Welcome to Pardon My Brain.
Pardon My Brain has existed since 2021, originally as a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings through art. I was encouraged to do this, and came up with Pardon My Brain as a concept – a platform that I can post what I feel, what I want and not feel the need to be excused.
It was my art teacher who was an inspiration for this. She had really cool handwriting, and I was kinda jealous. So I took it upon myself to ‘take inspiration’ from it and create my own, new style. That’s when the style of Pardon My Brain started to take shape. I used pink post-it notes to write on, where I started scribbling down my thoughts. This turned into pink post-it notes being the core basis of the content on PMB, where they would feature heavily in different things that I would create. I even created a logo, which went through a design process that you can see below – this also incorporated the pink post-it notes.
One thing turned into another, and the first iteration of Pardon My Brain got underway. First, it moulded into an art account. I was able to post scribbles, cool things that I came across and my own rough sketches to mirror what I was feeling at the time. It was an art account for my thoughts and feelings that I could express through creativity, that I hoped other people could also relate to. I feel like this naturally happened, as there weren’t any mental health themed artsy accounts out there that were targeted to men, or just relationships in general. I wanted to express emotion and feeling through art, and that was for everyone to see and appreciate, not for a niche audience.
The fuel behind this fire was the fact that I was going through a time in my life where I was struggling with my mental health. I had periods of depression, as well as a long-lasting bout of anxiety. Coupling this with having an experience of a few relationship problems, there was nothing online that appealed to my artistic nature, that I felt applied to me. And if I felt that way, surely other people did too. I had the feelings built up inside me, and it felt natural to me to use what I’m passionate about – my art – as a cry for help.
Then it took a backseat. I lost sight of it whilst other things were happening in my life, but it was always there. Fast track until I graduated university, and I was feeling a bit lost. I needed somewhere that I could post my portfolio, and what I’m continuing to create after graduating. Pardon My Brain seemed perfect. It was somewhere that I could post my creative work without worrying about what people would think, and not having to excuse my creative desires.
It started as a continuation of the Instagram page, where I made new content for new and existing work. I then created a TikTok for it, where I could upload different types of content. First, I wanted to showcase the work that I had created at university. This meant recycling and repurposing my content. Originally, the films were purposed for university submission, of course. This didn’t quite hit the requirements of what I wanted this new-look Pardon My Brain (my portfolio) to look like.This meant that after dissecting my submissions, trawling through my notes and piecing together unused shots to create extra content, I was able to broaden the amount of work that I could publish on a particular film to show a wide variety of what it was like to make, and the process I went through. It felt that this was the best way to show the diverse nature of my abilities, and how I approach every single stage of creating a project. Armed with a content plan, I got to work.
Which as you can imagine meant alot of recycled files collected over three years :/// a messy process which you can see below…
Not only was I adding my art and films to be presented through the Instagram account that had already been around for years in advance, but I want to make a website at the same time which you can read about in another blog. But it was great seeing Pardon My Brain becoming such a stable platform across social media and on a new website
Whilst posting my old films I wanted to make promotional videos at the same time just to build up the amount of posts on the instagram. I think I may have put too much pressure on myself durinmg this time as I had like 3/4 different promotional posts before a film went up and I set myself scheduled releases. ultimately this meant that I had to make the promotional content with in a week per film. I think ive learnt my lesson to not put so much pressure on myself with posting online and not letting it consume the natural nature of my creativity.
I was scared. My films aren’t the most basic in terms of their narrative. They are very personal, and directly address elements of my life. So, I was hesitant to put them out, and open myself up to the vulnerability of them being viewed by anyone. It was certainly something that stuck around in my mind before the first release. In the end, I hit the publish button, and I’m so glad I did. With every film and piece of work that I’ve shared on Pardon My Brain, I’ve received the most lovely comments and messages about my abilities, the films in general and the bravery to post them online. It gave me confidence to carry on, and continue to (re)release the films that I made through Pardon My Brain, feeling more comfortable every single time they were published.
Welcome to Pardon My Brain.
Pardon My Brain has existed since 2021, originally as a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings through art. I was encouraged to do this, and came up with Pardon My Brain as a concept – a platform that I can post what I feel, what I want and not feel the need to be excused.
It was my art teacher who was an inspiration for this. She had really cool handwriting, and I was kinda jealous. So I took it upon myself to ‘take inspiration’ from it and create my own, new style. That’s when the style of Pardon My Brain started to take shape. I used pink post-it notes to write on, where I started scribbling down my thoughts. This turned into pink post-it notes being the core basis of the content on PMB, where they would feature heavily in different things that I would create. I even created a logo, which went through a design process that you can see below – this also incorporated the pink post-it notes.
One thing turned into another, and the first iteration of Pardon My Brain got underway. First, it moulded into an art account. I was able to post scribbles, cool things that I came across and my own rough sketches to mirror what I was feeling at the time. It was an art account for my thoughts and feelings that I could express through creativity, that I hoped other people could also relate to. I feel like this naturally happened, as there weren’t any mental health themed artsy accounts out there that were targeted to men, or just relationships in general. I wanted to express emotion and feeling through art, and that was for everyone to see and appreciate, not for a niche audience.
The fuel behind this fire was the fact that I was going through a time in my life where I was struggling with my mental health. I had periods of depression, as well as a long-lasting bout of anxiety. Coupling this with having an experience of a few relationship problems, there was nothing online that appealed to my artistic nature, that I felt applied to me. And if I felt that way, surely other people did too. I had the feelings built up inside me, and it felt natural to me to use what I’m passionate about – my art – as a cry for help.
Then it took a backseat. I lost sight of it whilst other things were happening in my life, but it was always there. Fast track until I graduated university, and I was feeling a bit lost. I needed somewhere that I could post my portfolio, and what I’m continuing to create after graduating. Pardon My Brain seemed perfect. It was somewhere that I could post my creative work without worrying about what people would think, and not having to excuse my creative desires.
It started as a continuation of the Instagram page, where I made new content for new and existing work. I then created a TikTok for it, where I could upload different types of content. First, I wanted to showcase the work that I had created at university. This meant recycling and repurposing my content. Originally, the films were purposed for university submission, of course. This didn’t quite hit the requirements of what I wanted this new-look Pardon My Brain (my portfolio) to look like.This meant that after dissecting my submissions, trawling through my notes and piecing together unused shots to create extra content, I was able to broaden the amount of work that I could publish on a particular film to show a wide variety of what it was like to make, and the process I went through. It felt that this was the best way to show the diverse nature of my abilities, and how I approach every single stage of creating a project. Armed with a content plan, I got to work.
Which as you can imagine meant alot of recycled files collected over three years :/// a messy process which you can see below…
Not only was I adding my art and films to be presented through the Instagram account that had already been around for years in advance, but I want to make a website at the same time which you can read about in another blog. But it was great seeing Pardon My Brain becoming such a stable platform across social media and on a new website
Whilst posting my old films I wanted to make promotional videos at the same time just to build up the amount of posts on the instagram. I think I may have put too much pressure on myself durinmg this time as I had like 3/4 different promotional posts before a film went up and I set myself scheduled releases. ultimately this meant that I had to make the promotional content with in a week per film. I think ive learnt my lesson to not put so much pressure on myself with posting online and not letting it consume the natural nature of my creativity.
I was scared. My films aren’t the most basic in terms of their narrative. They are very personal, and directly address elements of my life. So, I was hesitant to put them out, and open myself up to the vulnerability of them being viewed by anyone. It was certainly something that stuck around in my mind before the first release. In the end, I hit the publish button, and I’m so glad I did. With every film and piece of work that I’ve shared on Pardon My Brain, I’ve received the most lovely comments and messages about my abilities, the films in general and the bravery to post them online. It gave me confidence to carry on, and continue to (re)release the films that I made through Pardon My Brain, feeling more comfortable every single time they were published.
