The Design Process…
Hi and I hope you’ve been having a good week. As I start my new round of commissions, this week for me has been mainly about client meetings and drawings. So much so, that I haven’t had much of a chance to think about my blog, or post on social media. I’m determined to keep up my “blog-momentum“ though so this week’s post is being written late on Thursday evening after I’ve just got back from playing my violin in the Widders Border Morris band.
A few years ago, I remember seeing an internet meme about the design process… at the beginning everything is all new and exciting and you just can’t wait to get started…then in the middle it can all go a bit mushy and you wonder if you should just give up…but you have to work on through and get past that bit…then at the end everything turns out wonderful!
Now obviously, all of my commissions always go absolutely swimmingly and I never feel like that in the middle of making something…honest guvnor…but its good to remember that when things get a bit hard, its all just a completely normal part of the process…and that after many many years of doing this job, I can usually find a solution to anything that doesn’t quite go how I though it would.
Just as the design process meme says though, I do love the drawing stage. My dedicated design space is sitting on my sofa with my feet up, some music on, and at this time of year under a blanket with a nice mug of something hot. Yes, I do have desk space in my Eco-studio, and I have tried drawing in there, but somehow, I just seem to be in my best “designing” space when I’m sat on my sofa!!
My drawings are all done on an iPad Pro, using Procreate. I’ve been working this way for quite a few years now, and as well as just being a really cool way of working, it means that I no longer have loads of sketch books (although I did love these) and disorganised bits of paper kicking around. I’ve never been the most organised person when it comes to paper, and perhaps most importantly, I’m saving some trees.
Using Procreate has also sped up my design process a little, as when a client wants to make changes, I can often just copy, paste and quickly alter a design, rather than having to do a whole new drawing from scratch.
Right, I think I’ve probably waffled on long enough now, so below are some of those internet memes I mentioned earlier (all found with a quick google search so apologies if I need to credit anyone for them)…
