Have you ever noticed how, in commercial work, we often skip straight to “the idea”?

No dream phase. Just pressure to deliver.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately — from Ubud, of all places.
I’m here on a bit of a breather. Time to slow down, reflect.

And I came across this quote from Tilda Swinton in an interview about her creative process.
It hit home.

It reminded me how much my approach has changed over the years.

I used to think the goal was clarity. Fast.
Define the idea. Make it clean. Make it make sense.

But some of the best projects I’ve been part of didn’t start out clear.

They started as a feeling.
A sketch.
A sentence that didn’t make full sense yet, but felt like something.

And in the world of deadlines and deliverables, that kind of softness often gets pushed out.

Instead of dreaming, we jump to fixing.
We get anxious and scramble to find “the idea.”

I’ve done that more times than I’d like to admit.
Still do, sometimes.

But now, I try to make space for the soft part.

Not for the sake of process — but because it often leads somewhere better.

It’s not indulgent.
It’s necessary.

Marco Cicchianni, June 2025