Notes from the Artist

So, here I am working on some project and I get a phone call: Emergency! Gotta have something for this afternoon! What do I do?

First off, there are no emergencies! Only tighter deadlines, in my book.

Secondly, if I have received the challenge of producing a graphic quick, I just breathe. There is joy in creating a graphic immediately. One of the greatest joys for me is to just open up my heart, and let the ideas start flowing through. As long as I don't start off by second gusessing anything, I will usually have a bunch of ideas in no time flat. This is not to say that they are all good ideas, just ideas. The secret is to not judge them, let them unfold, in my mind, in my palette on the computer.

Quick sketches provide a buffet from which to choose. At this point, I may ask for input, or I may just put thumbnails up and go get a cup of tea. Then I can peruse the initial ideas with a fresh eye, looking for possibilities. Still I am not judging, as it is just the beginning of the discerning process.

I may choose 1 to 3 ideas to flesh out. Very rarely at this point do I throw them all out and start over again, although that is always an option.

These fleshed out roughs will be sent to my client for input, and the beginning of the proofing process. The secret, then to graphics on the fly, is approaching it at first with an open mind, the brainstorming model with no judgement.

Labels: graphic design, ideas

Do you have a consistant brand - a unified business identity?

I participated a series of workshops way back when called Alpha Awareness Training. I gleaned a lot of tools there for dealing with life in a positive way. One of the concepts that Wally Minto talked about in this work was that there are two ends of a spectrum called imagers. We each and every one of us imagine - "image" - things in different ways, including "seeing" no images at all. Anyway, the spectrum is "changing imager" vs. "fixed imager."

Every time a "changing imager" imagines what they wish to create or what they would like as an outcome, the visualization is different. I used to work with a woman in a small art store who was a totally unleashed "changing imager". Every time she would work, the store would take on a completely different look, and all of the stock would be moved around. It was great for sales. The customers would come in and not see what had attracted them before. Ack! When they discovered that it was actually still in the store, only on the other side of the store, they would buy it before it really did get purchased by someone else.

A "fixed imager" is the person who sees one thing in one place solidly always. If you should happen to move the couch an inch during cleaning, this person will most likely not be comfortable until it is returned to it's correct place. The goal stays in mind until achieved and beyond.

Most of us are somewhere on the spectrum, not really one extreme or the other.

I, for example, have a constant stream of ideas. Given the slightest opportunity to brainstorm about anything, a treasure-trove of jetsam will wash upon my shores. On the other hand, there are unbreakable threads of motivation which have remained very steady as core values of my personality. These recurrent themes pursue my imagination with a bulldog-like persistance.

You might be wondering what all of this has to do with your branding. Your branding is an anchor: it provides a fixed image in which your clients and customers can trust. Rock solid, it provides the foundation on which to build of all your promotions and marketing.

A formula for success involves a happy combination: let the changing imagers create new and edgy products, promotions, and advertising campaigns while you tether them to your overall success with the fixed image of your unified business identity.

Labels: brand, creativity, unified business identity

Many years ago, when I was teaching multiple classes at Lassen College, I had an epiphany one day: it's all the same. To what "it" was I referring? Simple: all design, all art. Designing a stained glass window requires many of the same skills that piecing a quilt does. Putting together today's outfit, decorating the living room or laying out an ad each bear many commonalities of skill with the other.

I taught glass design and life drawing at that college for years. Many of my students were women with family. Those that had sewn were quite familiar with patterns and fitting. They caught onto the process of fitting the glass pieces together quite readily.

Those that had juggled dinner, soccer games and crying babies had the skillset required to focus on the line of the model no matter what distractions arose. (Note: A high level meditative process - Sit at the piano with a "musically inclined" child on either side, dogs, cats, and other children running through the house, and hear only the notes you are playing while keeping attentive to any indication of emergency).

How does one go about learning a new art form? Hearken unto the muse. Allow the inspiration to flow through, and build your skills doing anything creative. Often, life may not immediately provide you the opportunity to spend hours painting masterpieces. It is important to realize, I think, that all is not lost if such is the case. The creative urge and flow is accessible through sometimes most unusual media.

I remember in graduate art school, where the lofty intellect was given full rein, that there was a big deal made about not selling your art short or diluting your creative flow by transferring your attentions to some "lesser" activity. It is my contention that rather the opposite can be true. If I bring my full attention to the moment while I am creating compost, and open to inspiration as I do it, I find that it increases my state of artistic grace instead of diminishing it.

Labels: creativity, epiphany, inspiration, the muse