Typophile

The Creative Process

darmock

I worked for a small graphic design firm for a little less than three years. I was laid off last week due to lack of work in the studio and I was the only employee. While working for this studio my main focus was print production.
The few times I was allowed to take a stab at designing something, the two creative directors shot it down or made drastic changes to my designs.

So, I’m basically going back in time and need to sell myself again, and like before my last job I have only a very small portfolio. I’ve been struggling with re-creating my stationary/portfolio package for a couple days now.

I’m trying to make the ultimate new resume to start, but I have designers block.
I have some stuff I started, but it doesn’t look great right off and that discourages me very badly.

I just sit and stare at the screen and freeze up. Then I look at other designers online and see their awesome stuff and then I look at mine and it looks so flaccid and lacking.
I just keep thinking “maybe I just suck at design...maybe I should just be a secretary...”

But in my heart I want to be a designer. My boyfriend reminds me that I have a talent for art and that I have made cool designs in the past. But hearing it from him over and over is hard to believe after a while. So he pointed me to this site and said that he had seen some respectable people here that could give it to me straight.

So finally, please help, if you could, to get me out of this rut.
Any info, stories, etc. you guys could contribute is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, and hope to talk here often.

‹ Type Battle 21: FontStruct Good typography, interfering designers, or just dumbing down? ›
Jason Campbell


I just sit and stare at the screen and freeze up.

I know exactly what you mean, I’ve been there many times.
At the risk of sounding trite, I’d suggest that you don’t sit at the screen at all. For a lot of us that can end up either shutting down all creativity, or steering us towards creating something stale.

Instead - sit down at a table with a sketch pad and pencil and just draw, doodle, scribble, etc. Even if you’re “not an illustrator”, the act of making marks on blank paper can stimulate creativity. Just try to push yourself to make marks on the paper, no matter how “outside the envelope” they seem, and see what you end up with. You may end up with beginnings of ideas you didn’t know you had, or it may even put ideas in your head that you can then jump on the computer to execute.

Don’t give up, good luck.

Jason C

Jason Campbell

oh and I forgot to ask - “darmock?”
Is this an obscure Star Trek TNG reference?

excuse me while I go hide my inner geek again.

Jason C

darmock

Thanks, I’ll give it a shot.

Sokath, his eyes uncovered

Rafe Copeland

Hi Darmock,

The danger with sitting solely in front of a computer is that what you make is very heavily influenced by the computer’s capabilities. We end up being restricted by the way computers work. I’m not saying that there’s stuff you can’t do on the computer, but certain things are more difficult to do than others, and as a result these things come less fluidly when you are trying to be nothing but fluid whilst coming up with ideas. Pen and paper remove so many barriers when pouring the contents of your quivering brain out into the world.

I can’t draw for peanuts but the beginning stages are meant to find good ideas, and not necessarily look good. So I suppose you just have to look past the appearance to begin with if it looks crud, and focus on the idea behind it.

-Rafe

Hiroshige

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