30 Day Craft Your Art Direction DNA Course/Week 2
Exploring beyond the familiar
Hi everyone,
Welcome to Week 2 of Craft Your Art Direction DNA! This week, we are diving into Exploration Beyond the Familiar, a critical step in developing your unique art direction identity. Last week, we laid the foundation by identifying creative instincts and influences. Now, it’s time to step outside of what you already know and push your visual world further.
I’ve added ‘Craft Your DNA’ in the navigation bar of my newsletter, so you can easily have access to all posts if you do this at another time. You can do the course any moment, or repeat it in 6-12 months to update where you are currently at.
Don’t worry if week 2 is the first post you see and you are new here (welcome <3), you can go to week 1 in the overview and come back here when you are ready.
Unpredictable is refreshing
If you only reference what’s already within your comfort zone, your work will always feel predictable. The best art directors are culture sponges, they absorb ideas from art, fashion, design, film, and beyond, then remix them in unexpected ways. The ones who truly stand out are not just following trends, they are ahead of them because they pull from influences outside of their immediate field.
There’s a reason some creatives have a vision that feels fresh while others struggle to differentiate themselves. Those who develop strong, memorable aesthetics tend to look beyond the obvious. They research obscure art movements, explore emerging subcultures, and find inspiration in places others overlook. Your creative world should be a rich ecosystem, not a recycled mood board of the same 10 references.
How This Works
Craft Your Art Direction DNA is a 30-day challenge designed to help you build a structured creative playbook. Each week focuses on a key area:
Week 1:Laying the Foundation – Understanding your creative instincts and influences.Week 2: Exploration Beyond the Familiar – Expanding your visual world and references.
Week 3: Refining Your Aesthetic – Defining your unique creative language.
Week 4: Building Your Vision – Translating your identity into a clear direction for your career.
Week 5: Crafting the Playbook – Bringing everything together into a toolkit you can use for years to come.
This week is all about discovery. By actively pushing your inspiration sources, you will broaden your creative instincts and develop a more layered, compelling art direction identity.
Each day has a specific task that builds on the last. If you are a paid subscriber, you get access to the full breakdown, guiding you through exercises that go deeper than just inspiration boards. I will also introduce the tasks and the topic of each week with my personal observations and experiences, giving you a clearer overview of the current market and the confidence on what to do to stand out. By the end, you’ll have a defined creative identity, a structured portfolio direction and a clear way to position yourself in the industry.
Free Task: Week 2 Exercise
If you are not ready to commit to the full challenge, here’s your Week 2 task:
Go somewhere you wouldn’t usually go to find inspiration, this can be a museum, a vintage bookstore, a botanical garden, or even a neighbourhood you’ve never explored before. The goal is to expose yourself to something outside of your typical references. Document what stands out to you: take photos, sketch, or write notes on what catches your attention and why. Then, reflect on how these unexpected elements could influence your creative work.
This task is a great starting point for both free and paid subscribers. If you’re a paid subscriber, this exercise can be done additionally, but you will also gain access to a more detailed linear pathway with deeper exercises, industry insights, and a structured framework to truly define your art direction DNA.
As a paid subscriber you also still can join the Gohar World briefing where I give you detailed feedback and help you shape your idea according to industry standards, and the entire archive including Concept Labs, Visual Playbooks and different guides.
And as an extra. February is my birthday month, it’s also a cold month so the perfect time to hibernate and reflect before spring comes. So I am treating on a limited offer for this month, to get 40% off on the annual subscription.
