Editors Note:
Design & Art: Doubt as a Creative Engine
At Motionographer, we’ve always been drawn to the stories beneath the surface, the creative processes shaped not just by skill and vision, but by uncertainty, hesitation, and the quiet courage to question everything.
This piece by Hasmik Mkhchyan speaks to the heart of that journey. In a culture that often glorifies confidence and quick answers, Doubt as a Tool for Creative Freedom reminds us that doubt is not a flaw, it’s a force. It keeps us honest, keeps us searching, and keeps the work alive.
Whether you’re sketching a new title sequence, animating a metaphor, or simply sitting with an idea that isn’t fully formed yet, I hope this essay offers a moment of reflection. Let it be a reminder that you’re not behind if you’re uncertain, you’re exactly where creativity begins.
Milton Glaser, Photograph by Hugh Kretschmer
In the world of design and art, confidence is often portrayed as an essential ingredient for professional success. However, the more one reflects on the nature of the creative process, the clearer it becomes that the opposite is true: doubt, not confidence, is what leads to true freedom and discovery. This idea has been explored by many creative minds, but it resonates particularly strongly in the thoughts of Milton Glaser, one of the most influential designers of our time. Glaser emphasized the importance of doubt as a key element in fostering innovation and originality in design.
Glaser argued that doubt is not a weakness but a necessary condition for finding new solutions. In one of his interviews, he stated:
“Doubt is not a weakness; it is a way to avoid dogmatism. When you are confident in something, you tend to seek only confirmation of your beliefs, while doubt forces you to explore alternative paths.”¹
These words highlight how confidence can become a trap for creative thinking. When an artist or designer is convinced they have the right answer, the search for alternatives ceases. Familiar solutions are reinforced, and the opportunity to explore new perspectives diminishes. In this sense, confidence can lead to stagnation, while doubt keeps the creative process dynamic and open‑ended.
Glaser also pointed out the dangers of rigid belief systems, stating:
“Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much.”²
This perspective extends beyond design into broader intellectual and artistic pursuits. Certainty limits our ability to adapt, evolve, and perceive the world from different angles. When applied to creativity, it suggests that true artistic freedom comes not from rigid convictions but from a willingness to question assumptions and remain receptive to new possibilities.
Milton Glaser, The Society of Newspaper Design, 1989.
Unlike confidence, doubt is liberating. It transforms the creative process into a journey through multiple directions, each of which may lead to unexpected discoveries. Not every path will be productive, but the exploration itself inevitably results in valuable and meaningful insights.
A true designer or artist does not dwell on what has already been found and repeatedly explored. They do not merely seek the “right” answer but create an environment for experimentation, allowing ideas to intersect, clash, and evolve. This process is what distinguishes living, dynamic art from formulaic solutions.
Creativity is not about following rigid instructions – it is about continuous exploration. Every new project presents an opportunity to push beyond the familiar, to experiment with unconventional combinations, and to reject obvious solutions in favor of unexpected ones. Doubt fosters this mindset, ensuring that the creative process remains fresh and full of possibilities.
Doubt brings freedom. It dismantles the boundaries of what is perceived as possible, encourages questioning of one’s own assumptions, and prevents complacency. Perhaps this is why the most significant breakthroughs in art and design emerge not from certainty but from an ongoing search that never truly ends. If confidence were the key to success, creativity would have long been reduced to a set of predictable formulas. But art thrives on exploration, and in this journey, doubt is not an obstacle but the force that propels us forward.
The Philosophical Pathway: from Socrates’ “I Know Nothing” to Borges’ “Perhaps”
In a noisy world that rushes to paint every phenomenon in stark black or white, doubt can feel almost old‑fashioned. Yet it remains a proven engine of insight, bridging ancient philosophy, romantic poetry, and the experimental fiction of the twentieth century.
Back in Plato’s Apology, Socrates observed that those least able to learn something new are the ones convinced they already know it all. Conversely, anyone willing to question personal assumptions and revise opinions stands closest to genuine illumination.
Socrates was the first to turn doubt into a method. By repeating a single query – “How solid is your foundation?” – he steadily stripped away the veneer of confident dogma. When his interlocutor conceded, “We know less than we thought”, wisdom began in the Socratic sense: the cleared‑out space became ready to receive new understanding.
Two millennia later, John Keats gave doubt a poetic name – negative capability: the capacity to “be in uncertainties”, to live comfortably amid ambiguity without rushing to final judgment. Keats urges us to linger in that mist, to notice what an instant label would erase. The idea speaks directly to today’s polarization: instead of hasty tagging, patient attention to nuance, where the most precise images and solutions are born.
Giovanni Battista Falda, Laberinto di verdura in Villa Altieri, engraving, Rome, ca. 1670.
Out of the same mist rises Jorge Luis Borges’s The Garden of Forking Paths, where doubt becomes the very subject. Borges sketches a universe in which every decision splinters reality into countless timelines. We follow one path of the story while sensing hundreds of others branching out from the same moment. He reveals a principle of the labyrinth of possibility: reality is not singular but multiple, and doubt merely cracks open the gate to this boundless garden. “It could be otherwise” does not annul the present, it stretches the horizon toward infinity.
This dynamic is uncannily close to the working process of any designer or author. Every sketch line is a Borgesian fork, every “What if?” snaps an old lead and makes way for a fresher, sharper stroke. Doubt does not weaken vision, it widens the field, letting us discern tones where once we saw only poles. That is why the legacies of Socrates, Keats, and Borges matter more than ever: the world needs fewer quick labels and more skill at living inside rich, many‑layered uncertainty.
Doubt in Science: When a Question Sparks Discovery
In the laboratory, doubt is almost an official protocol: before accepting a hypothesis as true, a researcher must imagine a world in which it is false – and then test that world for strength. Karl Popper called this approach falsification: if a theory cannot withstand the blows of experimental fact, it yields to a more precise model.
M.C. Escher, Three Spheres II, 1946.
Galileo, for instance, wondered whether heavy and light objects might fall at the same speed. By dropping cannonballs from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, he toppled Aristotelian dogma and cleared the way for classical mechanics. Max Planck, doubting the continuity of energy, introduced the quantum and unlocked modern physics. Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues asked why bacteria keep curious repeating stretches of DNA – an inquiry that blossomed into the CRISPR‑Cas9 tool and reshaped genetics.
Conclusion: Freedom Begins Where Certainty Ends
Certainty gives us the initial push – we have to believe a project is possible at all. Yet on the very next step it turns risky, it stops asking questions and defends what has already been found. Doubt restores flexibility; it makes us test a stereotype, look from another angle, pose one more question, and precisely in that moment something new emerges.
Thus, in the studio, the library, and the laboratory one rule applies: when everything seems clear, it’s time to doubt. Not to destroy what already works, but to make sure it isn’t the only path forward. Wherever doubt begins, true creative freedom is born.
¹ Glaser, M. Interview with AIGA, 2001.
² Glaser, M. Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight, documentary film, 2008.