If any of you are like me you will have experienced this before, you sketch out ideas for a design project, you perhaps narrow it down to three of 4 potential designs at this stage and start working on the Mac. This is where the problems start. So you’ve picked your favourite sketch to start working up and it doesn’t work. You alter the type size and weight and change your colour palette but still it looks like a dogs dinner. This is the point the design should be abandoned, at least until you have worked up your other sketches on the computer.
I say this is the point where the design SHOULD BE ABANDONED but how often have you ignored this and carried on. I know I have this stubborn streak which says this design will look good, I liked the sketch, I WILL MAKE IT WORK. On very few occasions when I have pursued the idea further have I rarely been happy with the result. In the worst cases I have spent the best part of a day tweaking and tinkering on the one design and still not been happy with it.
I am now making a conscious effort to try and move on to the next idea if the first one is not working, I can always go back to it if there is time.
How do you decide that its time to call it a day with a design? Do you allocate a certain amount of time to each design and abandon one when its not working or have you got a stubborn streak where you have to make it work?
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9 Comments
I usually give it more than one chance; if a design isn’t going my way after I liked the sketch, I’ll usually move on to a different project for a while and then come back to it, hopefully with a cleared mind and new perspective. Then if it still won’t work its self out, I start looking elsewhere for inspiration. So I guess I have a bit of stubborn streak, too.
It’s weird to hear how other people work, personally I very rarely make a sketch before I start a project, I get straight onto the computer and they always evolve on screen. So rather than trying to make the sketch work it just goes straight from brain to the finished article. I would worry this means I’m lazy, but I’m usually happy with the result!
If you really fall in love with a design but end up tweaking it too much I think it might be a good thing to just take it from the top. Start with a fresh piece of paper and try to work from your original idea in your head. It Might be due to my short attention span, but if I spend too much time tinkering with one specific design I quickly start to hate it. And thats definately the end of it.
It’s funny how things look good small (thumbnails) and then when you scale them up on the computer it just doesn’t work. I hate it when it works in my head and not in reality! I find this usually happens because I haven’t worked out all the details and it’s that devil again…
I usually spend too much time trying to make it work instead of stopping when I know it’s dead. If I really like the design too much to completely abandon it, I’ll take the original sketch and redraw it on a fresh piece of paper. Then I’ll start working out variations, rearranging some elements, adding more detail, etc. Then it usually turns into something I’m pleased with that looks good at full size.
@Lauren
hmmm I always do a tiny version first. I think it helps a lot with the proportions and contrast. blowing it up can be tricky, especially when you realize that it only looks good because you did it in pencil… (haha)
Now I do remember a project where there was a logo involved. I kind of fell in love with one idea and I spent a lot of time on it trying to make it work. We worked in a group and when we talked about the different options the one I spent so much time with was quickly abolished and some other idea was chosen – one that I had done in a matter of minutes, that is.
Looking back at it now I think we did the right thing and it turned out really nice. Why I loved the first one so much – I cant really say.
So I think its good to have someone else to help you abandone a design, sometimes you just cant do it on your own. I guess love can be very irrational.
So you actually do a small version in Photoshop (or whichever program)? I’ve never done that before. But yes, sometimes it only looks good because it was done in pencil. I agree with you there!
Like Dave, I, too start working directly on the screen.
Being blessed/cursed with both a stubborn and a perfectionist streak, I will work doggedly on something until I reach the definitive “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” point. At least I know woth some degree of certainty when that happens.
Even then, I will invariably come up with some technique, colour combination, or graphical elements that I can cannibalize and use in another drawing. In effect, I never let myself see my efforts as a waste of time: there’s always some good that comes from the exercise.
I usually spend some time sketching concepts out, especially when it comes to an identity, so I can work out the kinks on paper. That way, before I even commit to going digital, I know pretty much what will work and what won’t. Aside from client-side changes, I don’t usually abandon work once it’s in the computer.
Hi SuzyQ, you sound like you work a bit like me.
Hi Dave, Michael I would really struggle without a sketch it helps sort out my ideas, you are lucky if you can see a design in your head, I know I can’t.
Hi Lauren, you’re idea of going back to the sketch pad when a design is failing is a good one.
Hi Josh
” I kind of fell in love with one idea and I spent a lot of time on it trying to make it work. We worked in a group and when we talked about the different options the one I spent so much time with was quickly abolished and some other idea was chosen – one that I had done in a matter of minutes, that is.”
I have been there too
weired isn’t it, sometimes the less laboured idea works better.