Annual Mocktober Concepts
Finding Joy and Self-Improvement in Creating for Fun
Elegant Seagulls launched Mocktober in October 2015 as an exciting challenge during Halloween to help keep our creative juices flowing. There were multiple goals behind this annual spooktacular. It helped Elegant Seagulls be a part of the dribbble community in a more meaningful way. It enabled everyone in the office to push outside their comfort zone and express their interests. We encourage non-designers on our team to participate too. It’s a fun process to see unfold and we are always impressed with the different ways our team tackles a unique challenge.
Ben Johnson, the owner and creative director of Elegant Seagulls, awards a trophy internally to the member who pushes themselves the hardest, and then the team collectively votes on who in the dribbble community did the best annual Mocktober and they get a trophy shipped to them.
View My Mocktober Entries
Part of the Challenge is Creating the Content Behind the Concept
The exercise helps to strengthen empathy for clients that don’t have the budget and bandwidth to handle all of their own content creation. It also helps me learn how to execute with very little. If all you have is a press package for a board game and the art team didn’t send you any assets, can you make it work? Is leveraging a tool like Creative Market going to give you the assets necessary to make do? It simply pushes you to think creatively about how you convey a feeling or message with limited resources and I love that about the project.
Creative
Concepting
When I have the opportunity, I try to bring a sense of atmosphere into a website. A more immersive website engages users and improves bounce rates.
