Marty Furgal's Blog

Looking in on my own creative process, I think that I achieve some sort of moment of performance with the research portion.  It is at this point that I am able to see other people’s ideas and take on a problem, and ask myself questions about them.  For example, can I do this better?  Why was this so successful, or why did it fail?  Once I figure out the answers to these questions, I can begin exploring my own ideas.

Hopefully, once I explore these ideas further I can achieve a moment of disruptive wonder.  Hopefully it occurs all the time, but realistically it doesn’t.  When it doesn’t I have to be aware that it isn’t coming and know when to walk away for a bit.  I think that is also important for any young designer, to know when you need to take a break or else you will end up pigeon holing themselves.

It has been a tough semester.  Learning how to accomplish proper research, and doing my first Literature review made me question my decision to go back to Graduate School.  But, knowing that I have accomplished what I thought was once impossible makes me appreciate not giving up.  As a designer we will always be put into positions where we have to go beyond our comfort zone.  If we aren’t getting frustrated, then we aren’t reaching far enough.  As I write this, I still have to re-do my thesis for my argumentative paper.  I think that I won’t be able to come up with something and blow it so close to the end.  But then I realize I have done it before and I will do it again.  It is this feeling I want to leave everyone with.  Knowing that things are going to be difficult is only part of Grad school, the rest is knowing how you will handle yourself when presented with a challenge.  It is how you react that will determine whether you will become a master or just another designer.

As designers we are constantly striving for good ideas.  Once we have ideas we need to get them out.  Anyway we can get them out we do it.  After looking at past students process books, there are many things to be gained from them.  For one, Jane Dorn does an amazing job of getting so much information out.  She is very detailed in her process to complete her piece as well.  Every idea she has whether it relates or not is written down.  This is a perfect example of getting ideas out there whether they are used or not.  It does however, become confusing and overwhelming to look at.  This is one flaw I find with Jane’s book, there is just so much that someone looking at it for the first time becomes overwhelmed.

very confusing

Next, we look at the process book of April Bliss.  Bliss’ book is extremely well organized and is almost a piece of art in itself.  What truly works for April’s book is the way she went about gathering information.  Instead of doing normal research and getting information through the internet, she goes out and talks to the target audience.  She created a questionnaire to ask the teenagers specific things related to her project.  She also went to Facebook to acquire additional information needed.

Bliss questioning friends on Facebook

Finally, we come to the book of Jamie Turpin.  Their book is again very organized and laid out in a very easy to read manner.  What I really appreciate about Turpin’s book is the very detailed illustrations of different ideas.  It gives the idea of design concept before the actual final product.  Jamie also does a fantastic job walking the viewer through every step in a very concise and easy to understand manner.

A diagram straight from Turpin's book

After reflecting on these process books, there are a few things I would like to begin incorporating in my process books.  The first being to stop restricting what I write in my book.  Like Dorn, I would like my books to be filled with random thoughts and ideas so I have things to take from everywhere.  Finally, I love the very detailed illustrations of Turpin.  I think I will start incorporating more of these practices into my own books.  It’s important that as designers we respect our process books because these are windows into our own mind and can help in future work.

Since this is a free post and it’s almost Halloween, I would like to spread the festivities.  Halloween is probably the greatest holiday next to thanksgiving.  Who doesn’t love getting free candy and to have the crap scared out of them.  Anyway, I would like to share some famous cartoons turned into zombies by artist André de Freitas.  Freitas is a Peruvian illustrator whose work is down right dreadful (in a good Halloween sort of way).  Take a look and be sure to check out more of André’s work HERE.

Awesome Zombies

After reviewing many of the design processes presented I feel that mine, in particular, is a pretty solid foundation.  Here is lies my problem however.  It is just a foundation.   I find that many of my biggest challenges are running into cliche ideas or using the same technique over and over for different project.  I have yet to find that Ah-Ha moment where I create something spectacular.  I don’t believe this is because of my design process, I feel it may be in the idea stage.

I often find myself jumping the gun very early in the process.  I will jot down 5 or 6 ideas and then start pushing them.  Then I get stuck pushing one further and further and before I know it I have finished the work.  Even though I have a decent idea and an alright execution, most of the time it wasn’t the most inventive idea.  Then I am left with something that a client likes, but I am not happy with because I know I could have done better.

I know designers say we are our own harshest critics, but I want to be able to push myself further and develop ideas better.  Hopefully, using what I have learned so far and the ideation processes we discusses in this unit, I will be able to develop a new way of thinking.

In this chapter we discussed the ideas of Disruptive Wonder.  This was actually a relativley new concept to me, but I am very interested in seeing how I can utilize it in my work.  We watched a TED talk video on designer Kelli Anderson where she discussed some ideas of her disruptive wonder.  From creating a reocrd player out of paper to making a fake New York Times that resembles the original identically.  Her ideas are outside fo the box but they have a practical purpose to.  This is I think where many people get lost.  Designing things just because is nice, but graphic designers should also have a purpose.  Sometimes the purpose is just to make something look good and other times it is so much more.

The idea of “flow” is an interesting one.  Being in the one spot where everything is going perfect is the Utopia we all strive for.  Many people never achieve such “enlightenment,” but I would like to think I have come close.  I think the closest I have ever come is playing music.  When you are on stage playing songs that you wrote, for complete strangers and looking out to see they are actually enjoying it is a feeling like no other.  I think of it almost like muscle memory.  You get into the flow and you can’t afford to think about anything else.  You have to trust yourself and trust that the other guys in the band will play their part so everything comes together.  When you find yourself worrying about making sure everything is perfect, then the flow is gone.

In design I am not sure I have achieved this flow, but I feel that it works exactly the same.  You have to learn to trust yourself and what you know.

My creative process is a pretty standard one.  I have attached a diagram that shows the typical steps in my creative thinking.  As you can see I don’t really have a special process.  I begin by brainstorming the problem.  Usually I’ll take a walk or sit and clear my head by doing something that is not design related.  This helps me create a clean slate.  Next I sketch out some thumbnails just quick ideas without hesitation.  This ensures I get all of the ideas I have out.  Next I go through, and I take the best ones and sketch full size roughs.  Here I pick fonts and color schemes I think will work for the project.  Once the rough or roughs are complete I usually sit on them for a little while, maybe a day or maybe a week.  I consider this a proofing process.  If I still like it as much then as I did when I created it then I know it’s a good design.  Next I either make adjustments and go through the proofing process again, or I finalize the design I have.  Sometimes time doesn’t a lot for me to go through the whole process, however, I like to make sure I hit at least the brainstorm, rough and proofing steps.

I feel that my process is effective for me.  Maybe it’s because it’s become a routine to me, but I find that if I try to deviate from these steps I have a difficult time.  Perhaps this is the biggest weakness I have.  If I stray to far from what I know I begin to struggle.  However, on the flip side to this, I think my biggest strength is the willingness to change and to try something new no matter how difficult.  I think working with people who think differently than I do what be a truley gratifying experience.  Working with others that I can learn from and they don’t even need to be designers or artists.  Just everyday people who have ideas or a plan of attack is someone you can learn from.

Exploration A was a project where we had to explore different connected connections and create a project based on the connections.  We were asked to think outside the box to try and make connections and explore the project further than what we would typically do.

I found a connection between all of ,my words to zombie or monster and I felt like I hit the jackpot.  I love horror and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to do something either promoting Halloween or somehow making it the main subject.  Since I live in a city and we only get like 5 Trick or Treaters I year, I thought an even better idea would be to promote Halloween safety.

I felt I was very successful in bringing awareness to Halloween safety.  I also felt the idea of having an almost Haloween watch with houses that participate gives people an option to know who is watching out for kids.  I do however, feel I could have pushed the idea a little further.  I think some of the more out of the box ideas weren’t explored enough.

Looking back I like the idea and concept of my exploration.  However, although I was happy with the end result I feel that it could have been pushed further.