- Category
- Blog, Design, Inspiration
- Date
- March 30th, 2012
I recently had the opportunity to lead a department meeting and discuss a work-related topic of my choice. Since graphics are my strong point, I based my presentation around that, as well as my thoughts on the process of creation. My presentation was divided into four sections: inspiration, tutorials, creating for the sake of creating, and failure. Feel free to continue on, maybe you can walk away from this with something.
(background image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lastquest/1408755246/)
When creating graphics (or just about anything for that matter), I begin by searching for inspiration. The number of inspirational sources are endless, so hitting the ground running should not be a difficult task.
It’s good practice to designate a place to store your inspiration, so that it’s easier to access it later on. You can store your inspiration…
(background image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheatfields/3797277793/)
or even …
Sites like Behance, Designspiration, and Pinterest (though the last two are on an invite-only basis) allow you to browse content and save it so that you can easily access it at your convenience.
(background image sources: http://bit.ly/GDWqhw and http://www.behance.net/)
When I have down time, I like to try out tutorials. It’s a good way to keep your skills sharp and learn something new, as well. You should never feel as if you cannot learn something new.
To make things easier when hunting down tutorials, I keep tabs on the websites that offer ones that pertain to my interests. For example, I have a list of design sites that I follow (via RSS Feed) so I know when a new tutorial is released.
This concept is pretty straightforward; whether it’s doodling, experimenting in a graphics application (Photoshop, Illustrator, Cinema 4D, etc.), or any form of traditional art. Getting the ball rolling can often be the hardest part, but being in the habit of constant creation can alleviate that. Sometimes the best ideas can come from messing around.
Creating something that doesn’t work for your project/objective is bound to happen. It can intimidate you and prevent you from moving forward. But keep in mind that it is not the end of the world.
A former creative director of mine was well aware of the inevitability of failure and would throw around the phrase: “they can’t all be gems”. What he meant was that everything you create will not work, or be to your own standards. This always kept me in check, and it let me know that it’s okay if something that I created sucks.
(background image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/2202478284/)
The key is to learn from what doesn’t work, and turn it into something that does. It’s similar to another well-known phrase: “when one door closes, another door opens”. When you can acknowledge that you’ve hit a road block and can learn from it, it’s not too difficult to find your alternate route.
That wraps up my presentation. I hope that you enjoyed it!
(background image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lastquest/1408755246/)
Chase
at 9:03 AM
nice work kyle, this looks really great!