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Concepting & Sketching
| 9.26.2006
Between being in the "biz" for several years and teaching at Boston University, I get asked a few of the same creative questions all the time:
1. "Do I sketch concept ideas on paper first or directly into my program of choice?"
2. "How close is the final design to the original concepts?"
3. "What's my gear list?"
I sketch both in a sketch book as well as directly into a program like Illustrator or Photoshop. A lot of it depends on my geography (where I am when I get an idea) as well as how much time I've had to think it out in advance. If I'm in a meeting (where I spend loads of time) or traveling, I'll always keep my sketch book close to me as I get tons of ideas when I least expect it. Conversely, if I've had lots of time to think about a concept in advance and have worked out some of the options in my head, I'll skip the sketch book and go directly into a program, usually PhotoShop for web designs and Illustrator for logos, colors or any other ideas, both online and offline.
Typically, the more experienced a creative talent is, the more they're able to compose in their head while doing other things or multitasking. I remember when i was first starting out, I would dedicate blocks of time to think about and produce a concept or idea. I'd sit down at a desk with my sketch book and start putting down as many ideas that I could think of while going back over them as many times as it took to refine them enough for comping up on a computer. For less experienced creatives starting out, concepting directly into a computer can sometimes work against what would otherwise be a good concept. Instead of thinking about the concept in broad strokes from a strategic perspective, one may get hung up on size, effects, typefaces, color and working out other problems with the software. Alternatively, all this energy could be focused into just concentrating on sketches until you get a few polished ideas that are ready to be turned into pixels. As one gets more senior, you can actually gain some speed by concepting directly into a program however, I still find it easier to make quick changes to very complex problems by sticking to paper and pen (or any other writing instrument that does it for you).
Most of the time, my initial sketches or concepts are pretty darn close to the final chosen designs but there is always a dark horse from time to time. Once again, the more experience you have, the closer you can typically get to what the final design will be during your sketch phase. I took a trip down memory lane when I used a sketch book more often, and included 4 dichotomist examples (sketch & final design) for two identity projects, cd jacket design and an early web site comp (see below).
Finally, I own 4 macs but only two of them are my work horses. I have a PowerPc g5 Dual 1.8 GHz with 2 gigs of ram and an 80 gig HD which over the last two years, has only been restarted/turned off 6 times. It has NEVER crashed (which is unbelieivable) and I use it for everything from design to video to composing music. I have all the major apps and a few secretive cool apps that I've picked up along the way. It's one of the most flawless Macs I've ever owned...I might be selling it soon for an upgrade to the new technology. I also use a MacBook Pro. I had one of the first generation Pentium Dual processors and it was quirky as hell. I have a newer one (3rd generation) and it's like a Ferrari with a screen...Love it. It has all the same apps as my tower (even the undisclosed ones). Probably the most sophisticated and coolest thing about my setup is that every morning (1:00 AM), all my computers sync wirelessly and back up to an external hard drive. Then at 2:00 AM, that external hard drive mirrors itself with another hard drive. I could loose both computers as well as one hard drive and still be back in business in a couple of hours...this took many months to get working right.
posted at 8:08 PM
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1 Comments:
Cool. I've always wanted to get an inside view of the creative process...nice, simple examples showing train of thought from initial concepting to finished product. Also, cool Madd Mikes site...
-mike
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