Happy Monday, another week and another job is going on. In the middle of this new branding project I’ll be (trying) to so these Inktober Prompts if you’d like to follow along. I’ll be posting via Instagram where you can enjoy works in progress, pics of gluten free dishes, plus cats. Lots of cats. I realize, after doing my ‘drawing a day for 30 days’ project a few years back that I draw a lot. Pretty much every day, I draw. I also write every day. I really don’t think I’ve been getting better. But like I’ve said before, I’ve learned what works for me. Most of the time, I draw with plain old Sharpie markers, I also have Prismacolor Markers that have lasted me years. I honestly don’t use them enough to actually have to buy new ones. I’ve yet to run them dry to this time. But I’ve been doing a lot of logo design lately, and I have some key points to make that might help you to, mostly for students. First of all, I get a lot of information from the client. I ran through that in my previous post which could be helpful to read first. But once I get all the information, I’ve gotten into the habit of copying and pasting information into a blank google doc, creating a creative brief for the client just in case. It’s really just for myself, but if the client wants to make notes too I’ve shared the gdoc easily. Like I’ve said before, google pretty much runs my whole life. Second step for me, I look at what other people are doing around the web. Picasso said “Good artists, copy, Great artists steal.” According to Picasso I guess I’m pretty mediocre since I pick apart things and put together pieces that work for whatever I’m doing for a client. I really draw inspiration from many different places, but most of all I go to Pinterest. It’s really easy to gather images into one source, or a board, that’s easy to share with clients just to get a feel for what they like and don’t like.
Third step, I draw. I usually have the pinterest inspiration board open and then I sketch. I look at basic shapes and brainstorm at least 20 ideas. Sometimes if it’s a big client, I’ll actually do the whole 100 thumb nail sketches routine and then pick out what works and what’s not working. The next thing I get to is the computer. I pick out a few sketches to follow through with. I’ve been using my phone to take pictures of my sketches and then I send them to my email. Then I download them to my desktop mac, and place them in an Adobe Illustrator document. I use them like a template, and I’ll use the pen tool to trace over my drawings. This is a weird thing, I honestly didn’t think it was so weird. But I use the mouse to control the pen tool with my left hand so I have my right hand free to use keyboard commands. No, I’m not left handed, at least I’m not now. My mom said I used to use my left hand when I was little, but I guess at school I just switched it. Once I get vectors down, I get to play with fonts and colors I like to have at least ten or more options for a client to look at. But it really depends on their budget, how much of a time commitment they are willing to devote, how the logo will be used, a lot of different factors come into play when I’m planning things out. Most of the time, I’ve been sharing progress on projects via Instagram since my phone is always handy. I rarely use the old flatbed scanner, since it’s pretty fickle lately. It does still work, just takes some trial and error when it comes to connecting to Adobe Photoshop. It’s not really complicated, I don’t have any design secrets. It’s just work, work and more work. And drawing. Lots of drawing, with an actual physical pen and with the pen tool. I think it’s really important to start every job with pencil and paper, just to hash out the details what’s working and what isn’t will be very apparent right away. So you don’t waste time at the computer trying to get something to work that just isn’t the right proportion or scale. Hopefully I’ve given you some insight into how I work. Most things end up in the garbage, and I do try to ‘recycle’ rejects. But that rarely works out. They’re rejects for a reason, and in the round file they go!
