New starts - Best practices to starting a new project

Congrats!  You're starting on a new project, yahoo!  Now put that energy in to planning and doing.  

 - Building a road map on how you are going to tackle any new project allows you to prioritize and later on better explain how you got to your final designs with your client. 

 - Documenting and saving appropriately. Remember, you eventually will be sharing your work with the client, who will eventually be sharing that information with other vendors, media, and customers so name and save your work appropriately. 

 - Each variation of your work submitted matter.  Don't think that just because your first go at a new project was not approved for the final artwork that you wont reference the original version down the road.  Do NOT delete or overwrite any submitted project version, you never know when it will be reference later on, and who wants redo their work.

 - Enjoy the dialog.  Listening and expanding to a current design is all part of the fun, challenge yourself to listen and engage in the dialog.  Don't be afraid to ask questions!

 - Finish with finesse.  Be grateful for the opportunity to have had the chance to work on this new project.  You probably learned a little something along the way and the client trusted you with their project.

Rituals - 10 minutes of daily drawing (free drawing)

Art has been used IN rituals for thousands of years.   You probably have recognized art and design in your personal rituals.  Rituals like going to a religious service, the mural you see on your daily commute, the design on your favorite coffee mug you use every morning.  Even rituals like walking the dog, and the trusty Nike swoosh on the shoes you grab overtime to perform this ritual.    

How often does art BECOME a ritual though?  Incorporating a dose of creating can be incredibly rewarding.  There may not be any monetary gains from a daily doodle, but it can be a great stress reliever or just a good daily laugh.  A doodle a day, keeps the doctor at bay... I think that is how it goes.

Page Density - Web design 101

Density - the degree of compactness of a substance in an outlined area.

Some websites have a lot to say; and they should be able to say all of the things they would like to say.  When websites say too much, the page becomes too dense.  When a website become too dense with text or graphics, the messaging can be too overwhelming for the viewer.  Finding the balance of text, graphics, imagery, and blank space is tricky.  That is why most businesses hire someone like me to create their website.  

An easy rule to page density, is to create a small amount of copy which is rich in content.  Catching the viewer's attention with a short "want to learn more" tone leads people to continue reading and learn about all which your business has to offer.

Putting The Mono In Monochrome

Mono - alone, single.

Monochrome - an art technique using different shades of a single color.

Being a single in a sea of complementary, analogous, and triadic can be lonely.  There are benefits to being a single in this same sea though,  it allows you to not be anchored to any other shades.  

When starting branding and logo development sometimes being tied down to other shades limits your options from the get go.  Staying monochrome for the beginning of branding development or even the entirety of brand development is simple but effective.  When you start in monochrome you can analyze the nature of the essential design elements before you are swayed towards a certain design purely based on color attributes.

What is Responsive Design?

Let's talk about responsive design, and NOT responsive web design.  

To responded is to make a reply; answer.  Responsive design is creating design which requires the audience to answer.  When creating responsive design, the audience's response should be varied.  Positive, negative, questionable; all responses become just numbers of engaged people to the design you've created.  The true goal is to create something that draws an audience and requires them to have an emotional response in which the audience must respond; better yet, take action.

Stacked - Graphic Design Stacking Elements

Stacking elements is a powerful tool in illustration and in typography.  To use stacking as a tool, you must put the emphasis on the right element and then work around it.  Identify the key word, message, letter or icon first.  Building around a central point helps bring attention to the intended element.  If too many elements are emphasized the overall message and intent can be lost in a sea of Jenga! like text or elements.

ZOOM IN - Being Too Focused

Think little picture, I mean really little picture, the tiniest picture, a picture made for ants, then you have reached the size of a pixel.  Now that you have gotten that small and focused, now obsess over each pixel in a 5000 x 5000 pixel image.  With bloodshot eyes, you just start banging your head against the wall.  Then you soon out and realize you've been working in the wrong layer of the image.  You have officially now driven yourself crazy.  

Zoom out, plan, and check you layers!  Do all of these actions before you dive into the tiny world of pixel obsession. 

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PRESENTATION - Show Your Work Like A Champion

Putting your best foot forward and setting the stage for your hard work.  Presenting something personal like your artwork can be very nerve wrecking.  I usually break out in a full body sweat, unfortunate but true.  I start talking fast and with my hands, when really all of my attention should be on the body of the work I'm presenting.  Setting the stage when presenting your artwork helps both you and the client walk through your creative process to the final artwork.  Don't sell you or your work short by not allowing enough time to explain your process, sometimes it leads to an easy approval.

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ASCEND- Creating Visually Interesting Design

Go up.  The eye doesn't always have to go left to right, it can also go up.  Adding variety to the direction we expect to view characters can add the visual intrigue it takes to capture a new customer.  Upwards and onwards...

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Expanding Your Brand Identity

After a few years your brand identity may be feeling a little tired.  The original ideas and concepts that you started with change over time and so should your brand identity.  Keeping your brand identity fresh reflects how your brand is changing and growing.  Viewers or customers expect to see references to your original ideas and concepts, but by keeping your brand identity updated they will know you value growth and hopefully they will want to continue to grow with you.

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CONTRAST - Opposites Attract

Light/dark, rough/smooth, thin/fat, why are we so attracted to contrast? Contrast draws us in and makes us compare.  Contrast can bring out the best in a design or the worst depending on how it is executed.  Evaluating how contrast can pull the eye in or define the space allows contrast to be an asset to the final design.

CREATE & STAY WILD - California In The Springtime

Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with being wild.  Harnessing wildness into a cohesive thought is so tough, so embrace it and create!  Wildness gives us an outlet to express the energy that isn’t used or exercised in day-to-day life.  So create & stay wild.

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SEASONS CHANGE - Seasonal California

The poppies are almost out in full bloom, the lupines are sprinkled about and color is all that I see.  Currently, I am completely in awe of the amount of vibrant colors surrounding me.  I have realized this seasonal transformation is a surprise to me because I have been in a city for the last 3 years of the flourishing spring season.  I hope the realization of spring and the new beginnings never grow old.

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SHADOW - Best Practices Working With Shadows

I can’t tell you how many times shadow has “messed up” one of my photos.  Shadow can be a thorn in your side given the wrong direction of the lighting.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, shadow can add life and placement to a static image.  Dealing with shadow is a true skill.  Ask any professional photographer and they will know exactly what to do to make shadow an asset and not the enemy.  Embrace and learn, know I still am.

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PRESENCE

Presence, a sometimes painstaking task, can be the key to unlocking your creativity.  More than ever, our attention is pulled in difference directions by the multiple forms of communication and ways we receive information.  All of this clutter can make being present in your current location, work, task, exercise regimen seem almost impossible.  Isolating yourself from these distractions can open new opportunities for clear thought and creative exploration.  Go ahead, leave your cell phone at home and be present with only your thoughts for awhile.

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SPACE

The opportunity of the unknown.  What can or could space do for your design?  The relationship between two objects can be defined by space, how much space between the two or how little.  Giving too much space to a focal point can leave the intended focal point looking isolated.  If there is no space between the focal point and the secondary object, it can be confusing as to which object should be the focus.  Evaluate the context of the objects to define the relationship and use space to clearly express their relationship.

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Repetition - Pattern, An Essential Element Of Design

Repetition: the recurrence of an action or event.

Repetition, in design, can have a varied effect.  When large objects are repeated it can be shocking... like Stone Hendge shocking.  Small objects repeated make the eye look for a pattern, for instance in tile work.  In architecture, repetition is often present and unnoticed when the pattern created by the repetition is traditional to our culture.  When traveling to a different culture, vivid new patterns appear in every surface.  Searching for repetition when you travel to another culture can offer insight into a cultures history, religion, and people.

Support Public Art

Have you ever gone to a large city and noticed the amount of sculptures, gardens, and murals there are?  Why is all of this great public art in large cities?  It might be that large cities have a budget for public arts, and they have a large platform that many tourists and visitors pass by and view.  Public Art is an important feature in all communities though, it can bring people together or just start conversation.  Smaller cities and towns need the effects of public art just as much a large cities, so why is there less public art in smaller communities?  Rally behind your local public arts projects and embrace the beauty and conversation that will follow.

Window - Seeing Design In A New Light

Window: an opening in the wall or roof of a building or vehicle that is fitted with glass or other transparent material in a frame to admit light or air and allow people to see out or in.
 

Looking out of a window and looking into a window generate different feelings.  Looking out of a window provides a feeling of dominance of the interior space you are in.  Looking into a window is to look in on something personal of someone else's or your own.  You see an outer perspective through a window which leads to something personal.  A window for others to intentially look through can generate an immediate varied perspective depending on what the window in framing.  Offering a window for potential customers to view a brand or a business is essential in creating a representative design.  How and what you frame with that window dictates the presence of the brand.

Identifying the Elements

Break it down.  All things are made up of elements, so is design.  Design is made up of multiple elements, some designs have more elements than others.  Look at a design that you really love.  Now identify the elements of that design.  What types of lines are being used, what colors, how are the elements organized in the space, what and where is the focal point, what elements support that point to make it the focal point?  Identify what you like about a design or what elements a client likes in design to incorporate these key elements of your next creation.