How to Be Creative

On the topic of inspiration, this manifesto by Hugh McLeod is one of the best pieces I've ever read. I first encountered it several years ago, but reread it regularly because it's that good, and like a lot of other things in life, the more truth there is to it the harder it is to put into practice. Some of the points may be familiar from other sources, but he distills them with the concision of a veteran ad guy and the hard-won wisdom that can only come from having crawled through the tunnel and out the other side.

Here's the link to the pdf. (And incidentally, a lot of other worthwhile pieces on that site--definitely worth getting on the e-mail list.)

New Desktop Wallpaper

The quotation is from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, the best creative self-help book I've ever encountered--better than Bird by Bird, Writing Down the Bones, and so forth. Designed for my monitor, 1920x1200; if you want a different size, let me know.



1680x1050 by request:

Elemental Food, tweaked logo designs

The client and I were excited about going ahead with this direction, but there were still niggling questions about where exactly the lettering should sit inside the skillet, whether or not the script f should cross the border of the skillet or not, and also how the full name should nestle under the handle of the skillet. 

So after experimenting with a number of minor variations, I concluded that yes, the f crossing the border was a nice way of adding some dynamism and unexpected visual interest, as well as increasing legibility at smaller sizes. (The frustrating thing was that there wasn't much wiggle room to scale the EF, because then either they weren't centered in the skillet, or the F protruded too much and wasn't recognizable enough). 

The final choice though that I presented to the client though was regarding the related issues of the text overlap and skillet handle angle; I liked the jauntier 45-degree angle, but on the other hand thought the text overlap was better with the 15-degree angle, and we ended up going with that one. So next up, business card layouts!

Elemental Food, initial logo designs

Though we'd thought the chef's-knife-in-anvil idea was interesting, it quickly became apparent once I started that there just wasn't a good way to work out the proportions, so into the dustbin of history it went. So that narrowed it down to three basic ideas, the simple EF with fork, the branding-iron style square type with integrated fork, and the skillet. I had high hopes for the branding iron, but upon further consideration we decided that the fork was the most common icon used in food logos, so perhaps it wasn't as strong. Additionally, long skinny logos present usage constraints that more square or round logos do not (since at a given width the text is way smaller), so that was another strike against it. 

I had a real soft spot for the E | F designs, especially the horizontal one; I thought the subtle texturing on the fork fit the philosophy and the contrasting type communicated both "substantial" and "elegant," which are two characteristics of Josh's cooking skill. In the end, however, the graphic power of the skillet won out; circles, especially solid ones can be compelling even in small sizes, and also the skillet is a more unusual icon in the business, which was another point in its favor, and it still uses the contrasting type that I thought worked well for the other designs. 

So once we settled on the skillet, the next step was tweaking the precise releationship between text and skillet, and then seeing how the logo would work on business cards. 

Elemental Food, business name and logo sketches

After much deliberation and prodding from those who have enjoyed his superlative cooking, my friend Josh is moving ahead with starting a catering/private chef business.  After discussing various names relating to his Oakland location, his cooking style, his approach to food, and his own name, we finally settled on Elemental Food, which reflects his belief in the importance of quality dining to the good life, as well as his usage of real, classic ingredients.

As you can see below, he is a very thoughtful client and was willing to pay for me to spend several hours brainstorming logos. This was crucial to the success of the project, because at first we started by talking about the periodic table, chemistry, stove heating elements, and the letters EF as jumping-off points. But by taking some more time, I was able to explore just about every angle we could think of: cast-iron skillets, flatware plus letters, chef's knives, anvils, produce, and multiple variations on each of these. Since this business is so close to his heart--you should hear him rhapsodize about charcuterie--it was satisfying to be able to do the process justice and only move forward once we'd done our due diligence. 

The general lesson I draw from this--and something I'd want every client to understand--is that their satisfaction and peace of mind about the final solution will always be greater if they have the patience and resources to spend more time in this initial concept stage. But anyway, you can see the starred/circled ideas, which were the ones I started comping on the computer (next post). 

Margie Leighton wedding invitations

This project was lots of fun to work on because the clients, sisters of the bride, are both visually talented and have fine arts backgrounds, but still appreciate my graphic design experience, which made for enjoyable and productive collaboration. They had the rough idea of a black-and-white gatefold photo booth, but didn't have the page layout expertise to arrange all the tedious detail information that must of necessity accompany an invitation. 

So to produce the final product pictured below, I helped them edit the text throughout (especially to fit all the direction info), used bold and italic type where appropriate to help create proper hierarchy in the text, scanned the handwritten names on the right panel, took the photos of the two letters (M and J) representing the bride and groom, and formatted the insert cards with the black and white rectangles to create unity throughout the piece. 

A great project, and, space permitting, it will be the first bilingual English/American Sign Language wedding I'll get to attend. 

Re:____ post card (final layout)

Finally though, this was the best option: clearest hierarchy between headline, arm, and small text, the blood allusion with the corpuscular type treatment, and the balance between the red, blue, and black on the page. The client was happy with it, and the show ended up being well attended.