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March 19, 2007

Embrace the Creative Process

I've noticed a recurring theme emerging in the logo, icon and web design work I've been doing the past year — the importance of loving the creative process and embracing design iterations, rather than fighting them.

Sometimes design iterations can feel like barriers to finishing a project. However, I find that by flowing with iterations and the process of design, I end up with better work in the end. Design is all about iteration, and exploring crazy, spur of the moment ideas.

I think this quote sums it up nicely:

"Keep in touch with your soul by developing your technique. There are no mistakes, so... just work. The more you work the more you'll figure out if that's your bliss." — Fernando Araujo

Embrace the process. iterations are a chance to push yourself to the next level. When you embrace and enjoy the process, you'll see your joy reflected in your work.

March 19, 2007 11:16 PM | Design | add to del.icio.us

Comments

Excellent observation, I totally agree. Nice blog man.

Posted by: Doron at March 21, 2007 11:28 PM

Do you have any suggestions on the iteration process? Any books, articles, etc? Most of our work gets approved on the first pass (which is great), but when it doesn't we often get stuck. Our iterative process is crap, so much so that I tend to prefer blowing stuff up and try again from scratch. Any suggestions?

An aside - when I was a kid I wanted to be an architect. I made drawings of houses and office buildings with those green stencils. I had never met anyone who did the same thing.

A few weeks ago I was watching a movie with my wife, and she started telling me about how she used to make drawings with little green stencils. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that you made the right decision. :)

Posted by: sj at March 21, 2007 11:47 PM

Doron, thanks man! :-)

Sean, I will have an article published very soon on this very topic — hold tight and I'll write about it when the article is live. I love that story about green templates and your wife. :-)

Posted by: Mike Rohde at March 23, 2007 8:46 AM