#%k, that sucks), or whatever has been banging about in my head this week.
Sometimes text, sometimes links, sometimes a sketch or a video, dunno. I’ve spent enough time trying to work out what it is before making the bloody thing. Let’s just make it and see what happens. Fuck around and find out, so to speak. (Is that the right use of that term?)
If not now, then when?
I’ve been making things for decades. If I don’t start making this thing now, I never will.