Usually, when you perform any kind of task, setting a goal is a key component to help you undergo the process knowing in which direction you will be moving to. What happens with design is that there are several ways for you to reach this goal. No one can tell you what good design is. However, understanding what good design could aim for is something we will try to do in this article.
I see “designing” as a process that results on a craft which is strictly tied to you, the medium. You as a willing being, represent all your previous experience and knowledge. If you are a good medium, making a perfect mixture of experience and connection to the spontaneous present, your craft will most likely be appealing.
Setting a goal is a key component to help you undergo the process knowing in which direction you will be moving to. What happens with design is that there are several ways for you to reach this goal. We live in times where you can find lots of inspiration on the internet, thousands of trends, ideas and graphic references. There is no doubt that understanding the harmony of the elements you will put together is important. I was never a fan of theory in any aspect of my life but this doesn’t mean that I think it’s unnecessary. Studying color theory, typography and structure will help you set hierarchies that will result in a design that makes sense.
Once you feel confident enough with your preparation, get ready to make mistakes. I do not suggest you dive into your project with the idea that everything will come out as you originally planned cause it will not. In my experience, if we consider the creative aspect of a project, the initial idea is the fuel you need to get started but it will probably change as you move forward and this means making a lot of mistakes or reaching several dead ends. Assuming that what you pictured on an early stage will be literally the final result may lead you to frustration pretty quickly. Adaptation to your own flow of ideas and creativity is key.
Creativity is not something you can plan. An accident can be understood as something that happens by chance. Maybe all you need is to give creativity a chance. A playful state is the perfect scenery to achieve this. Why play? When we play, first and foremost we get relaxed and to be creative you can’t be in a state of rigidness. Beside this, aiming to succeed in a creative process will be much more enjoyable if you take it lightly.
While in this state of play, let your actions lead. If you are designing a brand for example, just play with shapes and elements freely, don’t think much about all the theory until you find something that feels right.
Finding something that feels right is a huge checkpoint in my experience. During any activity “feeling” has much more value than thought. Your gut is your best ally. This doesn’t mean that you are done with studying whenever you reach this point. Theory and knowledge, as mentioned before, are important elements that will help you shape the development of your idea.
Let me tell you that during any moment in this process you may realize that what you felt was good will not work. This is the hardest part of a creative process as if you feel like you are getting somewhere but actually you just placed another brick in the wall. Something I found useful to deal with these situations is to understand that all this experience will stack up with what comes next and you are never starting from scratch, you are just finding your way throughout the process.
During this whole creative process, besides playing and allowing ideas to go through you, another good resource is inspiration.
Inspiration and copying are two different things. Any good creative mind needs inspiration. Look for it in the most literal way and look for it in the most unrelated, unthinkable and random way too. Looking for design trends and ideas can work just right, or can just let go of what you think will work and look at stuff that makes you feel good, always keeping in mind your goal.
Inspiration should help you realize there are many more ways to reach your goal than you originally thought. Obviously not all paths will take you where you want to, but exploring them will help you understand better what your design needs and what it doesn’t. During this process, you can go down each road as far as you want but it is good to know that everything has layers and uncovering them will show you elements that you may then combine when you build that final road yourself.
As far as my own experience taught me, speaking in general terms, every aspect of life has layers. Freedom in this context means being able to explore as many layers of whatever you are into until you basically lose interest.
What sometimes happens is that you start to find friction between those layers and your attention. This may sound like if I wanted to make this process sound like a magical thing, but believe me when I say that it’s always darkest before the dawn. Many times in life I felt the worse before things got really good and finding inspiration may show you this same thing.
When you think this exploration phase has lost it’s purpose, you may be really close to getting where you wanted to. Understanding this may help you better accept the process or even fall in love with it. Always try and go the extra mile to get through those difficult phases and transcend them. In the worst scenario, you will sleep in peace knowing you went all the way. In time, the accumulation of experience will let you identify with a better criteria when these layers don’t need to be explored and when it’s time to move to the next thing.
The most healthy way to engage in any creative process, is to enjoy it yourself. This will not always be easy to achieve, but I deeply suggest that you create things that you like in the first place.
Although art and design can be appreciated by anyone in unique ways, there are some parameters that will always get you closer to something that makes sense. Understanding what your objective is and freely exploring the space between your goal and your current state will get you closer to a good result, and maybe even… a good design.
Thank you for your attention and time. Feel free to share this article if you feel like it might help someone. Have a good one!
