I will start a new doodle magazine: “Fahri’s Doodles” — Part 1

As I prepare for my new semester teaching at Norwich Business School at University of East Anglia, I decided to create a new learning resource for my students.

I will be starting teaching “Employability, Creativity, and Personal Development” course in September.

Although it is an optional course, it has proved to be rather popular — about 120 students will take it this year and we have had to put a temporary cap on it.

Every year, I try to change my courses and improve them a bit further. This means I strive to create updated contents and methods each time I teach the course.

I decided to try something new (among other things) and create a doodle magazine for my students. It is meant as an extra learning resource for students taking the course.

I have also decided to share my journey of creation with you over a series of Medium articles.

In doing that, I hope to share my early ideas and enthusiasm for this project with you. I will also share the journey and the process of creation.

It all started me buying a very big sketchbook (285x366 mm) from Flying Tiger. I loved the audacity and sturdiness of this notebook. Its enormous white pages game me a sense of boundless freedom and adventure. I could do whatever I want with these large white pages!

So, I started creating the first two pages of my doodle magazine.

Here they are:

These are some of the things that are nagging me as I start my semester. I thought I should share these with my students in this format.

Then I thought: I might as well share these with you and the larger world — perhaps some of you will find it useful.

As you see, the magazine will be based on my handwriting and doodles. It will have an amateur feel to it — I do not intend this to be professionally designed.

Here is the next page I have created:

There are a ton of things that I should be working on at this time of the year. Grading, research, revising manuscripts, preparing my courses etc. All the adult responsibilities of being an academic.

However, I found myself working on this project and loving it. How utterly foolish and childish of me.

Yet, I want to be a child again.

There is something magical about creating and playing that nourishes my soul. I do not know what it is.

I do not care about the outcomes. I just love the process.

My hands happily go along with the process.

There is a harsh critic in myself that is getting very bitter about all of this:

“You are such an idiot spending your time on this rubbish. No one will take you seriously, come on. Why are you wasting your time on this? You cannot even draw. Your drawings are ugly. Your ideas are generic and tired. Why are you giving so much statistics? Why are you cramming so much onto one page? What is the point of this? You should have been working on your research for God’s sake!”

I gave my critic a name. His name is Ant.

“I hear you Ant. You have already raised your concerns. I hear you. Please lower your voice now. Please do not bother me anymore when I am playing and creating. I need a sense of freedom and playfulness. I will continue playing and creating because it is good for my soul. I do not care if this ends up as trash. It is my trash and I love it.”

Ant has retreated (for now). He is silent now — which means I will be able to continue my secret little game. I have been able to trick Ant! I salute myself.

I will be sharing my adventure of creating this magazine with you over the next few days.

I have no idea what will emerge from this — and that is the beauty of it.

I love the adventure.

I need this adventure.

I am a child again.

I will now go to my tricycle — new adventures are awaiting for me.

See you in my next post next Monday:)

Fahri

Fahri Karakas is the author of Self-making Studio. You can explore more here.