For this episode of Finding My User Manual, I sat down with Tony Harmer, an artist, educator, and creative guide whose career spans both the physical and digital worlds. He’s perhaps best known for his 22-year association with Adobe, racking up 14 Adobe Max speaker appearances, or as an instructor on lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning, where more than 2.5 million learners have benefited from his teaching. But that’s only part of the story. Tony is currently rebalancing his working life towards more experiential, therapeutic and human-centred creative sessions through his new venture, the Department of Messy Ideas.

What struck me most about our conversation was how creativity has quite literally saved Tony’s life, and how he’s now using that same power to help others find calm in the chaos. Here’s what he shared.

Anarchic, Mischievous And Unpredictable

When asked what would be on page one of his user manual, Tony Harmer’s answer was characteristically him. Here it is, quote for quote:

“The default settings for this unit are anarchic, mischievous and unpredictable. The settings may be overridden but will often revert to the default, especially if the unit is used outside of operating instructions. Hand wash only, do not tumble dry or iron. Fuel for the unit must not contain meat, meat derivatives or alcohol. The unit may from time to time produce gaseous emissions which, while not harmful, may be unpleasant. Use in a well-ventilated area, store horizontally, keep hydrated and between 5 to 35 degrees Celsius. May contain nuts.”

I can’t see anybody who knows him having any argument with any of that.

Humour And Creativity Pulled Me Through

Tony has had major life dramas roughly every ten years, including a difficult childhood, but humour and creativity are the things that have pulled him through. He started out as an artist in the days before computers, then switched to graphics because “selling art is a game and it’s a rich people’s game… and I thought, oh, I don’t want to be poorer than I was at the time.” Now, almost exactly two years ago, he deliberately started steering himself back to where he began.

I’ve Always Wanted To Help People

Most people who know Tony Harmer know that if it’s within his power to help them do something, he will.

“That’s how we get along in life, right, by helping each other. It’s easy to forget that, especially in the world today.”

I know this first-hand. Tony was so instrumental at the beginning of my career. We met at a design conference, and he was walking away from an opportunity to move on to newer pastures, but he left that door open for me and made introductions. It’s very much in the core of who he is.

There’s never anything tied to it, and he never phones later saying he needs a favour in return. It’s the same with charity; he never talks about it because that’s not why he’s doing it.

I Think This Is What I Do

A few months ago, Tony was on a call with a friend in America. She just started crying for about 40 minutes, and she didn’t know what was going to happen, whether she’d have control over certain aspects of her life in the future.

Tony thought about what he could do. In a previous call, his friend had mentioned her daughter, June, being obsessed with fairy houses. So he shared his screen, put up some painting software, and started sketching a fairy house for June. Within moments, his friend said she felt so calm.

He’s done this for a few people now, and he thought: I think this is what I do. “Especially in a world where the word artificial sits in so many corners of our lives. People have a need to be human again, to have human experiences.” It’s not technology-centric, it’s connection. The technology is just the medium, the same as it would be with a can and two pieces of string.

Balancing Digital And Physical Creativity

Tony Harmer’s career has been primarily focused in the digital space, but he’s always made space for physical creativity. When he goes on holiday, he takes a pencil roll, coloured pencils, and pan watercolours. At Christmas and holidays, he carves out time to draw. If he can’t do that, he creates stuff for himself digitally. There’s always something he can be doing.

He’s terrible at building armatures, though, as he found out recently. The only successful one he’s done was for a pumpkin.

At any one point, Tony has multiple projects on the go; he’s like a bee, floating between things. Sometimes that’s handy because if something is wet media and he can’t dry it quickly, he can park it and go to something else.

A Room For Every Creative Outlet

Tony Harmer keeps a creative journal. Sometimes he’ll lay down some underpainting, and then the following morning, instead of scrolling, he’ll have his coffee while developing it a bit more. He’s also trying to paint things completely in an hour, which is intense with wet media.

In his four-bedroom house, one room is where he paints, there is another room for cutting vinyl, and another is set up for recording. The other room is a photography room with all his lenses, lights, backdrops, and models for scratch building. Downstairs in the creative room, there is a big chunk of his library, a big easel, and a massive drawing board.

Reality Is What’s Missing From The World

Why is it so important that we lean into messy ideas? “Reality is what’s missing from the world. A sense of your own self just being you.”

You might think you’re being yourself while you’re sat on the edge of your sofa scrolling through cat reels. But if you’re just sat there doing that, you are not being yourself. You’re not aware of your breathing. You’re not aware of the space around you. You’re not aware of how you actually feel.

Taking A Pebble For A Walk

Tony told me about a friend who called him in distress. He asked her to get a piece of paper and something to draw with, then switched to FaceTime. They did some breathing first, just to calm down for a moment, and then he did an exercise with her called Taking A Pebble For A Walk, that’s goal is to help distract the mind and regulate your breathing.

That night, his friend’s husband drove her to Hobbycraft. She bought a sketchbook, watercolours, and pens, and for the next three nights, she was sending Tony photos of the pages she was doing. Tony spoke to her recently, and she hasn’t stopped.

Ink And Textured Paper

The medium Tony is leaning more towards these days is ink and sparkly watercolour. He recommended Sarah Colman’s shop, Inkymole, which sells beuatiful ink, sparklies, and fabulously colourful supplies.

Handmade Means The World

When someone sends you something handmade, it just means the world. The fact that they took time to do it. “You can change someone’s entire perspective of the world through creativity”, Tony says.

Tony has a few lasting words worth remembering: “You don’t have to wait for them to be in some sort of drama. You can just phone them and say, ” Hey, how are you doing?” Smile at people more. Say hello to people as you walk through doors. Find out the security people’s names. That one moment you give to somebody might be the thing that turns the world around for them on that day, because you never know what’s going on.”

Listen to the full episode:

Connect with Tony Harmer

Substack: tonyharmer.substack.com

Instagram: @tonyharmer

Youtube: @MessyIdeasArt and @TheDesignNinja