reflections

What does design mean to you? For me design is both the process and the final product of an endeavour to fulfil a personal or professional brief. Whether you’re creating a piece of graphic work, a website, or a design for a new product, the underlying principal is the same – and the creative process is everything. So how do we make ourselves better designers?

Despite very different backgrounds, most designers offer the same advice – reading the brief and planning your work on paper are two frequent suggestions. Design is wonderfully subjective though, and we all have different ways of getting better results. Here are some of the things that have helped me become a better designer…

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Every designer is influenced by their surroundings, the people they meet, and design trends - but does that mean that we’re all affected in the same way, or does each of us retain a sense of uniqueness in our designs - regardless of influence?

Tara at the Graphic Design Blog decided to run an experiment to find out. The experiment (open to anyone who wants to take part) requires you to scribble down a logo idea (or several if you wish) for two fictitious companies.

Well, I couldn’t resist finding out if my patterns of thought when designing are my own - so without further ado, I present my submission to the experiment!

Caffeine Rush - Espresso Machine & Accessory Supplies

The first scan shows my initial brainstorming sheet. I wrote down the two words from the company name, then strung off various keywords and sub-words that were related to them. Finally I put asterisks by the words that had visual cues for me.

The main idea I played with on the second sheet was the different ways of portraying coffee cups and mugs (1-5, 13, 15). I also looked at coffee beans (6-9) and their shape, latte art swirls (10-12), coffee leaves (14) and a remembered idea for a lettering style (16).

The third sheet shows me playing around with various ways of indicating speed (17-20) and movement (21), and drawing out an idea about a rocket (!) that popped into my head (22). There’s also a stamp motif idea (23 - like they have burned into the sides of coffee sacks), and some messin around with letter spacing, word division and text placement (24-30).

Cheap ‘n’ Cheerful - Budget Fancy Dress Shop

Same as before, but I wrote down three main keywords this time, strung off the related keywords and sub-words, and put in the asterisks by the most visual words.

I played around with various clown, jester and harlequin concepts on this sheet (1-5) and then a couple of interesting ways to use them (6 - glove puppet, 7 - toy on a stick).

This sheet’s got a couple of jack-in-the-box ideas (8 and 9), and then I’m playing around with letter styling, word positioning and placement of the graphic (10-14).

The Final Designs

I realise that this wasn’t a part of the experiment - the sketches alone should be enough alone to indicate my thought processes - but I couldn’t stand the idea of not taking my favourite concepts through to completion! So, here they are…

Thanks again to Tara for coming up with the idea - I can’t wait to see the results of the experiment… Remember to check out the other submissions too: Tara’s sketches are here, Tess (from Thoughts and Such) has some up here, and Siong’s are here.

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I was clearing out one of my storage cupboards yesterday, and sorting through some boxes that haven’t been touched for years - when I came across a couple of my old sketchbooks.

During my time studying art at school, and later while at college, I was rarely seen without a pencil and pad in hand. I literally produced hundreds of sketchbooks, full of everything from quick scribbles to detailed studies.

Unfortunately, the passage of time and occasional relocations have not been kind to my collection, and sadly much of it has now been lost. My first ever proper sketchbook surfaced a couple of years ago, but that too now seems to have vanished.

So I thought it might be nice to post some old sketches online, from the pages of those books that have survived the passage of time. I have been encouraged to do this by the recent spate of posts where other designers (David Airey for example) have posted some of their recent drawings. It has also really got me in the right frame of mind for Tara’s impending experiment! Please remember that these were done a long, long time ago - and I lacked the technique that came from years of practice…

Drawn in 1992, and heavily influenced by art from the Fighting Fantasy books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Click the image to view it in Flickr.

Drawn in 1993, and again influenced by Fighting Fantasy art. Click the image to view it in Flickr.

Drawn in 2001, a picture of my first daughter at 6 months. I just couldn’t get that left eye looking right - something that often happens to me when I draw loved ones! Click the image to view it in Flickr.

[Thank you to Lisa, Tara, Zep, Paul B, and Char for your comments on my previous post]

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