First, thank you for sharing a little detail piece of your creative process. That’s something I found hard to pass along when someone ask me about that. One of my biggest challenge on starting a project is overthinking about the final result beforehand, I mean, creating previous expectations on how the idea will be manifested in reallity. Usually that creates a little barrier in my head causing a spark anxiety feeling which turns down the excitement of doing. I figured that my creative process needs to start like a jam session or warm up. Anyway, I’m keep improving my ways to break the blank canvas syndrome.
Thanks for sharing Elvis. Yeah, we all have developed ways of working; good, bad, and ugly. The silent point made here is to see what yours is and to imagine what your ideal one is so you can start to make that happen. The only way to break that 'syndrome' is to see it first then start adapting... maybe try text or sketchbook at first. Dreaming is my favorite part now. I also require some form of strategy before I start also to help direct that path.
Thank you for sharing this sneak peek into your process. The black and white layout explorations are definitely something I’ll try to reduce early-on decision making that I usually toil with for too long.
Yeah, a lot of external things (color, image, etc) get in the way and being able to focus makes it a lot more enjoyable. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. To me, besides the making space/subdividing tasks aspect, that is the biggest gem in the writing.
I have a genuine problem with distractions (that other people place on me) and stimulus. The way I deal with the overstimulation problem is that I draw all the curtains, close the door to the office, turn the lights off, and put on noise cancelling headphones with no music. Basically remove as many distractions and sources of stimulation as possible. Breathe through the nose, and try to slow things down as much as possible. I turn my phone off, and then focus solely on a single aspect of the task at hand, and try to do that for the entire day. It’s rare that projects last a single day, so I can usually break down aspects of the job into smaller parts to tackle, and will then work on those exclusively.
This does NOT however help with distractions from others (phone calls, texts, emails, various notifications), which I have not figured out how to deal with yet. It shatters my ability to think on days when I’m overstimulated. I tend to reply to emails and texts in the evening after work, sometimes on the weekend if the message is important enough that I need to answer with a clear mind (not post work day mush brain).
Thanks Corey! When you break down aspects of the job, how do you see/handle those parts? I know every job is different but just curious if there is anything specific aspects within the "exclusivity."
As you stated, it varies wildly, usually based on the project itself or what phase the project is in. Because my primary source of income is entertainment work, my tasks tend to be slightly different than normal design. At the early stages of a job I can dedicate several days to logos and once there are enough that feel like they can be shared with the client, I’ll spend at least one day manually distressing them. Then I photograph the process as it always excites the client for some reason, probably because it’s analog and they are used to digital “patina” as they call it. Then when I move into the Photoshop heavy phase of the project, I can spend a day masking the talent (if I need a day of single mindedness). If I finish that early, I’ll go back and do a beauty pass on them. Then once I have all the images I think I’ll want to use, I can import them as smart objects into the various comps.
Since I will have six to eight projects going at any given time, if I’m feeling particularly distracted and fragile, I can always stop designing on one job, switch to logos on another for a day, and then shift back to designing again. For some reason, working with type is my “putting on the blinders and getting shit done” task.
The most difficult portion of the job for me is when I have to break out a piece of art that has been signed off on. Because advertising today is quite varied, there will suddenly be 60 deliverables that I have to keep track of and get exactly right. A single piece of art will be dynamically cropped when served to a phone, tv, desktop or television; so that’s a difficult problem to solve as type placement shifts per deliverable, as do safeties and dimensions. Each deliverable has different sets of rules of how they will be delivered to end users, which require designing different ways (one will serve the title dynamically, another has it baked in but no copy line, another is just the client’s logo, etc.) All of this requires an attention to detail that I find very difficult to maintain for more than two hours. So when the job enters the production phase, I try to break it up over two days minimum, and ALWAYS have at least two other eyes review the work before turning in. I will always miss something trivial, but any mistake makes you look unprofessional. And since there is always at least one in there hiding somewhere, it’s nice to get fresh eyes on it.
First, thank you for sharing a little detail piece of your creative process. That’s something I found hard to pass along when someone ask me about that. One of my biggest challenge on starting a project is overthinking about the final result beforehand, I mean, creating previous expectations on how the idea will be manifested in reallity. Usually that creates a little barrier in my head causing a spark anxiety feeling which turns down the excitement of doing. I figured that my creative process needs to start like a jam session or warm up. Anyway, I’m keep improving my ways to break the blank canvas syndrome.
Thanks for sharing Elvis. Yeah, we all have developed ways of working; good, bad, and ugly. The silent point made here is to see what yours is and to imagine what your ideal one is so you can start to make that happen. The only way to break that 'syndrome' is to see it first then start adapting... maybe try text or sketchbook at first. Dreaming is my favorite part now. I also require some form of strategy before I start also to help direct that path.
Thank you for sharing this sneak peek into your process. The black and white layout explorations are definitely something I’ll try to reduce early-on decision making that I usually toil with for too long.
Yeah, a lot of external things (color, image, etc) get in the way and being able to focus makes it a lot more enjoyable. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. To me, besides the making space/subdividing tasks aspect, that is the biggest gem in the writing.
I have a genuine problem with distractions (that other people place on me) and stimulus. The way I deal with the overstimulation problem is that I draw all the curtains, close the door to the office, turn the lights off, and put on noise cancelling headphones with no music. Basically remove as many distractions and sources of stimulation as possible. Breathe through the nose, and try to slow things down as much as possible. I turn my phone off, and then focus solely on a single aspect of the task at hand, and try to do that for the entire day. It’s rare that projects last a single day, so I can usually break down aspects of the job into smaller parts to tackle, and will then work on those exclusively.
This does NOT however help with distractions from others (phone calls, texts, emails, various notifications), which I have not figured out how to deal with yet. It shatters my ability to think on days when I’m overstimulated. I tend to reply to emails and texts in the evening after work, sometimes on the weekend if the message is important enough that I need to answer with a clear mind (not post work day mush brain).
Thanks Corey! When you break down aspects of the job, how do you see/handle those parts? I know every job is different but just curious if there is anything specific aspects within the "exclusivity."
As you stated, it varies wildly, usually based on the project itself or what phase the project is in. Because my primary source of income is entertainment work, my tasks tend to be slightly different than normal design. At the early stages of a job I can dedicate several days to logos and once there are enough that feel like they can be shared with the client, I’ll spend at least one day manually distressing them. Then I photograph the process as it always excites the client for some reason, probably because it’s analog and they are used to digital “patina” as they call it. Then when I move into the Photoshop heavy phase of the project, I can spend a day masking the talent (if I need a day of single mindedness). If I finish that early, I’ll go back and do a beauty pass on them. Then once I have all the images I think I’ll want to use, I can import them as smart objects into the various comps.
Since I will have six to eight projects going at any given time, if I’m feeling particularly distracted and fragile, I can always stop designing on one job, switch to logos on another for a day, and then shift back to designing again. For some reason, working with type is my “putting on the blinders and getting shit done” task.
The most difficult portion of the job for me is when I have to break out a piece of art that has been signed off on. Because advertising today is quite varied, there will suddenly be 60 deliverables that I have to keep track of and get exactly right. A single piece of art will be dynamically cropped when served to a phone, tv, desktop or television; so that’s a difficult problem to solve as type placement shifts per deliverable, as do safeties and dimensions. Each deliverable has different sets of rules of how they will be delivered to end users, which require designing different ways (one will serve the title dynamically, another has it baked in but no copy line, another is just the client’s logo, etc.) All of this requires an attention to detail that I find very difficult to maintain for more than two hours. So when the job enters the production phase, I try to break it up over two days minimum, and ALWAYS have at least two other eyes review the work before turning in. I will always miss something trivial, but any mistake makes you look unprofessional. And since there is always at least one in there hiding somewhere, it’s nice to get fresh eyes on it.