The Creative Process

The Creative Process: A series of steps repeated every time you design something.

Why do we need to do this?

1. It improves consistency

2. The ability to plan and time your work

3. Raise the quality of your work

4. Communicate more effectively and in a more professional manner

Steps of the creative process:

1. Research - Research the client and the competition. Get online, look in magazines, listen to music, pay attention to the world around you...whatever you need to get inspired. The more you know, the easier the project will be!

2. Brainstorm/inspiration - Striving to be unique and innovative while still following the current trends, ensures a fresh and creative approach.

- coming up with adjectives of what your end product should be

- ask yourself some questions, if you can answer then with your brainstorming, then you are on the right track.

     - what kind of message am I trying to communicate?

     - who is my audience?

     - what am I trying to tell the audience?

     - what kind of visuals will work for this audience?

3. Sketch - Thumbnails, thumbnails, and more thumbnails. Sketch to get your thoughts out and to work through ideas.

4. Execute - Implement your ideas. Combine type and imagery, into a well developed composition. Utilize design principles sand visual organization guidelines to help. Try techniques, explore possible options, and analyze the outcome. If you get stuck, walk away and clear your head. if the piece doesn't look how you imagined, and it isn't working, try another idea. Forcing an idea won't result in a good design.

5. Critique & Revise - take a step back, (literally) and look at your design with an objective eye. Make sure the design effectively conveys the message, to the intended audience. If it doesn't, go back and tweak the composition until it does! Asking others for their opinion will help with this process.