The creative process

(audience applauds) - [Speaker] Want to talk with you today about creativity, more specifically, why it's hard to generate those clever problem solving ideas that we tend to associate with creativity. In other words, I want to kind of help you make those eureka moments more sustainable. - [Interviewer] I'm sure covered this a good deal in your Alinda videos. But I just wanted to hear a little bit about how you sit down and approach a project. Is there some type of process that you run through? - [Speaker] Yeah. I'm pretty systematic with how I approach anything and regardless of the project type. Whether it's- There's certain things I don't do a whole lot of. Just because, one, I don't enjoy it but I just don't do a whole lot of it, like publication design would be one of them. Every now and once in a blue moon, I'll do something like that. But whether it's a logo design or iconography or a character illustration, editorial, or anything like that, it all starts- Everything starts in an analog. So I almost always try to draw everything out, there's some exceptions to the rules. Like iconography, you don't have to be so precise since a lot of times you're dealing with geometric shapes. So you don't need to draw a perfect circle or square because you can build them perfect. You just need to capture the essence of the idea in a drawing form. All of those projects, regardless of what specific genre you're talking about, I kind of have the same, the same stages and the first stage is just research, gathering, collecting information, following it up with any questions I may have. I'll read their input on whatever I initially give them, be it a client. And then I'll follow it up with more questions to kind of push them more and to get more information. I'd rather have too much information than not enough. I can choose to weed out what I don't think needs to apply but it's hard to create when you have a vacuum. And you're not sure if this is on target. So information, once I gather the information, I like to do what I call slow boiling. Which is, I just sit on it and think about it, and let it process, and then once I get to a certain point that's when I start sketching. And that's when I start working out ideas and then from there, it's kind of isolating a selection of ideas that I think are the strongest ones. And building out what I call close to final comps. I have a few friends who still work in black and white only, specifically if it's a logo. I don't bother with that, I do everything in color. Show it to them how I see it, living and existing, and then usually from that point it goes pretty fast. And so we'll refine it, work out all the final assets, set everything up. And if there's other components after the identity's done, promotional pieces, or print collateral, we'll start rolling those out and figuring out that. And that kind of reboots the process, once again we'll make sure we gather information. I do that just because it helps me to- I know where we're at on any given project based off of the stage we're at. So I can gauge how much longer it's probably going to be. So I try to systematize it, it doesn't always work that way but I try to at least. - [Interviewer] I've seen you pull some crazy quick turn arounds. - [Speaker] Well. I don't know if I'd call it workaholic, or I just focus better when there's absolutely no distractions. (laughs) - [Interviewer] Like 2AM. - [Speaker] Yeah. So I'm at a creative peak very late at night because I can zone out, I'm not getting interrupted, no phone calls, usually no emails. - [Interviewer] Except from us. - [Speaker] Yeah. It's good, and I know it's a bad habit of sorts. But like for instance, on Monday nights my wife is getting ready to watch Downtown Abbey with my two daughters, I'm like I'm out of here. - [Interviewer] Right. - [Speaker] And I left my studio. (laughs) You can do that. I'd rather go work on stuff. - [Interviewer] Well I think you're also a maker, as long as I've known you, you're always kind of working on something, there's an idea in your head just fighting to get out, and you give it that opportunity. So that's one thing I really admire about you. You create space for that. - [Speaker] Yeah, I think that's important. Client projects are great and they pay the bills but I still pursue things on my own. And when I can, I try to turn them into paying gigs. I was, just one quick story, I was- I was just thinking about the zone like we were talking about, getting in the zone. And I've tried to explain to my wife over the years that look, if I get interrupted, the reason why that frustrates me is because it takes me this much more time to get back in the zone. And so she hasn't always, she understands it now, she didn't understand it earlier. Well I decided, you know what I've never really done an illustration of like what being in the zone is like. So I did this poster, I decided to do a poster with it. And I had a lot of fun with it, I used some scatter brushes, I created an illustrator, I had never done that before. And so I'm going, wait a minute I'm just doing this for fun, but I just contacted a friend of mine at Adobe who runs their create magazines. Said hey you want a tutorial on using scatter brushes? You'll do that? I go, sure I'll do it. And so I was able to sell a tutorial, I already had the art done. (laughs) I just deconstructed it and then I turned around and made a product out of the brushes. And my friends runs the creative market site so he's going to sell the brushes for me. So anytime I do something, I try to, if it's appropriate and it isn't always. I'll turn it around, and try to- Try to pay my bills with it. (laughs) (lighthearted music)