There's this thing nobody tells you about working for yourself. You finish a 12-hour day of pushing pixels, tweaking kerning, and explaining to a client why their logo can't be bigger AND smaller at the same time, and then you just sit there. Your brain is fried but it won't shut up.
So I started playing Marvel Rivals.
Not because I'm a hardcore gamer or because I have strong opinions about the meta. I play because sometimes you need to throw some heals at someone as The Hulk after spending three hours adjusting table row padding by one pixel.
It's therapy but with explosions.
There's something about a fast, chaotic, loud game that resets my brain in a way that Netflix can't. Watching a show after work feels like more screen time. But playing a round where I'm dodging Iron Man while trying to heal my team as Cloak and Dagger? That's active. That's engaging. That's me yelling at my screen for a completely different reason than Figma crashing.
I don't play to win. Okay, I play to win a little bit (I reached Celestial at some point). But mostly I play to turn my brain off from design and turn it on for something that has zero consequences. Nobody's brand is at stake. No deadline is approaching. It's just me, some Marvel superheroes, and absolutely no client feedback.
If you're a designer or freelancer reading this, find your version of Marvel Rivals. Something loud, something stupid, something that has nothing to do with your work. Your brain needs a place to go that isn't another Dribbble scroll.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a match to lose.
Follow me to keep in touch
Where I share my creative journey, design experiments, and industry thoughts.
