I think, therefore I design - Illustrator Tutorial

- [Von] Ironically, the least creative part of the creative process artistically speaking is probably the most important part, the thinking behind the design. Before a designer can create effectively, they need to think effectively. In other words, you can't design in a vacuum. In this course, we're going to cover various ways to improve your design thinking and enhance your ideation skills. But in this movie specifically, I want to establish a solid foundation, so let's get started. This is Saul Bass, arguably one of the most famous designers within graphic design history. What I love about Saul Bass, not just his work, I love the way he thought about approaching design and this is his classic quote. Design is thinking made visual. So it's all about taking that mental picture that you start creating and building when you first start a project and how do you translate that into a visual form and do it well? Well it all comes down to thinking. Good thinking leads to great design and it's all about loading your chamber. Now, when I get into loading your chamber, all I mean by that is loading information into your thinking, into the way your formulate thoughts. So whatever the design project is, it's going to be a culmination of your experience and information in general. I'm not talking about design specific information either. It's more important for you to take in all kinds of information. That way you have a deep well to draw from. This isn't just a pragmatic idea, it's about developing a lifestyle of thinking. So one of the best ways to do this is to load your chamber through reading. Putting on someone else's head. What do I mean by that? Well there's a great quote that says in order to understand how somebody else thinks and believes, read a book, an article, a magazine that they've written something for and when you take that in, you can think from their perspective, it's that simple. So this is a good selection of material that I've read over the years. The autobiography on Einstein. What surprised me about it is I learned more about history from reading that book than I did Einstein. I learned a lot about Einstein but the history behind it was really interesting. World Mythology. This is where a lot of cues for different designs throughout all cultures come from. Whether it comes from the culture the design is being created from or not. You might not know this, but there's a lot of symbology that can be pulled out from mythology and used in everyday design. A good example of that is if you look at some pharmaceutical companies, they use references to Egyptian culture in their illustrative brand mark. So I found that interesting. An historical book I read called the Pirate Coast is all about the first covert military operation of the United States during the Thomas Jefferson administration and it was fascinating because I learned all this history that I never knew about and if you've ever heard the Marine Corps hymn, which says from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, that's what this book is all about. Where does it come from and the history behind it. It also alludes to Modern Day events and shows you not much has changed in history throughout all that time. Another thing I like to read up on just 'cause it's a personal interest of mine is quantum physics. It's theoretical sciences. It's just really fascinating, really kind of strange in some ways but there's some interesting parallels you can make that would give you cues on technology which is kind of cool. Now, obviously symbols throughout history is another thing and the best example I can think of that is if you've ever seen an ambulance and you see a staff with a snake wrapped around it, that comes from a historical symbolic reference that goes back to the Hebrews and it's come to become known as a healing symbol that's used worldwide now. I like gardening so Pruning might give me some cues if I ever design a logo for a nursery or create an illustration where I need to showcase a certain kind of plant form or species. Now all of your design work, your illustration work for this industry is geared for communication arts meaning you have to communicate to a business-oriented marketplace. Sure we do some design for non-profits, etcetera but understanding business as general is going to help you come up with ideas and think appropriately in context of the various projects you work in. So reading magazines like Inc. and Fast Company are going to give you insights that will help you to do that more appropriately. So all of this sounds good, but what are some practical examples of this taking place? So I'm going to walk you through a few of those and the first one is this. So maybe you read an entomology publication and it's all about insects and in that publication, you learn about dragonflies, you learn about how unique their eyes are, the shape of them and what they can perform and that gives you cues that you can draw upon to in this case, work out a threat assessment software. A branding for it that's based on that whole thinking and idea behind how dragonflies see things. This was for an IT surveillance software for security purposes. Dragonflies can see in almost 360 degrees. So that is what this is all about to prevent security issues on a network. Maybe you read a travel publication online and it's all about Alhambra in Spain and you see the beautiful pictures and the patterns and this inspires you to create your own vector-based pattern. Now if you want to know more about creating vector-based patterns, check out my drawing vector graphics, patterns, 'cause I showcase how to do just this. But any kind of information, whether it comes from a book or in this case an online magazine, it's going to give you cues you can use to apply to future projects that may come along. That's the whole point of loading your chamber with this type of information. Maybe you travel to Arizona and the landscape itself inspires you and you apply the local culture to pull off artwork that works really well in this context. And this exact artwork, I showcase how I went about creating it in a DVG lab episode. So make sure to check that out. So bottom line, when it comes to how you think, how you approach a project, what information you take in, the way you think is the way your design is going to go. So you think, therefore you design. It's not the opposite way around. So make sure to take in new information. Even in some things you might not initially think you're going to be interested in, you're going to be surprised. Once you dive in to a certain genre, or maybe it's an industry, you're going to find cues that are going to help you with your ideation purposes. You may not use the new information you take in immediately, that's okay but it will be loaded into your chamber and at a later date you'll be able to tap into it and use it to solve a visual problem.