Posts Tagged ‘Marvel’

As a kid, my family never saw a Star Wars movie. Dr. Who was literally followed by a question mark. At my house, we simply turned the channel when the weird logo and music popped up on PBS. We didn’t own an Atari or have cable tv. My dad was sure Betamax would win out over VHS. In short, my family did not excel at anything geeky. We chose James Bond over Obi-Wan, the Skipper and his Little Buddy over Battlestar Galactica, and the escapades of singing siblings over Superman.

Once I met Ryan, I knew I needed to at least have a vague understanding of Star Wars to keep up with conversation in his family. So, I watched it. And, as it turned out, I liked the movie. A lot.

Next, came the move to video games. Ryan got me hooked on Doom and Wolfenstein. The Baron of Hell and I became late-night buddies on the computer. Where had gaming been all my life? My fandom began to insidiously grow.

fan·dom

ˈfandəm/noun

noun: fandom; plural noun: fandoms

the state or condition of being a fan of someone or something.

• the fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc., regarded collectively as a community or subculture.

Now, I can proudly boast that I have very high levels of “geek” in my veins. I’m hooked on anything from Marvel to Harry Potter or Dr. Who to Game of Thrones. (Please don’t even get me started on how much I love subtitled Kung Fu movies . . . ) Basically, if any book, movie, or tv show has a trace of science fiction, fantasy, superpowers (and/or Benedict Cumberbatch or Jackie Chan), I’m all over it. (We have a small Dr. Who themed Christmas tree. Yes, I really did that.) 

I seriously love being a fan. I love the mini-fig tchotchkes in my office. But, don’t be deceived—all this is for more than just complete entertainment and personal amusement. I figured out that my fandom has a real-life benefit: My fandoms help with my job!  

My fandoms encourage creativity. As I absorb creative ideas and stories, my grey matter is creatively fed, my thinking expands, and the more creative I become. Ergo, I have new ideas. As I learn about  stories of magical other worlds, unbelievable super powers, sprawling kingdoms and deep recesses of space, I’ve got more ideas to nurture and mull over and put to use. These stories inspire new thinking and creativity.

Fandoms help to keep up with trends. If you’ve ever really stopped to think about what’s on the shelves in a toy store, you’d notice how much real estate is devoted to licensed toys. Understanding the stories behind the toy is necessary in order to be able to design for them.

[Me: I think we might need to buy this Thor action figure to see how the hammer slamming mechanism works.

Ryan: Yeah, we probably do. 

Me: *secret fist pump that I got another Thor figure for my office*]

So, whenever the master license for Fortnite gets assigned and toys need created, Gigglicious is ready to go to work, courtesy of hours and hours devoted to game play by not only us, but our younger employees. They are smack on top of that trend.

Making and taking time to get off auto-pilot. For Gigglicious to creatively move forward, we frequently need to step out of the routine in order to spark new thinking. Ryan tends to find inspiration when he’s vacationing and physically away from the studio.  My personal spark comes from filling my brain with all kinds of stories, so I am always on the hunt for new things to read and watch. Sometimes just physically being in the library gets my brain moving.

What can you take away from my story today? You never know when what you do, what you read, what you watch, and what you love can unlock something much, much bigger in your life. Alohomora!

I have frequently indulged in all sorts of fancies for hours together, and at times when people thought I was very busy. I am sensible how detrimental this is as regards loss of time; yet without some such “fantasy-cure,” I should have never made it to this age. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799)