What is The Afterschool Project?
An initiative to help artists and designers dedicate time after their "day job" to create meaningful projects
afterschool - happening or done after the end of the school day; a program where teachers supervise students after normal school hours; where students take part in organized activities outside of school hours
I realize it’s been seven years since I graduated from art school. I got a job immediately after graduation and thought that my career as an artist/designer would start to flourish. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out quite as I expected. In the past three years, I have struggled to feel creative growth in my work as a designer. Sure, my work was now finally out in the real world and impacting the daily lives of more users than I can imagine.
But, I started to lose my grasp on imagination.
It’s a strange feeling that I struggle to find the right words to describe.
After a few late-night chats with friends, I realized that many of us had this problem. The few of us, who were not wealthy enough to start their own brand right out of Parsons, and yet who were also not brave enough to become starving artists.
We became the “working designers”, the ones who made sure corporations had good design. Occasionally, we would work on a singular project that allowed us creative freedom outside of our day job. But scare were those opportunities.
That’s when the idea of an “afterschool project” came to mind. A program, a time, or space, for us “working designers” who are seeking to challenge themselves abstractly again. I invite you, to join us.
While I do aim to host in-person events. My goal for this substack is to be able to send out weekly or bi-monthly newsletters on everything about design, art, and philosophy. I haven’t fully decided on how this will work. But to start, ech month will have a topic for readers to work on. You are free to share your work in the comments section.
1' image source: Geometric Ballet' (Homage to Oskar Schlemmer)' is a Gesamtkunstwerk by Ursula Sax
Ahh I relate to this so much. Excited to subscribe!