Introduction

Equipment

Guiding questions

Instructions

1. 1

   Review your stimuli and experiments to clarify purpose

   Add your experiments to your wall and stand back. What do you notice? What went wrong? What went right?

   What is worth pursuing and exploring? What can you get rid of?

   Think about all your stimuli (which now includes your experiments) as raw ingredients ... at this stage there are a few different directions you could go in. It’s about narrowing down your purpose or ‘intent’ as a designer.

   What are the major elements, principles, styles or concepts that are driving your work? Are you interested in making cakes or texan BBQ?

   Your ingredients should tell you this.

   

   Exploration wall

2. 2

   Guiding statement

   There are a few ways to approach this, it depends on what motivates you as a maker. It could be materials and media (a certain material/s), elements and principles of design (line and opacity), style and movements (Bauhaus and Arts and Crafts), or concept (identity, belonging, beauty, the human condition) or a combination of any/all of the above.

   The most important thing is to take stock (notice and record) what it is that is motivating you; your intent. This is the point when you decide you are interested in baking, specifically cakes, as opposed to something like baking bread or making sausages.

   There is no special format for writing a guiding statement - no right or wrong way of approaching it. It’s the act of clarifying your intention using words that helps. It can feel weird and a bit embarrassing to write a guiding statement, don’t let that stop you. At this stage keep it clear and short. Think of it like a note to yourself in case you get lost along the way - which often happens.

   ‘I am interested in x because y. I want to explore x through y. My intended audience is x who I’m hoping to connect with through y. The modes and media I will be using are x/y because z.’

   ‘I am interested in colour, texture through layering, botanical illustration and the nature of line. My attraction to these stimuli comes from my background as a printmaker (imperfection and edition), illustrator (line) and my love of flora. I want to explore the idea of line as a living thing that, like anything affected by the human hand is both controlled and prone to outbursts of defiance. My intended audience are people who connect with natural imagery that is not totally representational. I’m hoping to connect to them through my use of texture, opacity, colour and layering. I will be using inks that I may make the pigments for, a variety of printmaking techniques for texture and vector illustration derived from hand drawn elements and unconventional backgrounds. All layers will be imported as separate layers and then working together in Photoshop to create a digital print. I want to keep the soul of the handmade and use the slick, clean lines of digital illustration.’ 

   

   Demelza is slightly obsessed with plants and light

3. 3

   Ideate - thumbnails/rapid viz

   Let’s get some tangible ideas out. These are FAST and ROUGH and deal with the ‘bigger’ aspects such as placement, scale and overall composition. Thumbnails are the fastest and easiest way to do this. They are basically quick like sketches that look like boxes inside boxes with lots of labels. They are meant to make sense to you, they are not pretty, they are quick! 

   You are figuring out:

   • What to include (element or component such as; type, drawing, pattern etc.)
   • How big it should be (scale)
   • Where on the ‘canvas’ it should go (position or placement)
   • Orientation of the component/s (vertical, horizontal, type on a path etc.)
     
     

   Push past the ‘expected outcomes’ by trying to generate at least 20 - push yourself to add/remove things you wouldn’t have. Play with layout and scale.

   

   Thumbnails by Kathy Do

4. 4

   Select something to test

   So - what have you got? More importantly, when you look at all of your thumbnails, what do you want to build? Sometimes, if we aren’t feeling confident nothing will jump out at you. You have two choices - keep sketching until you find something to start from, or, pick something that you hate the least ;) and get on with it!

   The ability to move forward, even if you’re feeling uncertain, can be an important part of the process. It’s important to remember that making is a process of discovery, you can’t move on if you aren’t making.

   So - pick an idea, or perhaps parts of several ideas and plan a mini test. You will be testing and refining the construction processes and techniques along with your ideas for imagery and colour. Think of this as a small, quick test run.

   

   Some of Anjuli's early ideation