Reading 3: Training to be an Illustrator
Illustration: Filling the Blank Space; solving problems in new ways, creating something out of nothing
Graphic design: the union between picture and words
Pictures and Words
Pictures have power to:
- Communicate instantaneously
- Communicate to a global audience, regardless of age, location, or era
- Locate the viewer within the image
- Represent literally the human experience of seeing
- Visually delight, again and again
- Be arranged sequentially to communicate narrative
- Connect instantaneously with emotion, memory and experience
- Delight through shape, color, and form
Words have the power to:
- Communicate specifically
- Communicate with great accuracy
- Communicate to localized an specialized audiences
- Engage an audience over a prolonged period of time
- Reveal things slowly to an audience
- Be arranged sequentially to communicate narrative
- Connect with emotion, memory, and experience
- Delight through shape, color, and form
Together Pictures and Words: "endorse each other's strengths and... compensate for each other's weaknesses."
Fine Art and Applied Art
Fine Art: stand alone art
Applied Art: applied to somebody else's problem or product
Questions to tell them apart:
- What is the primary, intended origination point of the object?
- What is the primary, intended function of the object?
- What is the primary, intended fabric of the object?
- What is the primary, intended worth of the object?
- What is the primary, intended numerical edition of the object?
- What is the primary, intended audience of the object?
- What is the primary, intended context of the object?
The Problem Solving Process
The Six Thinking Hats:
- The White Hat: gather information
- The Green Hat: explore and generate ideas without criticism
- The Yellow Hat: assess the strengths and benefits of each alternative
- The Black Hat: assess the weakness and dangers of each alternatives
- The Blue Hat: maintain an overview of the progress and focus on the whole process
- The Red Hat: express intuitive and emotional vies that have no defined rationale
Operacy: the many practical skills that work alongside creative skills, each one crucial for people to achieve solutions to problems
Stages of Problem Solving:
- Define the problem
- The Brief: outlines background information, an explanation and summary of the visual problem, specific details, and requirements, timescale, and fees.
- Clarifying Questions:
- What information do you have?
- What information do you need?
- What information is missing?
- Gather the relevant information
- Primary Research: broadens and deepens understanding of the subject of the brief
- Requires an open mind
- Generating options
- A period of uncritical and broad exploration and discovery
- Quick, messy, expansive, and broad minded
- Evaluating the options
- Evaluate positives and negatives of generated options
- Evaluate how to better inform and firm up ideas
- Possible secondary research required
- Selecting the best option
- Questions to ask:
- Is it original?
- Does it answer the brief?
- Is it achievable within the time frame?
- Is it achievable at reasonable cost?
- Breaking the Tie
- Is it the most original idea?
- Does it best answer the brief?
- Is it the most achievable within the time frame?
- Is it the most achievable at reasonable cost?
- Implementing the chosen solution
- Stick to it
- Check out factual information provided in the brief:
- Size(s)
- Color(s)
- Physical/Digital form
- Deadline
- Continue to be critical: detailed thinking and visual refinement will still be necessary
- Return again and again to the original concept: Form follows function
- Monitor and evaluate outcomes
- Reflect and evaluate finished product
- Was the client pleased?
- What would you do differently if you did it again?
- Could you have improved your process?
