There can be only one (piece of reference material)

When exploring look and feel there can be only one. Okay, maybe there can be more than one but the point is this: Less is more. It’s more selective, it’s more empowering and it’s more efficient. Using fewer references forces you to select the most valuable starting point.

Try this next time you're exploring aesthetics for a design: collect a bunch reference material as you might normally then select the top three, maybe four. One of these is your primary visual reference and the other two or three might have elements you'd like to incorporate. Then begin designing using the primary reference as a base.

This doesn’t mean you should copy directly or be a clone. Just have a simple statement of your aesthetic goals and trust that the process of creation will result in something unique. Your project likely has different content, goals, etc. It will become something different in your hands.

For years everyone one of my projects had folders of reference material for character design, UI, typography, environments, etc. I wasted a lot of time trying to synthesize all those diverse elements. Now I force myself to be selective and choose the fewest reference points I need to get started. While working I allow myself to follow tangents so each piece can find its own identity.

Mastery is not an accident

Even though Luke had a natural gift for the Force he still needed to learn the ways of a Jedi Master. He had to travel across the galaxy to find a mentor and train hard to meet his goals. If he hadn't been committed to learning and growing he probably would've gone back to Tatooine and wasted away in the bars of Mos Eisley.

Through mythology we learn, over and over, that a hero needs to overcome trials before they can succeed but this is something we all face every day if we're taking steps towards growth. We're not all fighting Sith Lords but we do wrestle with the demons that supply excuses and limit the loftiness of our goals. Smite them. Practice your craft daily. Five minutes is better than nothing. So what if you don't have all that time that you'd like? Make the most of the time you have.

Wishes and fantasies are great but they need action to make them happen. What do you want to master and does your effort match your expectations?

You need a wingman

As an artist you may know exactly what you want to say but you may not see your work clearly from inside the creative bubble. Whether you’re developing personal or commercial work one thing will be constant: your objectivity will probably suck.

That’s why you need a wingman. Someone to keep you honest, on-target and motivated. A friend, an art director, an editor, or colleague who knows what you’re trying to accomplish. What you see isn’t necessarily what anyone else sees and sometimes it helps to have someone to ask, “Are you drunk?”

Yes, even the best artists, writers, directors and dancers have agents, directors, and editors to help focus the message. To make something great even better. If you don't have a wingman, find one. Be critical of yourself but also invite focused criticism.

Drink beer, learn design

I’m obsessed with beer and liquor packaging. I still draw tons of inspiration from book covers but the past ten years or so the label design of beer, wine and alcohol has become more creative and adventurous as microbreweries, microdistillieries, and local vineyards compete for distinction. 

A good label is efficient: it combines strong typography, illustration, and clear focus to communicate what the product is, to whom it’s speaking and what separates it from the competition. Not an easy task when a consumer is scanning a shelf of beer at the store. And that’s the thing: people don’t read, they scan. This is especially true in packaging but it applies across all media in varying degrees. Why am I using bold text to emphasize points in these blog posts? My hope is that it helps you scan the page and spend a little more time with the content.

Next time you're at a grocery store, craft beer bar, liquor store, bar or wine shoppe take a minute to review the labels. Soften the focus of your eyes and observe what stands out and why? What are the label designs trying to communicate and to whom? What does the Bud Light design say their audience? Does the packaging of your favorite brew reflect you?

I love book cover design for similar reasons but here’s the difference: a book cover describes the contents but a beer label describes both the contents AND consumer. As the craft beer market matures so does the packaging and the identity statements are becoming more nuanced and brave. I'll drink to that.

The four horsemen of the creative apocalypse

Stress doesn’t come in a sudden rush. It creeps up, easing into the subconscious and slowly strangling creative flow. Learn to recognise these four obstacles to creativity and stop them in their tracks.

1. Fear: Usually the fear of judgement or rejection. The desire for perfection probably kills more great ideas than anything else. Give yourself space to make some mistakes. The fail fast movement was the development mantra a few years ago and while the excitement around the phrase has waned there's still value in giving yourself permission to take risks. Ideas are made better when tested. This approach might result in critique and that's cool, feedback will test the strength of your ideas and help you refine your concept. Remember: you won’t be judged for accepting feedback but you will be judged for shutting down input. 

2. Time: It's painful when you haven’t budgeted enough time or underestimated a project. You'll resist critique and new ideas regardless of whether they're good for your project because every change means lost time and revenue. Develop the ability to estimate accurately. How? Start doing it now. The only way to improve is to try something over and over and over. Eventually you'll learn how to estimate time and you can more effectively budget time for dialog and revisions. Don't short yourself in this regard. If you've accounted for the time you won't resist change nearly as much.

3. Tools: If you can't use the tools needed to complete an idea or project you have three choices: propose a new tool (one that you can use), learn the tool thats requires or find someone to fill the gap in your skills. The tools we use to make stuff are constantly changing and it isn't easy to stay on top of all the options. I've seen countless projects stall because the maker busy themselves with distractions to avoid dealing with the elephant in the room: they don't know how to make whatever it is they're proposing. Talk to experts, pad your time and manage your teams expectations.

4. Distractions: Email, SMS, TV, Facebook, personal hobbies, etc. These are your enemies when you're trying to get something done. At a roadblock in your project? Resist the quick dopamine rush of collecting Likes, tuck your chin and work through the difficulty. Nothing worth doing is easy so don't chicken out when things get tough. Block out time to focus, close your email/Facebook/Instagram/IM/etc and let yourself be productive. Your distractions can always be a reward for getting something done. 

Money doesn't matter

Someone always freaks out when I talk about this. "I need money to realize my dreams!" Sure, we could all use more money to fund our dreams, but what can you do while you're waiting for all the money to appear? Funding and revenue don't just appear for someone with great ideas. In order to get the money to dream bigger you need to start making things with what you have.

Don’t wait for the perfect conditions to be creative. Often we use conditions as excuses to not be creative or to not work towards your dreams. There’s not enough time, not enough money, not enough support from friends and family, etc. Over time we’ll break down each of these excuses and stories can get in our way but, for now, let’s talk about money.

Money has nothing to do with creativity. The blues came from poverty. Flamenco came from poverty. Most of the arts you love have their roots in poverty. Money is great for funding larger projects but you don't need it to get started. You may not be able to afford the recording equipment you'd like, or the laptop or the dance costume but none of the those are an excuse to not create. 

Not having enough money is an excuse we throw in our own way. It's a story we tell ourselves to let ourselves off the hook, to take fewer risks. Don’t let money be your story.

Take a Walk

If you hit the wall, find yourself getting overly attached to ideas or resisting feedback it’s time to step away. Distance improves your perspective and calms your nerves. Start researching creativity and a couple scenarios come up over and over again. People get big ideas while showering or taking a walk. Sure, they produce results at their computer, in meetings, etc but showers and walks are consistently associated with the generation of big ah-ha ideas.

Taking a walk is the one tool that I’ve used every single day for the past 20 years. I started doing this when I was a political cartoonist and had to produce a comic every single day. I'd wake up, read newspapers, do some sketching then throw on some shoes and roam the nearby WMU campus. The news and sketches would percolate in the back of my brain while I walked. Since then its became an essential part of my daily routine. I wake up, I feed my brain with information about a project then I take a walk to let those ideas connect in the back burner of my thoughts. It's important to let your mind wander and create associations between the ideas you just consumed. While walking I’m more likely to make connections between ideas and almost 100% of the time I get back home and I have a plan of action.

A friend of mine, a lifetime freelancer who worked from home, once called this morning walk 'faking a commute.'

Whether I need the break or not I try to take a walk every day in the mid-afternoon. It's good to intentional step away from your work, to create some distance and perspective, between you and your project. Since I now do most of my work from home I can take a whenever I like but when I was in an office (for many years) I'd take a walk around the block every day at 3pm. It was usually when I was getting the post-lunch exhaustion and I'd use a coffee-run as an excuse to step away from the computer.

Become a concept firehose

New ideas don't just appear. They are the result of conscious, or subconscious, connections being made by the creator. Someone took two or more disparate ideas and combined them to get an unexpected result. Concept artists use this strategy all the time. Need a cute dragon? Combine a dragon with something soft and fuzzy, maybe a peach or a puppy, and start illustrating. 

There are tons of ways to begin this creative matchmaking process and I've made my a document to help you get started. Your idea will probably take on a life of its once the ideas start flowing but you're just looking for something to get the creative juices flowing. It's all about placing constraints upon your ideation and observing how each decision leads to powerful combinations.

Here's how it works: Write down the thing thing your designing (character, logo, UI, etc) then list the requirements of your project. What do you know about it already? Once these are listed move left to right through the document, listing as many items as you can for each column. Don't hold back ideas, go for volume. Once you have a long list make a selection in each column and draft a project description based on your selections. 

Does this seem too dry to work? Aren't spreadsheets anathema to the creative process? Nonsense. This exercise is just putting onscreen, or on paper, whats already going through someone's head when they're doing concept development.  

Remember, this is an idea generation tool. Try to make unexpected combinations! It doesn't try to answer all the questions about a project, its function is to make connections that produce unexpected results. It's a conversation starter and once you've output a project description you might try the exercise a second or third time to see how much the concept can change just by tweaking a couple variables.

I've created some examples in the document to demonstrate how the process works. The highlighted cells are decisions I made and all of these are combined into a statement describing the project. In the columns Adjectives, Additional Descriptors and Setting columns you'll discover interest results can be produced by selecting multiple options but don't go overboard. You'll see that selected more than three options actually starts to hinder the concept. Few creative constraints often produce the clearer ideas.

Share the weird sh*t

Get weird. Very often the best ideas come from an unexpected direction and there are few things more frustrating than a conservative brainstorm. If you’re unafraid of pushing things it gives the people around you permission to take some risks. Yes, you need to take in account real-world issues like timeline and budget but if you want to get somewhere faster you need to open your stride. You can always scale back an idea that's too big but it'll take you longer to get where you're going if you're taking tiny, little, baby steps. 

You'll get some rejection but it's better to get a reaction than to be ignored. Years ago, when I was a political cartoonist, I received my first piece of hate mail and I was so bummed I sat down with my editor to talk about it. I felt like I'd failed. Patiently he explained that hate mail was a measure of success. My cartoon prompted someone to take time out of their day to articulate their opinion and my job was, in essence, generating dialog. It was a valuable lesson. Take a stand, be specific and give people something to react to. You won't please everyone and your work will suffer if you try. 

There are tons of reasons we give ourselves to be conservative and an equal number of reasons to embrace the big ideas or convert obstacles into positive constraints. Look for the opportunity hidden in every obstacle or excuse. We don't have much money. Fine, that's an opportunity to focus your costly feature set. We don't have time to think about new ideas. Okay, but if you're struggling to make the existing idea work maybe reevaluating will save you time in the long run. I don't want to look stupid. Fair enough, qualify your suggestion with something like, "This may not fit within the timeline but maybe it'll lead to other ideas..." or "here's a crazy idea..."

The big, bold ideas will lead to better ideas so, go ahead, release the Kraken. 

www.tools-not-rules.com

Be foolish

Leave your fear of looking foolish at the door so you can spend more time generating ideas and less time worrying what people will think of you. Risk looking foolish. Not all ideas are going to be mind-blowing. Or even good. The path to good ideas means you’ll need to suggest, and remove, the bad ones quickly and without fear or judgement. Be willing to share the bad ideas. 

Lead by example. If you’re willing to look foolish it levels the playing field and lets everyone know they can speak their minds without fear of judgement. Have you ever been to a party where everyone is polite and restrained? It's pleasant until one person arrives who is so comfortable in their own skin that it gives everyone else permission to relax and have more fun. Be that person. You don't need to be a extrovert and you don't need to be over-the-top to set this example. Just be engaged and willing to challenges people's expectations.

Have some fun, for crying out loud, and don't take yourself so seriously.

www.tools-not-rules.com

Want to find your creative voice? Do your thing. Alot.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a baker, a sculptor, a dancer, a designer an illustrator or any other kind of creative explorer - if you want to develop a recognizable vision, a creative voice, you need to maintain an output of finished pieces. Keeping a log of ideas like a sketchbook is great but you need to produce final work. Do this and patterns, themes and details of execution will emerge.

Imitating others is a great tool and I recommend working in other styles to develop a deeper experience and set of tools to work with, but if you truly want to express your identity through your creative output it’s simple: do the thing you love. 

You can always become a chameleon and match styles to insure a paycheck but as you spend time deveoping your personal style don't worry about the end product. Focus on making stuff. Make it a daily habit and allow yourself to evolve over time. 

www.tools-not-rules.com

Don't hold back, use your best ideas

There is no better time than now for your best ideas. Use them, there will be more. Don’t save them for a better project or a better client because good ideas breed more good ideas.

When we become stingy with our concepts we get attached to them and when we get attached to an idea it becomes the thing that is always pushed to another day because we think it has to be perfect. It's easy to put off the perfect idea because it'll take too much time.

Additionally, the more things you try the more likely you’ll find something that works and when you do find something that works don't be afraid to repeat yourself.

You don't have to reinvent yourself on every project. And repetition is the thing that all your favorite artists are known for. Repetition is style and style is the thing that reputations are built upon.

www.tools-not-rules.com

Keep asking why

Wikipedia calls The 5 Whys “...an iterative question-asking technique.” The idea is that you repeatedly ask yourself, or your client/partner/product owner ‘Why?’ as a way to better understand the issue you are addressing. It’s a useful skill when interviewing clients about their feedback or goals for a design. I can't overstate the value of this tool. I use it working with clients, in interviews with people I admire, with my students to uncover the problems they're trying to solve and even in vanilla (non-design) relationships.

Think of it as a strategy for converting an opinion or vague goal into something you can use. Yes, you'll sounds like a child, or a therapist, but there's a reason they ask questions. They're looking for answers. And if you're doing your job as a designer, so are you. This tool is so simple you can use it everyday to extract specific, actionable, details from general statements. This is also useful for negotiating creative space for yourself when a client is getting too specific. NOTE: Sometimes your Why may be better suited as a What or a How. Use your interrogatives and dig for information! 

Example:

Client: "Make that button blue."

1. Why? Because I like blue.
2. What about blue do you like? I don't know. I just like it.
3. What does blue represent to you? Uh, the sky. And water.
4. What do you like about the sky and water? They're relaxing.
5. Why is that important? Because I want the user to feel relaxed.

Action: Now that you know the goal is a relaxed user you can ask the client whether they're okay with alternate solutions as long as they meet that goal.

www.tools-not-rules.com