Conceptualizing: Graphic Communication

Conceptualizing:  Graphic design is a solution to business-communication problems. Designers are often given the responsibility of creating or building a company’s vision into a tangible, visual, written form.  The end result must clearly and appropriately communicate to a targeted audience.  Key to success is a grounded understanding the company, their competition, and their audience.

Generating Good Ideas!

Question: There is no formula or procedure for coming up with great ideas. Discuss some methods that will help in generating good ideas for illustration.

When working on any project I normally have a few ideas that come to mind right away. However I have a 4 main avenues I tend to work through in coming up with good ideas.

Conceptual Notes:
Most would call them some type of thumbnail but I prefer to call them “conceptual notes”. They really won’t mean much to anyone but me. These notes will consist of symbols, graphs, text and even a rough sketch, very rough sketches. I use anything to get the idea out and move on. This is a process I use if I am just slammed with ideas. After I get the ideas out, I may try to brainstorm and workout a few concepts so that I don’t black ball myself into a corner.

Research:
Sometimes I have no idea where to start. I am working on a project where I have no experience with the topic. In this case I will start with some research. I will surf the web, for information, images, logos, websites, and maybe contact someone with more knowledge to gain a better idea of where I should even start.

Think Tank:
My all time favorite way to come up with great ideas is working in a “creative think tank”. Surrounding myself with other creative, or people that maybe quite concrete with an objective to keep me on track, or even people that don’t have a clue of what to do and are afraid of the challenge; I enjoy the group interaction. I find that sometimes the best idea comes from the worst suggestion.

Consult My Muse:
If all else fails and I cannot get a jump on a concept I talk to my wife. I tell here what I am trying to accomplish and maybe some rough thoughts I have, and she can normally help me clarify the direction I should head. My wife is not an artist, but she is very creative. Consulting another person and bouncing ideas of them can really help one figure out what will work and what won't, which helps eliminate many bad ideas.

Creative Juices - How to get them flowing?

Question: What do you do generate ideas? Do you have a set procedure or formula?

Old Way:

I wish I had a really profound answer for this question. When I first attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh I remember that I would always brainstorm first and sketch out ideas. I would also normally go with my first great concept. I would then take it to one of my graphic design friends and continue or start over.  I think this was not the best approach. It really did not open my mind to new ideas and what other designers were doing.

Current Way:

After about 6 years in the field and having a handful of different jobs, my process has changed a little. The main difference between school and the field is in school the student typically picks the topic and direction. The student typically chooses something they are fairly knowledgeable about and have a good idea of where to start on the project. In the field it is different, in that clients many times propose projects and designs in a area where the designer may not be so savvy. I have learned through the years to go directly to the Internet or other resources to find out what is out there. I mainly do all kinds of web searches. I find graphics, photos, logos, and websites that relate to the topic. I may save images or sites for reference if I like a specific design or look. I then may do specific searches to discover more specific elements in the design.

After I have found many different resources and have a good idea of what has been done and what has not been done, I begin thumbnailing or concept sketching. I don’t really consider myself much of a “thumbnailer”. I do very quick concept sketches that really don’t mean much to anyone but me. It a quick way to get concepts out and not spend much time on detail.

After I have generated a handful of good ideas, I typically run them by some other people. My wife in particular is my personal muse and often helps steer me in the best direction. I also may take my ideas to other designers in my network and ask for their thoughts.

So I guess my procedure or formula is

Google + Concept Sketches = Initial concept  /  critique & feedback = Solid Ideas

I think this process works well for me. I mentioned how I used to do it, and really just isolate my ideas to my own thoughts. I really went nowhere for inspiration. I think using a resource like the web is a great starting place to familiarize ones self with what is currently done or a specific topic. I think then using concept sketches is a great step to start generating ones own ideas, or responding to what was seen on the topic. I think then going to get feedback from reliable sources that will be totally honest and not just say they like everything is key. Getting an honest and sometimes brutal feedback about a concept can really steer a designer in a better direction.

Preferred Way:

On a side note, my absolute favorite way to generate ideas is in a creative brainstorming group. I think a group of creative people sitting down at a table or coffee shop pounding out ideas for a concept can be so productive! In a short time many ideas and perspectives can be addressed.

The main reason I do not use this type of strategy is because I don’t really have a local group that I can really meet with regularly to make this creative bubble. Also for this to be successful the group really needs the right chemistry of people.

Digital Illustration - Conceptual Thinking

OBJECTIVE:
Develop conceptual thinking and translate ideas into digital illustrative form.

With Illustrator it is very easy to take creative thinking and translate it into expressive artwork and designs.

Description: Created a concept for “ The Art of Illusioneering” album for the band Beauty Strikes Back. Concept features lead singer holding a crystal ball, which illuminates his face and hand. The image is high contrast as the shadows fight the light from the crystal ball.

Description: Created a SWAG concept and created a mockup of product for promotional give away item. Created a visual mock up of SWAG item- tire pressure gauge from promotional item photograph. Created a Promotional item container – motorcycle tire – to contain the SWAG. Used photograph reference to created tire container.

Description: Create a SWAG item pin for the band Beauty Strikes Back. Pin should contain image of angry Cinderella type character stomping on the pumpkin to reflect the name of the band or “beauty striking back”.

Web Design Process - Photoshop

Designing a website in Photoshop is a good way to start as it enables you to focus first on the layout for positioning and mockups. Adjusting a design is quite a bit easier in Photoshop or other graphic software compared, to making changes in the code. With layer comps you can easily show different variations of the layout as well as use it to make different pages and rollover links.

When I worked for an online adverting company, ClickaCoupon.com, we built multiple websites we actually did most of the conceptual designs in Photoshop Elements (A stripped down version of Photoshop). We utilized the layers and groups to show different pages or versions for the owner to make decisions. Many times we would go back and move things around and make many adjustments. This would have been more difficult if it were done in code. Sometimes we would even find an existing site, which we would screen capture and utilized the grid and structure as a template. I actually did many sites for this company this way here are just to examples of websites that were laid out in Photoshop before they were coded.

www.clickatrainer.com

www.clickacoupon.com

In Photoshop once the site is designed, it can be sliced and exported for too. Many designers do not have extensive web coding knowledge and by using Photoshop these designers are able to produce working websites. Taking things even a step further designer’s can utilized the bridge and export web galleries without even knowing any html code at all.  These galleries are a quick and easy way to get samples live on a website. I actually designed a website for a client utilizing the bridge function. The client is a photographer and knows Photoshop and how to create the web galleries. I then utilized some code I knew to enable him to upload and change galleries continually without messing up his site. He also has a function for his clients where they type in their code he assigns and they can view their proof photos he has taken for them.  See this site at  www.alpinerose.com.

Creative Process - Thumbnails

I am very familiar with thumbnail sketches. I typically don’t have too much trouble creating about 5-7 thumbnails. I start to run out of ideas after that. Then I usually do more research and come up with a bunch of other ideas. I also have learned in the past, that when you create too many thumbnails, deciding what direction to go in is quite difficult so asking for others to critique your thumbnails is quite helpful. It is best though to hash out concepts quickly and explore all ideas before moving forward. My favorite way to utilize thumbnails is in a group/team atmosphere. It’s amazing what the group can come up with quickly when everyone is thinking and working on a concept with these quick visual sketches. It always surprises me how horrible and embarrassingly messy my thumbnails are compared to everyone else. This is one area I need to work on. Making my thumbnails cleaner, and easier to interpret. Because of this I usually use basic shapes for placeholders.

Resources:

AIO Week 2 Lecture

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/basic/a/thumbnails.htm