5 Steps to Streamline your Creative ProcessListThumbs
5 Steps to Streamline your Creative Process
As a designer I’m always trying to optimize my creative process. Since I started, lots of things have changed in my workflow, some things got simpler while others got a little bit more complicated. With these changes came the experience of learning from the mistakes but also from the successes.
In this article I will summarize how I try to streamline my creative process to make it as efficient as possible. Basically everything consists of 5 steps:
1- Understand the work
"A well-defined problem is half solved."Michael Osborne - Principal, Michael Osborne Design
It might sound obvious but sometimes we tend to assume that we know what we have to do when we simply don’t. It’s really important to know exactly what it is that you have to do before you start doing anything. If you don't, it would be like going to the supermarket when you’re hungry. You want to buy everything... The understanding of the project will filter exactly what you have to look for, it will give you directions and the context of the work you will have to do. But what's the use in knowing what you have to do if you don't know who you're doing it for? That will lead us to the second step...
2- Audience
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."Douglas Adams - Creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
So, you now have a firm understanding of the work, but now the question has come to: for whom will the work be intended? The audience is key in this equation because it filters and reduces even more the range of your search for inspiration. Once you have the audience figured out, you really have to get in your mind that it's 100% about them, which will lead us to the third step.
3- Business
"Every night I pray that clients with taste will get money and clients with money will get taste." Bill Gardner - Principal, Gardner Design
The biggest difference between commercial design and art, for me, is that we design something for the audience and not as a means of self-expression for ourselves. We solve problems for them, we make it easier for them. As far as graphic and visual design goes, most of the problems arise in communication. Essentially, we’re the middle man between the client and the consumer. Our goal is to make the communication better for them (which in most cases means simplifying), and not to interfere in the communication with our own personal tastes and influences.
4 - Challenge
"We spend a lot of effort trying to make things look effortless." Alexander Isley - Principal, Alexander Isley Design
With a solid understanding of the work, the audience, and the question of solving problems, we now face the challenge: the designing part. The challenge creates the motivation to look for the details that will make your work better and superior.
5 - Try
"You will never really like anything you do, and you will die knowing that you still have to do your best." Garth Walker - Orange Juice Design
The previous steps won’t necessarily guarantee that you'll come up with a good design, they're merely there to form a foundation, or a stepping stone, if you will.
To recap, the understanding of both the work and the audience will create the context. Keeping in mind the business perspective will avoid you losing focus on what's important. And, finally, the challenge will give you the motivation to look for the most innovative and efficient solutions. But the only way for you to come up with a good design is to take all these things and TRY.
This is the workflow I’ve been using since I graduated from college. Like I said, this workflow has been modified based on what I have learned throughout these years, through the wins and losses. The process should change depending on your personal way of working, but I think the one thing that will always be the secret to a good design and therefore should be a key in everyone's workflow is simplicity.
About the author
My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.
28 Comments
awesome posters
I like:
What would McGyver do ?
hehe
Good list, but easier said then done sometimes ;)
Great tips to share!
this is really inspiring how i should look at things before i jump in, and the whole process to the end in a very simple form!
thanks
"easy" steps.. until you sit down and open photoshop.
if you make something idiot-proof, the universe just creates a better idiot
"You will never really like anything you do, and you will die knowing that you still have to do your best." Garth Walker - Orange Juice Design
I hate this quote, if you don't like what you do, you're in the wrong business. Don't waste your life. I myself want to be an artist so I'm moving away from design towards art.
If I die not doing what I like, at least I was in the process of moving towards it so I will have no regrets.
PS- Aside from this point, this was a good article and if you follow the advice (with the exception of the quote above), you'll do much better work (especially #1)
- dp
great work; very useful!
nice fade-in effect on (is it 'on'?) the pictures, btw ;D
it was really helpful
thanks :)
helpfull information
Thanks, Fabio!
@dainen: At first it really seems like its easier said than done. But I think it's a matter of habit. If you try to keep this streamline as a routine ("routine" in a good way, not the boring way ;)) you'll see that it really works and it's really helpful when it comes to (but not only) client work.
Muito bom o artigo. O seu blog esta de parabens! Muito obrigado!
Porem, está em ingles. Você tem a tradução dele? Ainda nao dominei a lingua inglesa 100%, por isso vejo que terei dificuldades.
Obrigado e abraços!
cool article with some cool designs :D
---------
-abney317
-My GFX Site: http://InfinityStyle.com
thanks man. Nice article.
Please remove the sloppy loader, the fades are just annoying to say the least.
If I die not doing what I like, at least I was in the process of moving towards it so I will have no regrets.
The Mc Gyver one is awesome!
Great post! It is a definite must to have a great framework like this.
You could do another entry on just the design process alone. And step one for that would be
"STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER".
Pen, pencil, marker, whatever you want to use. But NEVER start a design in photoshop.
Very cool article!!!
Abduzeedo ate my post, but what I originally typed out was this, only paraphrased:
Absolutely agree with Kevin; the pen is the mightiest tool a designer can possess if used properly and frequently.
And as for this article: I like it. It's wonderfully concise, to the point, and easy to read. Nice tips.
"Pen, pencil, marker, whatever you want to use. But NEVER start a design in photoshop."
you should start in the mind, then whatever medium you use after that is unimportant. walking to paper or computer without some sort of an idea likely won't prduce something nice.
This is pretty cool
very helpful, thanks
The MacGyver image is golden ;)
Great post, i'm going to send it around to everyone here @ ireckon.com.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Warwick (aka adesignapart http://twitter.com/adesignapart)
I have to say that I disagree completely with the assumptions behind these ideas, simply because a genuine designer is not a 'solutions machine.'
In a practical sense what you have described above is the storyboard preceding the program preceding the robotic 'solution,' i.e. feed in the variables and out pops the 'design.'
a very interesting article. i like it when well experienced share their work-flow, the of course everyone else can take what every they like out of it.
as a new designer, i find this very refreshing as something that i think is going to help me with the future work.
i think that all the 5 point will be easy to adapt as they were perfectly explained. the only thing that i always fail to get write is that target audience, as in contradictory to the quotes a do design in a personal manner - thinking (subconsciously) that i am the targeted user.
this is one of those articles that would i'd be happy if there was a part two to it
thanks for such motivation
great... thanx..
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