The concept development phase can be one
of the best or most frustrating times a designer
can experience during the design process.
Furthermore
managing
the
concept
development work from both from an Art
directors or designer’s view point can also be
no easy task.
Managing creativity is almost like an art form, I
always like to believe! Anyways here are 10
easy tips I have used over and over again in my
work that has helped me guarantee a great
concept development session.
Keep everything, your thumbnails, sketches, and even
sketch models. The real reason is that design is essentially
intangible, and often the answers to your burning design
problems are not easily found.
By keeping your work, you create frames of reference or
reference points that allow you to see where you have
come from, your previous mistakes, and how much more
you will need to do.
Many designers tend to think that the first idea they came up
with is the best and can’t or won’t move on from there. But let
me tell you that the genius sketch is a myth and probably one
of the best urban legends in design there is. Most of the best
design solutions I have encountered were not developed from
either the first idea or from only one idea, they were through a
development process.
However that being said, that first sketch is important, but
important as part of the bigger design. The first sketch can be
seen as the first intuitive distillation of all the requirements of the
design brief. It’s your first go at that idea or concept and should
be treated as that, a first go. It’s the first consolidation of raw data
in your mind and the out come is always very rough and
unrefined. The next step is to develop and clean the idea up.
diane simpson-little 2009
many people realise but creativity and inspiration comes in
waves. It’s about 20 minutes or so intervals within an hour. It is
within this time that you are the most productive, and your
ideas are really fresh and good. The moment you pass that 20
minute mark, the quality of work starts to go down hill. If you
find you are starting to draw the same concepts over and
over again or you ended up with an old idea but redone. It’s
time to stop and do something else, as this change of
environment will keep you productive.
You be surprised how many designers sit huddled at a table
with their work littered around them. One to do during your
break is to hang up all your concept sketches on the wall or lay
them out on the floor. By taking it off the table and on to the
wall, you get to take 2 steps away from your concept. The
advantage is you kill your “tunnel vision” as you now can see
your work in a different perspective, as well as to see what else
other people are doing, and get inspired from it. Also it would
be a good time to organise the design work into themes or
ideas and throwing out the similar ones. You would not want to
spend your time on an idea to find out someone else had
already done it AND its much better than yours!
you take 2 steps back, you need to be very self-critical and take
down work that you don’t like. No use kidding yourself, if its crap its
crap. Work the concept until you are satisfied. Besides its a much
better experience cutting your own work than someone else telling
you too or doing it for you.
When you get your work on the wall, and after you self sort the from the bad.
The next thing to do is get feedback. May it be your cat (just kidding), your
neighbour, sibling or another designer, get a fresh pair of eyes on your work
and strive to get good and honest feedback.
However do note and ask yourself if the feedback has any biases to it. I also
do understand this might be difficult in a freelancing or solo designer
situation. But you be surprised that you can get good feedback from nondesigners. Another way to do it is to make a network of good and trustworthy
designer friends you can tap on.
diane simpson-little 2009
Many times you will have so many options and possible
design solutions that it becomes just a boat load of
confusion. The best thing to do is pick a good idea and
develop it. Some times arriving at a good design
solution becomes difficult when you just skim the of an
idea, and don’t look at it on a deeper level. This is in
particular with design projects that have a lot of
mechanical constraints. The trick is to develop it, and if
its wrong, then try again with something else. Hesitating
because you can’t decide or worrying if it could be the
wrong concept only wastes time because you are just
stuck with ideas that are too superficial to really make a
good decision on. Someone said “make many mistakes
but make them early”, that is early in the concept
design phase.
Designers tend to be so good at generating concepts
that they just keep on going. They keep on generating
ideas and keeping the design engine going, which
means you then run out of time and fail to meet the
dateline. Knowing when to stop can be aided by
keeping an eye on the clock and more importantly by
getting your work on the wall to see if you have
actually hit the design solution or have already fulfilled
the design. Also on a separate note its a good idea to
know when to say that’s enough, throw in the towel
and go home. But you have to be sure that you have
put in the work because the only person you are fooling
is yourself.
Often when it comes down to it, you might just somehow randomly create
a sketch and find out that it is IT! That’s right; when you get the right design
answer (provided you asked the right questions) you will know. Many times
during a design project, due to time limitations, you go with an idea that
the best idea at that time. But after rendering it all up you come up with
another better solution. Worst you could come up with more than one! It
does happen, and many times in the evening before the 9 am presentation
the next day. The reason is you have finally manage to wrap your mind
around the solution and basically distilled out all the erroneous and less
important information and manage to get a solution that really satisfies the
crux of the design problem you are tackling.
The thing to do now is you owe it to yourself to dig deep and get it done
right, as again if you do not; the only person it hurts is yourself. Do it good,
do it right, and make sure it becomes a portfolio piece you can be proud
of. It’s this 110% effort that makes the difference between the good
designers and the truly GREAT ones.
diane simpson-little 2009