Research, thought, and reflectionRecently a friend of mine who is not in the design business asked me, "so how do you come up with your designs? Do you just sit down and start drawing?" It got me thinking about the process of design, and where ideas come from. Sometimes a client has something specific in mind, but mostly designs come from research, thought, and reflection. One thing I do is collect images from different publications I subscribe to, and create trend boards. This helps get a lot of ideas pertaining to the same theme in front of me for inspiration. As I'm collecting the images, I start thinking about what I can do with the theme, and then I start sketching. After putting some ideas of my own down on paper, I let it percolate for a bit. Sometimes I just need to go outside and take a walk, get away from the office or studio. I find that when things get hectic, my mind is so bogged down and I can't be creative. If I can relax a little bit, take some time to refresh & rejuvenate, then the ideas start to flow!
