January 14, 2024

Creative Productivity

In this post I will reveal the things that I have found to boost creative productivity and help you scale your creative output. Bear in mind this are just frameworks that I have discovered for myself, but at the same time you can learn and apply to your own process. I try to incorporate and blend computer science and logical breakdown of creativity, redefining cliches and old archetipes of what does it mean to be a creative, ready?

Legacy Thinking

All productivity books start the same, there is a claim of a past chaotic self, then there is an event, a rebirth of sorts and finally a study or two that are cited to support whatever worked for someone and give them a bit of a scientific backing. The following is merely anecdotal brain dump.

All the online gurus will tell you to wake up, do your 5 minute journaling for gratitude, cold plunge and calendar blocking, but in the creative industry, all that is nice and good if you like to do it, but it will not really translate to anything but perhaps, give you a bit of structure or prep your day.

I have to admit, I have a sweet spot for these things. Love testing new productivity software and ways to keep track with all my information, tasks, to-dos, etc. But I always fail. I think I'm on to something interesting with the Bullet Journal method, but I just started very very recently. Let's see if I manage to survive the 2 week test.

Creative productivity has been the main driver of traffic to my website. So I will do a typical word vomit here with some random thoughts, and my future self can pick this up when he is creatively producing the book that will never be a success.

Productivity Basics

Productivity is simple in the end and can be universal. That means, we just need to be industrious about our approach to output.

More output = more productivity.

But that is only one part. Volume does not equate quality. The truth that I have found is quite simple. And if you are worried about originality, I would add also that it is within this process that originality appears. When you start to apply your intelligence to how you see your work and manage to get in and out of it. Let's break it down.

  1. Quick Start Sprint - Reduce the time that you need to think about something, put some pressure, and do quick MVP releases of your output.
  2. Test it with reality - Post it online or seek feedback.
  3. Detach - Look at it from an outsider perspective, be highly critical
  4. Iterate - And be scientific about it.
  5. Challeng It - Take notes, male a plan.
  6. Deconstruct - your next steps and prepare your next iteration.
  7. Repeat

There is no improvement without intelligence.

It doesn't matter the volume. That will help you generate muscle memory.

There is no formula we are all different, and have our quirks. Some people can only do with 4 hours of sleep, others like myself, can sustain 6.5, but 8 is best for pure mental sharpness.

Intelligence also plays a pivotal role in pattern recognition. As creatives, we often find ourselves in a tangle of ideas and concepts. The ability to discern useful patterns, connect disparate ideas, and foresee potential outcomes is a product of honed intelligence. This skill is particularly crucial in times of overwhelming creative choices or when faced with the daunting blank canvas of a new project.

A key aspect of maximizing creative productivity lies in the intelligent reflection on past work and the intentional planning of future steps. This process is not just about producing more but producing better with each iteration. It involves a keen sense of self-awareness and the ability to objectively analyze one's own creations.

The first step is to develop a habit of regularly looking back at your work. This isn't just a cursory glance but a deep, analytical dive. You need to detach yourself from the emotional attachment to your creation and view it with an objective lens. Ask yourself critical questions: What worked? What didn’t? Why did certain elements resonate more than others?

Detecting and Correcting Errors Once you've reflected on your work, the next step is to detect specific errors and areas for improvement. This is where your intelligence plays a crucial role. You need to understand not just the superficial aspects of what needs to be improved, but also the underlying principles and reasons. For example, if a design didn't resonate with the audience, go beyond the surface level 'it didn’t look good' to understanding the principles of design that weren't effectively applied.

Intentional Planning for Iteration Armed with insights from your analysis, you then move to intentional planning for your next iteration. This means setting clear, achievable goals for improvement. There will be a point where you will incorporate this directly into your brain, but in the beginning it pays off to be extremely conscious about what your intentions.

Iterative Improvement As you produce more, each iteration becomes an opportunity to apply what you've learned. This doesn't mean every new piece will be perfect, but it should be better than the last. This process of iterative improvement is akin to sculpting, where each stroke is more precise, informed by the strokes that came before. It's a cycle of creating, reflecting, learning, and improving.

Intention is your superpower.

I don't want to sound like your next-door productivity guru. I apologize for being prescriptive or cliche. But whenever I fail as a creative, its because I am completely ignorant about what I'm doing.

Nowadays its really easy to start something, draw some cubes if you are into UI, sketch something fast if you are into concept, throw some things around to get a feeling. This also relates to my consistency of vision post of maintaining intention and discipline towards creative success.

Part of this warming up process is fine. But my biggest lesson from 2023-2024 is the following: Quality (Clarity) of Briefing = Quality of Output.

The Clarity of Briefing My biggest takeaway from these years is the direct correlation between the quality of the briefing and the quality of the output. This might sound straightforward, but its implications are profound. As a director, the clearer and more intentional I am in setting the brief for my team, the closer we get to achieving the desired results, faster. And people get surprised and self esteem rises when they see how much they can create with such level of quality. I wrote about this before also how to improve productivity when working with creative teams.

Direction and Intentionality Artists and creatives, no matter how talented, require direction. This isn't about micromanaging every aspect of their work but providing a clear, concise, and well-thought-out brief that they can build upon. The more intentional you are with your brief, the less room there is for ambiguity, leading to more focused and effective creative efforts.

Harnessing Intention as a Leadership Tool As a leader in a creative team, harnessing intention is about striking the right balance between providing guidance and allowing creative freedom. It's about being clear on the 'what' and the 'why' while being open to the 'how.' This approach not only leads to better outcomes but also empowers your team, giving them a solid foundation to unleash their creativity.

Intention and Creative Problem-Solving Intentionality also plays a crucial role in creative problem-solving. When you start with a clear intention, every decision and every creative choice is made with a purpose. This doesn't mean there's no room for spontaneity or organic development, but it ensures that these creative explorations are always aligned with the core objectives of the project.

The Feedback Loop of Intention and Output The relationship between intention and output is cyclical. Clear intentions lead to focused outputs, and the results of these outputs, in turn, inform and refine your intentions for future projects. This feedback loop is a dynamic process that fosters continuous improvement and adaptability in the creative workflow.

The Power of Intention in Personal Creativity On a personal level, being intentional about your creative work means understanding your motivations, goals, and the impact you wish to make through your art. This self-awareness not only guides your creative process but also helps in articulating your vision to others, be it team members, clients, or your audience.

Artificial Intelligence is like cheating - embrace it.

It's not going anywhere. So stop with the techno-doomerism and go for it. I recently saw, within my industry some tests generated with AI that would make my job obsolete, in the next 6 to 12 months. It felt like a splash of cold water to my face. But on the other hand, I truly believe on the unlocking power of this technology and also:

"Creativity and knowledge and explanation are all fundamentally impossible to define, because once you have defined them, then you can set up a formal system in which they are then confined"

David Deutsch - https://twitter.com/DavidDeutschOxf

This is not the hope, but the wall, that should give us confidence in the beauty of the human mind. And how there are still things that we can control, our brilliance, in the pursuit of creative expression.

I recently did a gigantic pitch in two days, only using Midjourney and chat GTP, this allowed me to scale my creative vision and saved me a lot of time. The more intentional you are with what you want, the clearer the AI will provide you with the images and text that you need. But here is what I did, I used those images to brief one of the artists in my team, and the output, because it was so clear, because I could just focus on the outcome that I needed, saved us so much time of exploring.

Integrating AI with Human Creativity The true magic happens when AI-generated concepts meet human creativity. In my project, I used AI-created images as a briefing tool for the artists on the team. The clarity and specificity of these AI outputs provided a solid foundation. This integration not only saved us time that would otherwise be spent on exploratory phases but also ensured that the creative direction was focused and well-defined from the start.

Focusing on the Outcome By leveraging AI, I could concentrate more on the desired outcome rather than getting bogged down in the initial stages of concept development. This approach streamlines the creative process, allowing for more time and energy to be spent on refining and perfecting the final output.

AI as a Collaborative Partner It's important to view AI not as a replacement for human creativity but as a collaborative partner that enhances it. AI can handle the heavy lifting of generating initial ideas and concepts, freeing up creative minds to focus on higher-level aspects like conceptual refinement, emotional resonance, and aesthetic sensibilities.

Embracing AI for Competitive Advantage In a rapidly evolving creative industry, those who embrace AI will find themselves at a significant advantage. AI tools can provide a wealth of inspiration, generate diverse ideas, and offer solutions that might not be immediately obvious to the human mind. This technology is a catalyst for innovation, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in creative expression.

Focus

Finally, the magic word: Focus.

There is no way around this. I constantly have it written down in my notebooks because I need a constant reminder. Yes, a creative needs to juggle multiple things at once, but but but, the lack of focus will destroy you. You can scale focus with proper planning and blocking times for work. The industry is getting faster and faster paced, particularly with AI accelerating that change.

With more distractions, the ability to come back to the focus of the main thing, is so critical. It's easy to get your head around the next new technological shiny object. But trust me, going back with a simple plan. The plan not to get distracted from the task at hand, will put your creative output to the top 1% of creative professionals out there, and don't forget to aim to be world-class.

November 1, 2023

Only share your work when you are absolutely confident.

Or the AI clickbait version: The Presentation Code: Cracking the Formula for Conquering Your Creative Demons

There is this thing in the creative industry, which is, there is always a point where you have to share your work with someone else for review...the presentation.

In the creative industry, the moment of presentation is akin to baring your soul before others for scrutiny and critique. It's a process that often induces trepidation, even for seasoned professionals. I've experienced the nerves & the sweat. However, I've also learned that these presentations, when approached with the right mindset, can be transformative, providing opportunities for growth and affirmation.

Presenting always involves exposing yourself, raw, naked in front of someone else to get ripped apart, your flaws will be shown in public, and every mistake that you did will surface. Depends on the audience, if its a peer that is more senior than you, there is a really big chance that your work will be challenged in a way or another.

This doesn't mean that the experience will or has to be traumatic, it might be intimidating in the beginning, if you are a more junior in your career, even though, I always dread some feedback sessions, I get nervous and sweat, feel insecure or get an instant imposter syndrome shock in my bloodstream.

A presentation with an empathic, benevolent partner, can give you honest and motivating feedback. It can give you confidence that you are working on the right path and maybe share with you a key or two that can unlock your career path. You never know. Sometimes, after a presentation you realise, that you've grown.

The more experienced that you are presenting, the more confidence you can project and the easier it might be for you to navigate your audience. But there are certain guidelines that can help you arrive to your appointment more prepared and reduce not only the level of stress, but of insecurity, dread and give you protection when you are facing a challenging counterparty.

First things first, you are a designer, not an artist. You solve problems. It's crucial to remember that every element you present must be justified. From the color palette to typographic choices, every design decision should have a purpose. A cohesive narrative that ties together the elements of your presentation can make all the difference. Anticipating potential weaknesses and having well-prepared counterpoints ready can fortify your presentation against potential challenges. If you are presenting a moodboard for example, you cannot have random images that don't make sense one next to the other. People will always, and I mean always, pick up your weakest spot within your performance and question you around it.

A well-prepared presentation not only encompasses the content but also the design and communication strategy. It's crucial to ensure that every detail is meticulously planned, allowing you to confidently navigate through your presentation. By being aware of your current position in the creative process and having a thorough understanding of your work, you can confidently present and respond to any challenges that come your way.

This also trickles down to the presentation design, the story beats, the way you prepare the editorial. How you communicate your ideas. The more solid and prepared you come - the more you know the upside downs of your work, the higher the rate of success. If someone challenges you, better to be over prepared, have stuff under your sleeve, that you can pull off to make a point.

If you have all your systems in place, all your content on point, and you are aware what stage in the process you find yourself, you can present and respond with confidence. Confidence in presenting is not just about displaying your work; it's about showcasing your journey and the expertise that underpins every creative choice you make.

October 31, 2023

The Designer class will rule the world.

I can't get enough with these clickbait titles. I want to perfect them so that you can get in and read my AMAZING content. In this post I will explain you how there is the rise of a new creative class that is meant to take over every aspect of society.

OK - Let's go down memory lane.... once upon a time, when the first iPhone was released in 2007, I remember being at University as assistant professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (FADU) and the head of staff just came back from Miami, and in between his rants about how it is a city without culture and how easy it is to just arrive there with some street art project of sorts and make it, he also came with a little 3.5-inch screen device called an iPhone.

As a nerd that he was, he was fascinated by it, and said to me something I will never forget.

"From now on, design problems are going to be logical problems, problems of interaction, not aesthetics."

He was insanely right. At the moment, websites and motion graphics were all the rage, and the term UI-UX designer did not even exist. My students were struggling printing slides from Photoshop and Illustrator, and I was hot-stuff just because I was doing 3D motion graphics using the cloner with Cinema 4D.

Mr. Jobs creating infinite and true prosperity to a whole new class of creatives.

As I developed my career in Europe, I started to see with time, more and more a couple of terms that became more and more popular. One was User Interface and User Experience designer. In the beginning I thought they were only fancy names for website designers.

How much has the web and mobile market exploded that designers started to become more and more part of the hierarchy of organizations big and small. Gathering importance as they started to solve bigger and more complex interaction problems. And because one could argue that form follows function, those that managed to enhance the UX via fantastic and delightful UI were growing stronger, becoming essential parts of these startups and corporations.

Nowadays, we have rising stars "Chief Design Officer" - "Chief Creative Officer". And those designers that managed to cross-pollinate creative problem solving with creating business value, from an agency and also within every aspect of the value chain, start to prove their value more and more.

A new term also that surfaced at that time was "Design Thinking" a problem solving methodology that was popularized by IDEO that came as a sort of productized framework to solve problems from product to service placing the user at the center of the problematic.

Problems, problems, problems...

Designers are problem solvers, and those that can properly articulate, propose and build solutions, will sooner or later will be transitioning more into higher leadership roles. Sooner or later designers will start replacing engineers and business executives as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and that will be the dawn of a new era for humanity: global warming will revert, wars will stop and the world will finally transform into a better place.

A 2019 McKinsey study found that companies with strong design capabilities outperform their peers on financial metrics by 32%. (Yes Mr. Consultants!) A 2020 study by the Design Management Institute found that design-led companies were more likely to report innovation success, revenue growth, and customer satisfaction. Finally a 2021 study by the Boston Consulting Group found that companies with CEOs who have a strong design background are more likely to outperform their peers on both financial and non-financial metrics. - some of these papers can only be accessed via subscription, we will have to trust Google Bard for its word.

  • Jony Ive, the former Chief Design Officer of Apple, is widely credited with helping to make Apple one of the most successful companies in the world.
  • Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, is a former designer who has instilled a design-centric culture at his company.
  • Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet (Google's parent company), is a former design engineer who has overseen the development of some of the most popular products and services in the world.
Johny Ive spent 4 years after leaving Apple perfecting this typeface: LoveFrom (more info)

These are just a few examples of designers who have achieved success in leadership roles. As the world becomes increasingly complex and interconnected, the skills and mindset of designers are becoming increasingly valuable. As a result, it is likely that we will see more and more designers rising to the top of the corporate world in the years to come.

October 30, 2023

The Perfect Videoclip

This videoclip is perfect.

I don't know much about hip-hop culture, maybe just enough to understand some of the basic subtleties I can perceive with this masterpiece. Rising star white rapper, goes deeper and deeper into trends, fads, going through a physical transformation that eventually get him tired, out of energy while a crowd of young replacements swallows him while they show off and battle for being next in line. At the end a strong aggressive and angry fan base imposes themselves toward the camera.

In the middle of the crowd, Gessafelstein's dark figure stoically appears, as if always been there, his style, evolved but uncompromised, against all these other hip-hop trends that he himself has helped elevate, and fades into the dark, the image and the sound perfects descent.

This track doesn't feel like it was thought to be a hit, it doesn't sound like one, but the decision to make a video clip out of it definitely elevates its status and brings something unique into this world. Makes it play over and over in my mind in repeat. Makes me think, about how simple an audiovisual combination, world class music, and uncompromising style can craft such raw and exquisite darkness and turn it into art.

The videoclip is also a masterclass in editing. Matching perfectly to the music, those loop cuts, camera matches keep the spectator engaged, elevating the medium, because every time the camera moves, the frames change and the character has changed too, whilst the background stayed the same. There probably is a ton of VFX that we don't notice. Congrats, this work is timeless.

I really would have loved to see the pitch deck and witness the director Manu Cossu, previously directed also one of my ultimate videoclips also from Gessafelstein: Pursuit.

October 29, 2023

From Designer to Creative Director in 5 easy steps.

This is a basic how to guide to become a creative director. Besides the obvious clickbait title I will break down how you can become a creative director in no time, even starting as a dumb designer at the bottom of the food chain. This text tries to be less of a prescription and more of sharing some mental models.

  1. Develop you own ideas.
  2. Find a style that you can scale.
  3. Present, present present.
  4. Own the responsibility.
  5. Aim to be world class.

Develop you own ideas.

As the titles suggest being a director, means directing projects, people, teams. You set the vision and you bring everyone together where to go. You can't do that dry, empty, or copying everyone else. Your position only generates value if your vision is unique and clear. Solve problems, bring new ideas to the table that you can execute and always be developing and nurturing your vision and ideas. Collect them, share them, mix & match, go to the past and bring into the future.

People will take you in for your unique way of seeing the world. Do you have great taste, can communicate ideas clearly and also be business savvy enough to deliver value to your clients even from the early days? Then you are on your way.

Find a style that you can scale.

Similar as before, your style, is the personality that you bring into the table. You like clean and minimalistic things? Let that be your forte. You want to make the world a better place? Then focus on the projects that you feel are the most meaningful. Strive to be unique and find that which separates your from your peers. I remember one of my first assignments at the university, I had to design an energy drink. And everyone of a class of 300 people where coming with skinned versions of Red Bull cans. I got the highest score because I brought a bottle, at the time - a radical idea. But I wanted to differentiate myself of everything that was out there in the competition and it worked. That small lesson made me focus on always trying to be different, finding a style that I can scale.

I try to work so that my style becomes - timeless. I hate looking at Pinterest and seeing that everyone is doing the same type of work over and over. There are shape languages, color palettes, ideas that might change, but work that considers the fundamentals of design, composition, light and storytelling -and obviously- your unique (justified) spin is guaranteed to be successful in the short and long term.

I don't feel one ever masters this, but being aware is definitely a differentiating factor.

Present, present present.

For many, many years, I was always the guy making presentations at design studios. I used to design them, prepare them, and eventually go to present them. This is a very underrated task, many people fear the spotlight. Looking back some of the presentations I had in the past to clients are nothing compared to the ones I get to do on a daily basis directly to global clients, where I get to joke and convince people that the work that's been done is what was asked for and delivers value to them.

Offer always to create the presentation deck early one your career, use it to get your foot in the door the big table, be part of that meeting, see how the masters present, learn from them. And to our previous point, see what they are not doing and where there is room for improvement, but also, see how other people react to the jokes, the pacing, the editorial, the story beats. The more you present the more you will get to be yourself at the top. Obviously - try to do more public speaking and a bit of theater doesn't hurt.

Own the responsibility.

Directing projects and teams, means that you will be looked as the vision holder, and you will make decisions, and sometimes you will mess up. You will make someone on the team unhappy, you will not consider production needs, or you will make that bad joke that someone go offended. Own it. Be able and be ready to defend all your work, designs and ideas at each granular level. If you are insecure, be honest about it, maybe take more time to become more confident. If you fear things will be delayed or are heading into the wrong direction, open up, let people know. Some designers, artists, are happy just being on the other side, waiting for direction, masters of execution, the risk is easy to mitigate, but if you give bad directions, you are responsible of the output, and also for their wellbeing of your team. If you are just getting started, own each aspect of your work, and your decisions and soon you will be the one making decisions for teams and projects.

Aim to be world class.

Can't state this strong enough. Like it or not, in the era of the internet, you are competing with the whole planet, so, aim to be world class. A world class designer, with storytelling aspirations to grow, should look at whoever is on top of you that you admire and, in the beginning try to figure out what they do, that you can apply to become better. So simple. Compare your work with the whole world. Challenge yourself and be honest, own the responsibility of being self aware of your strengths and weaknesses so that you can double down on fixing both. Do you need to be more curious? Are your ideas the best in the world? Compare yourself with the best, and endure the pain of competing against the world and yourself. If you manage to tolerate that pain, understanding that it's just making you a better creative, then there is no way to fail.

You will only fail if you stop.

Photo Credit: Magda Ehlers via Pexels

October 27, 2023

What if your deadline got extended one more week?

Just one more week, and this pitch/presentation/project/design would be perfect.

Of course I just asked the client for more time, and the only thing I can think about is to have one more week, heck, even just one more day and I could pull off more references and create more mockups, designs, sketches and finally get the idea that I have in my head and get it perfect.

Sure thing, one more day might get you to that point in your deadline where you theoretically want to be, but let me tell you a secret. It will not.

You know how you will feel one week from now if you got that extra week?

Exactly like how you feel today. Desperate…wishing you would have one more week to polish that little thing here, and change that detail nobody sees over there, and things that add absolutely no value to your presentation.

I would even bet that using the power of Pareto (aka the 80/20 principle), 80% of the genius of your presentation, comes from the last 20% of time left in your schedule. If you would have one more week, then you are basically forfeiting your chance to discover your great ideas.

In order to create a killer presentation, you need critical mass. So, even though you structure your presentation nicely, you need to review and edit your work in order to make it make sense. And that won’t happen until 2 or 3 days before your deadline.

Once you have everything in place, you will realize what is missing to make it look solid, therefore, you will have to rush to get things done, and that is when you start wishing you had just one more day/week/month/year.

Let’s say that your wish came true, and the deadline has been extended one more week. You will lose momentum. You will ‘let go’ that grip of focus that took you weeks of procrastination to master. I don’t believe in that week you will ever really, drastically improve your presentation in such a way that is worth extending the suffering for that one more week.

So embrace the suck, finish that presentation as good as you can and if you are lucky, and confident have it ready a couple of hours before deadline, so you can reward yourself with a little coffee and a clear head.

October 19, 2023

Telling Stories with AI

It's great that you can write a script and visualize it in 2 hours with the use of AI. Both Midjourney and ChatGTP this obviously unlocks creative power and speed. My original plan was to create this as a videogame experience, but it's too much time and effort which at the moment I do not have, so I'm releasing here the script with the visuals.

I'm not sure this is world class creative work, but for very little investment you can have a whole story visualized in half a day.

Although I think I got pretty close here is what the AI can't tell me: does my story suck? does my attempt at connecting certain story elements/jokes succeed? Is my story too obvious? The image prompts are quite on point to be honest -they even seem almost exactly what I had in my mind-. But that rises a lot of questions too. Are we complacent the first moment we see an idea close to what we want? Do we delegate too much to the AI? Being a director involves having a clear vision, so, is this a collab or does it really help the director creat the proper vision. I guess only the final product would tell.

At the moment, the product is the blog post. Hope you enjoy the story.

No More Moons

Immerse yourself in the dream. Picture a quaint suburban house with a barbecue sizzling, a frolicking golden retriever in the yard. Then, suddenly, consciousness breaks in.

Awake. Bewildered.

Which reality is the dream? Which is the tormenting nightmare?

Your surroundings are oddly familiar yet strange. A space station that echoes domestic comfort - a paradox, both a residence and a void fortress.

Peering through a shattered glass, your breath rasps, harsh and laboured. Your hand catches your attention, a haunting glow of "Oxygen 13%" emitting from it - a dreadfully unlucky number.

Before you, a lifeless screen. The station is plunged into an abyss, save for a solitary, foreboding red light that blinks ominously. As you advance towards it, reality warps around you. 

Abruptly, you're back in the garden, engulfed in uncanny silence, faint voices murmuring from nowhere.

An unsettling noise pierces the tranquility. A phone ringing, its screen pulsating red.

You touch it and find yourself back at the stark, cold station.

With trembling uncertainty, you approach the red button. As your fingers graze it, the lights stutter back to life, screens flicker and an eerie rumble resonates. It feels like a presence stirring in the metallic beast.

Now bathed in hesitant light, the station invites exploration. A door, slightly ajar, beckons. On it, a name - "N.N."

Crossing the threshold, you discover a journal - an antiquated relic of handwritten thoughts.

As your fingers brush the dusty cover, reality ripples and you find yourself transported to a cozy home office. Photos with blurred lines adorn the desk, next to an old computer and a tape recorder that murmurs cryptic sounds.

The computer awakens at your touch, a blinking cursor on the screen. With each press, a dire warning: "Oxygen 13%". Your helmet UI flickers. Another press - "Emergency procedure activated. Do you want to restart the oxygen systems? y/n."

Desperate, you respond: "Yes."

A haunting change suffuses the room - light filters in, revealing an infinite stretch of grass outside the window, under an impossibly massive moon hanging in broad daylight.

Suddenly, you're back at the space station, spinning wildly in the vast expanse. The office returns, a photo frame catching your eye - is that you? 

A blurred face, indistinguishable. Beside it, an image of a child slowly disappearing. Breath becomes a struggle.

The AI assist propels you towards the oxygen charging station.

In your frustration, you yell out “FUCK!”, and your wrist AI responds by displaying images of ducks. 

Amidst the chaos, a post-it note catches your eye: "Every day I am with him, I'm thinking I could not be having this moment."

Amidst the chaos, a post-it note catches your eye: 

"Every day I am with him, I'm thinking I could not be having this moment."

A whirl of emotions overcomes you, and suddenly, you're back at the workstation. On the screen, a smiley face. A recording echoes in the room.

Your world shatters and reforms, now presenting a child's room.

You see crayons, a chalkboard with a smiley face, a duck drawing, and a raccoon plush toy concealing a little spaceman.

This reality, of all possible ones, is one you've tried to forget. A sharp reminder of what you've lost. Yet, it's the one you're forced to relive. Your body is screaming in pain. You'd do anything to spend just one more day forgetting this and remembering it at the same time...

Oxygen is running low. You're back in the office. On the computer screen, the silhouette of a duck, a raccoon, and an astronaut. You play along with the 2D game. Upon completion, the oxygen level rises, providing temporary relief.

With the imminent danger momentarily averted, the station doesn't look as chaotic anymore. Still, it's dead silent.

A dark tunnel reveals itself when you open the fridge, leading to a room of infinite reflections - the multiverse in its entirety. 

Every possible version of you stares back, only with slight differences. Amidst them all, you spot him...

Wake up. You can't stand the sight of him lying there, tubes protruding from his mouth, struggling for breath. That's the only memory that stays. How do you escape this place?

Suddenly, you're back outside the house. Footsteps echo around you. The weight of the world is on your shoulders. The moon crashes towards the Earth, its fractures casting a beautiful yet terrifying purple glow.

Gravity bears down on you. You fall to your knees, the UI flashing a warning: "Oxygen low...3%." You're on the verge of hyperventilating.

You glance up at the sky. The space station glows in the distance.

All around you, the world dissolves into a riot of colors, ducks everywhere.

For a split second. You see a giant astronaut in the garden elevated. 

Again. I’m at the station. All screens have ducks. I glitch. 

Back in the garden. My screen cracks. UI has gone berserk. Nothin makes sense anymore. The astronaut glitches and it transforms into a giant plush toy raccoon. 

Looks at me. His eyes start to glow and I look at him. A child comes running to me and hugs me. I cry. Suddenly, there's nothing but darkness.

The sun is black. The Earth is still. A space station glides across the tranquil blackness, a lone red light blinking. An astronaut emerges, floats out, disappearing into the void. The Earth rotates, revealing a moon embedded into it.

Wake up...

The End.

October 17, 2023

Eagle App for Art / Creative Directors

I found a really cool tool, something I've been looking for a long time. It's called Eagle.

It is a piece of software that helps you collect images and media from the internet (even 3D files!), store and sync them via Dropbox or Google Drive and organize and tag them. It is pretty easy and intuitive and it has a very sleek design with advanced features that do not disturb too much.

You can use it for both Mac & PC -I use it on both whenever I'm at my workstation or my MacBookPro.

The drawback at the moment is that it doesn't have 'cloud' sync or a tablet / mobile version. Hopefully that comes soon.

Another advantage is that its a one-time purchase ($30), so, no subscriptions. It comes with 2 seats, and if you want more, you can purchase them for half price, or just deactivate and activate licencences, which is a bit of a pain if you have more than 2 locations where you use it.

October 16, 2023

How to be a Better Art Director — Part 3 Defining a concept

We have covered now the early stages of the creative process for an art director and now it is time to move into the early phase of preparing a concept or direction for your project.

This is a process that involves a couple of different phases. I will try to guide this in a perfect world scenario. But each project is different and most of what I share at this point is going to be flexible.

Conception refers to the stage of the process where you have to create a concept based on your visual ideas.

In a real world scenario you would establish with the client different stages for feedback, and different stages for changes. It may happen that different clients have different requests, or that suddenly the whole marketing team changed and you have new people with new ideas, or they just want to change things to establish their new authority.

There are many ways of guiding a client, and my personal recommendation is that you always keep him in the loop and involve him at the steps you need him to be involved to move your and his idea forwards.

It’s really important that before even start working you agree on how you are going to work, you should explain him your process and how you are planning to move forwards with each phase of the creative process.

You are being hired because you have a set of skills that they don’t and it is your job to guide them through your knowledge to what you think is best for them. This should also show in your project management skills.

So, after a couple of calls you end up with the following task.

Create a poster about the film “Donnie Darko”.

Rough Directions

After your research is done you will have floating around your head a couple of ideas that you believe are stronger that others. Your guts will probably will be pulsating into going into a specific direction, and I will advice to trust your feelings Luke.

If you start with around 5–10 ideas I would recommend that you start trying to combine the stronger ones with the weaker ones. Or just try to see which ideas are similar, and start distill and concentrate all your creative power into 3 strong directions.

You should aim to have at least 3 possible directions to present.

Why 3?

One direction is very limited. There is no room for movement and give the client no chance to feel part of the creative process.

Two directions seems a little bit binary for my personal taste. You are basically telling the client, you can have either this or this. No-Go. It is not necessarily rude, but a little bit limited.

Three is for me a good number of choices. You can have a strong direction, an alternative and one completely different direction. You can mix it, or you can present 3 different options that can complement each other.

You can go for more options, this can be done if your client is more creative and you are in a rush trying to grasp what the client or project wants but if it is a formal presentation I would keep it simple. You do not want to overwhelm your prospects.

So lets say now that you have 3 different options for a specific topic.
You have a folder with all your references, your research, etc.

For our Donnie Darko poster we will present 3 quick possible directions.

Route 01: Time Travel — (Sacred Geometry, Math, Occultism)
Rout 02: Cellar Door
Route 03: Helloween Party Flyer

Moodboards

Start creating moodboards.

A moodboard is a collection of reference images that try to illustrate a specific concept or idea by grouping different elements trying to convey a specific mood.

It is a map of your idea, using references of images that already exist, to try to guide the client to imagine what it is in your head.

So then when you share this with your client, you can discuss with him specific things. Such as “Do you like how this typoghraphy is working on this book?” “How do you feel about engraving it into a piece of wood?”

Dont place random images because they just look nice, try to find nice images that tell the story that you want to tell.

I sometimes try to tell stories in my moodboards, or organise them in such a way that they tell a story, maybe I will use landscapes or more abstract things in the left then towards the center introduce my characters and towards the right have some images that have a conclusion.

The idea here is that the client can read through and get your point.

This is a very subtle but key element when designing your moodboards. One very common misuse of this basic resource is just collecting images that look nice, pass them over and expect that the client or even other designers, get what you want.

You can really tell the quality of a designer or art director by the quality of their moodboards and how they express their ideas.

So now that you have your moodboard ready, it is the time to present your ideas to the client.

Note — For some inital parts of the process. Moodboards might just be a visual tool to get the client moving into one direction. After this is established more narrative moodboards, or moodboards that involve a bit more different images might come into place.

There is definitely no specific rules for creating moodboards, I think with great taste you will be able to express your first concepts, but be careful and keep it simple and tasteful, do not include things that you don’t want or are not sure because it is usually a rule of thumb that the client will pick up that one.

Presentations

A good presentation is a maker or destroyer of creatives and projects. The presentation is the medium where you will present your ideas. It becomes the guiding document for briefing your client, team, colleagues.

As a designer it is good to have some general idea of editorial design. Once again whatever we are doing here is presenting and selling our work and our ideas. A good presentation has to be clear and understandable. Everything has to be explained to the last detail.

It has to be ready made to be opened by someone that has no idea whatsoever about the project and by the time he finishes reading it it, he is sold with the idea.

It has to be clear and everything has to be explained, and if you design it well it will bring you a lot of success.

The following is an example of a good structure for a good presentation.

Cover — the cover page is the page where you present the project and the most general details about it such as date, client, and project name.

First Creative Thoughts — a brief introduction about the project. Here is where you state to the client your understanding of what you have to do and how you want to do it. The goal here is to introduce your vision of the project.

Challenges — sometimes I include a page that talks about the challenges that the project has to meet and the ones that the project is going to face. So for example we speak about the creative challenges that we want to accomplish, and the reality challenges that will influence our goals, such as limited budget, resource availability or time.

For the first presentation I would dive directly into the first different routes.

Do not fear over-explaining everything or being redundant. As mentioned before the presentation has to be self explanatory in every point.

Route / Direction 01–02–03 — So, I will assume I have a Title page that says “Route 01". Try to name every concept, this is actually part of the conception phase. It is up to you how creative you want to be with the naming. Some people are more playful or witty, some people prefer to be more direct.

The title has to resume your concept in one, two or three words. Try to make it catchy. The title has to resume your idea so when the client looks at the images he can already start constructing your vision in his head.

You should add a small description of your concept / idea and explain the benefits of this one.

After this, you can introduce the moodboard.

Conclusion (or finishing thoughs, summing up, etc.) — in this slide you will wrap up all your ideas. You can write down your top choice and why you recommend going into that direction, or just write some other things that are in your mind worth talking with the client.

Contact — Be mindful to include a thank you page with your contact information.

If your presentation is branded, much better. I mean, why would you not brand it? You are a professional right? This branding has to speak about yourself. You can have a logo, or your name, but the choice of color, typography and editorial design will also speak about your skills as a designer.

The best advice here is to have a template presentation with a template structure for the moodboard to speed and structure your whole process. This is key for every professional. Create assets that will save you time and energy.

Respect the grid

The grid will help you stay fit and organised. You will have to discover what grid works best for you and keep it in an editorial fashion.

This is the grid I used for one of the moodboard. If you compare the 3 you will notice that I modified the arrangement and the size of the masks of the moodboards but I kept using always the same structure. This will help keep your presentation entertaining and organised.

If you want to break the grid and be a bit more décontracté, do so at your own risk and only if you need to. I do not mean to preach a hard school on grid, but it helps to keep everything in order. If you want to take a creative licence with it, keep some other constants respecting the grid.

In other words, arrange the images as you want, but respect the rest.

Preparation

As a side note, it would be great when you can; before sending the presentation to the client to rehearse it a little bit.

In many cases you will just need to send over a PDF with your presentation and then keep the communication by email. But in many other ones you need to call the client and guide him through.

From my own personal experience, I prepare the presentation, read it 50 times, and believe that everything is perfect. But then when I am presenting it to the client I realise that there are many things that are not clear enough, or that I become very redundant or that the copy doesn't allow me to close up my thoughts. Or even find myself reading the copy out loud and realising that what I just read doesn’t fit the context of the conversation or I just said the same that I did 2 slides ago but with different words adding absolutely nothing to the pitch.

If you have some time, maybe some audience, try presenting it to someone else and fine tune the things that make no sense spoken out loud; listen to yourself and watch other people’s reactions.

Software

My two best options for presentations are Adobe InDesign, or Keynote.

Adobe InDesign is a great tool for creating editorial design. It is optimised for doing hardcore typographical work and it has a great grid system that will structure your output very easily.

It isn’t a very flexible program and it is a bit hard to edit images on the go, but I assure you, this is what you need. Use the grid. Be mindful of it and reap the rewards. You want structure and you want editorial. This tool provides you with that.

Apple’s Keynote, on the other hand is a more flexible tool. Very good for live presentations. You have some sweet animations and transitions and its very easy, fast and flexible to edit things on the go and spice up your work. But this flexibility can be a bit costly in terms of design.

If you do not keep track of it you might in time, start dragging errors and your presentation form will get lost.

I would not recommend Power Point. This is one of the most unsexy and terrible tools I have ever encountered and I am still shocked to understand how it is an industry standard.

So now we should have our beautifully designed presentation with our 3 routes and ideas. It is time to present it to the client.

Everything went great and he decided to go with the Route 01 — Time Travel, yeah!

It can happen that he also likes some ideas from the second direction.
We take notes, and agree to a polished development of the idea for a second review in 1 week.

Now it is time to keep working. This has just begun…

Thank you very much if you read this far!

October 16, 2023

How to become a better Art Director — Part 2 Research

Research is one of my favorite parts of the process. I actually enjoy most of them, but research feels like the golden moment. Anything is possible.

You get to spend time learning and experimenting and checking out all new kinds of cool stuff. Your mind is, or should be exploding with ideas and ways of connecting all sorts of new concepts and ideas, colors with typography, texture with different materials and so forth.

Some of the early sketches that lead to the header image.

How do we structure the research process? Where to start first?

The first part of research should be non-visual.

Open wikipedia and start reading as much as you can about the briefed topic and feel free to explore some hyperlinks to lateral subjects.

Let’s assume that you got a briefing for creating a whole brand identity for a museum (I actually never did a Museum branding but I will try to be creative on this). A contemporary art museum that wants to celebrate 100 years of an artist that works only with colored pencils to create sculptures.

So what to do first? Well, encyclopedia. Lets open Wikipedia and start absorbing as much as we can about that museum:

When was it created? Who created it? Who was the architect? With which materials is it constructed? What kind of previous exhibitions were there in the past? What kind of people go there?

A good client he should provide you with most of this information from better sources, and can even render information about the audience that attend that museum, goals such as if they want to create a hype and bring in new types of audiences, etc. All this information is vital to have at least present at the time of creating the designs.

The next step would be to get deep into the life of the artist.

Who was he? When and where was he born? What did their parents do? How is the history of his work? Is the exhibition about a specific period of his life? Is there a concept for the curatorship of his work? How does he work? Which materials does he use? Is he creating any specific process that differentiates his work from something else? Are there any particular moments in his life that had a great impact in his life?

You should be documenting all this information.

Digital vs Analog?

The answer is: both. You should always to have a notepad with you.

I cannot stress the importance of this. Ideas come and go, and if you don’t write them down they disappear in the ether.

On the other hand the direct connection between seeing all your ideas on paper can fire up new other ideas and can give you a very clear panorama of things that you are missing.

In many ways the “process” is linear, you feed with different sources it but it always goes into one direction and it is your job to explore different directions but eventually decide for one with the client and explore it from beginning to completion.

The notepad is the fastest way to do small sketches and to have a mental record about what you were thinking at that particular moment.

Im a sucker for notepads

I am personally a notebook junkie. Whenever I see a nice notebook I buy it, and I think “here I will write all ideas related to this” and in this one I will write all my project management, or long term goals. In the end, I always use the same. I have a lined Moleskine A5 size for a couple of years that I use for almost everything, and a couple of satellite notebooks that accompany everywhere I go.

I find the connection with the analog world to be a bit more solid. As discussed in the previous post, digital can be fleeting and ethereal. I think there is some sort of sorcery and magic that happens in the brain whenever we pick up a pencil or a pen and start writing.

My guess is that it activates a mixture of creative and logic parts of the brain that the digital world does not. There is always that glass screen that doesn’t let us really connect with the result.

An inside of my sketchbook working on different visual options and ideas for a project called Oxygen.

Text Editors

Whenever I am doing research I use Word or Pages in order to store faster bigger chunks of detailed information.

(In parallel, I create a folder structure in order to store different images that come into my way, while we do the most basic research.)

The other advantage from text editors is that it forces us to start structuring the information, depending how deep we want to delve into the subject.

The times I’ve had the time to do proper research write down notes and deconstruct properly the creative brief, the more ready and secure you are to present your ideas.

Another advantage is that a lot of the stuff I start directly writing on my text editors, I can later on copy/paste into presentations, emails, etc.

Mind Trees

I found the use of mind maps or mind trees not so long ago (cheers up to Ash Thorp and Learnsquared) and I tried to include it to my workflow. I must admit I haven’t stuck to it 100% because new habits are hard to acquire but they can be super helpful.

I would definitely recommend to give it a shot and play around.

One of the process designs from the Bullet Points project.

Cloud Notes

Evernote, Notes, Reminders, Google Drive.

All these note taking systems are also pretty cool, but I like to keep it simple. I usually have a honeymoon period with each app or service, but eventually I tend to go back to the basics. Notepad, Word, etc.

Since I am a Mac geek, I find the Notes app in the Mac OS and iOS to be pretty sweet. It is very nicely integrated and it feels seamless to sync all your notes between your devices and computers.

Another tool I use a lot for collaboration is Google Drive. Mostly because it has become a web-cloud based standard for word processing and sharing that is pretty much unbeatable. It works seamlessly between Mac and PC and mostly everyone has a Google account for something.

Back to the research!

So now we have our notes, we have our digital tools, we created a nice Mind Tree about the museum and the interaction with the artists, we have some interesting first ideas, we doodled a couple of nice posters, drawn some nice details for a typography game.

We have written down a couple of possible directions and things that have called our attention.

At this part of the process I feel my idea as a small source of light in the middle of a dark space.

We are standing in the middle of blackness and this light is glowing, it comes from both inside of us and its reflected in the exterior of this dark space.

Our job is to connect both lights, the interior one and the exterior.

The strength of the light is pretty weak. It is fragile but as the light glows, we can feel all the colors and the possibilities imploding at the same time, fighting to combine connect and explode into our final product.

The more we feed this light, the richer our project is going to be.

So now we are going to do exactly that.

In order to feed the light we have to diversify our research and start diving deep into our first thoughts and ideas.

Lets say we read that the architect of the museum was working with some special brushed steel material for the exterior of the museum and we feel a small weird connection between this, and some aspect of the life of the artist. For example, he spend his first years working at a steel factory saving money to finance his materials for his first period of work.

My next step would be to dive into the research on the subject of steel.

But this time make a little folder called “Steel” in your computer and start documenting everything that you find about steel and steel production. Make the research visual, try to find interesting things in the steel production, just as special machines, or high-res photographies of steel metal plates, brushed, raw, with special chemical treatments.

We are trying to find both conceptual and graphical elements that might link the museum to the artist. This might work or just be a stupid idea, but its worth to explore.

Another thing you can explore is the work of the artist.

He works with colored pencils, so maybe this can be another another topic to explore. Pencils, pencil production, materials, wood, type of pencils, type of colors, different color palettes. Try thinking of the pencil not as a pencil but as a shape.

Can we make an abstraction of the shape? Can we isolate specific color patterns that the artist is working on?

We can explore the process of repetition that the artist is using. Maybe that repetition is similar to other processes in nature.

The idea is to try to distill all the aspects of our research and try to get as much visual material in order to feed our minds and imagination before we start creating.

Try to go deep into your sources and avoid at this part of the process looking at other people’s work.

This type of research can take you to weird places, and I love that. You can end up reading about weird people that invented weird things or dwelve into 12th century monks creating special pigments for book production. You never know. Allow yourself if you have the time to explore these tangents, but keep in mind that you have to come back and try to respect the brief.

Reference Search

Now its time to dive into the graphic references. I like to have this process after our initial research to avoid getting obsessed with others people work and give some space to some more “pure” ideas.

On the other hand it is also important to be aware of what other people have done with similar briefs.

This part is also essential to the process. Without references (especially good ones) it is difficult to have good guidelines of good quality work.

The first I would do is to look for references of similar projects than the one at hand. Museum brandings, or museum related projects. Graphical images about special exhibitions.

I would collect all of this in a “Museum” folder for example. The idea is to absorb and compare.

It is key also to understand what is going on in the world, and have it present, because we want (or we should want) to create something that stands out.

Some things to keep in mind is that, for example, lets bluntly say that most of the museum work use the same typography and same background — lets assume white — we can already start thinking about maybe making the typography handwritten and use colored background.

In order to open the research we can refine our parameters. Start looking for graphic material from other periods of time. If you can find it in special books, or websites, or even libraries.

The next step would be to start looking at other type of work, from alternative places. Go nuts on Pinterest and do some freestyle research.

Research colors, techniques, composition, posters, videos, go to a museum, go outside and start taking pictures, I find really nice inspiration looking at window displays from high end fashion stores for example. Or just cruising around looking for posters in the city.

Try also to fragment the research.

You can do a specific search for colors, another one for pencils, another one for art installation, another one for typographic arrangements, and so on. Try to be conscious and organized and you will reap the rewards later on.

Proto Ideas

Now you should have a nice folder full of sub-folders with a lot of images from all over the place.

Some text written with initial thoughts, and some random words, concepts and ideas for different directions in notebooks, and random pieces of papers.

If we go back to our poetic metaphor our little black universe, should have now a lot of different colored lights floating around. They are smaller than the light that is coming from inside of use but we can now start to explore these different lights, and start making weird connections.

As a final part of this process one thing I personally do before diving into concepting and deciding for a direction — that I will cover in my next post — is to throw all the images that I have into a big Illustrator file, and start associating different images one next to the other according to random thoughts and connections that I find interesting.

A moodboard I created with images that I took from the internet

With this I already can have a global look on my research and the flexibility to start playing with it. Keep in mind that even though you will spend a couple of days or weeks doing proper research for a specific project.

New ideas will fire up and maybe new input from the client will make you change your direction or point of view on the project.

This is an open process and it is constantly feeding itself.

You might even be in the middle of the production process and you realize that you need more logo references, or didn’t realized that you need photography references for portraits.

Another good tip is to always keep the good sources bookmarked.

You can have a RSS feed with all the blogs you love, but also keep in mind that a lot of artists are creating a lot of interesting work that is more open.

I sometimes use reeder to organize all my blog feeds

They might explore just color, or light, or create some really cool characters without an industry related goal. As an Art Director, you should be aware of all of this. You should have some favorites and you should be constantly in the look for inspiration from everyone and everything.

It is your job to be informed.

The fun has just started!

October 16, 2023

How to become a better Art Director.

This a post from Jun 27, 2016, it takes about 11 minutes to read and has some outdated link. I will prepare a revisited version soon once I migrate all my content into the new website.

This is going to be an on-going series about how to learn and improve some of your Art Directing skills. I am writing this in order to structure a bit some of the experience I have learned during the years and try to frame it in a guide that everyone can come either use to improve their skillset or just to be reminded of some of the basic principles that can get lost entering the comfort zone of their careers.

My goal is to both improve your skill set but also try to get you to improve your mindset, so you can think a bit more critically and be able to make conscious decisions about your work, or the work of others.

This first part is an introduction. I will try to explain what does “Art Direction” mean, what an Art Director does and why this role is important in order to bring success into creative projects.

So what is Art Direction?

Man in Black and White Stripe Crew Neck Shirt Holding White Leaved Plant — PEXELS

There are many professional areas where the term Art Direction becomes involved.

I would start by defining that Art Direction is the collection of conscious and justifiable design or artistic decisions that hold together the result of any visual creative production.

Ill try to be a bit more simple. In any design, movie, animation, project, its all the visual decisions that make the final product be coherent in its aesthetic.

For example, when someone designs a logo, the decisions that are made are part of the art direction and have to be conscious and justifiable. The strokes, the typography they use, the style, the colors. If not it just becomes a random selection of resources without any intent (or direction).

Same can happen with photography. The decisions about the light to be used, the composition, the elements that are involved in the frame. If the photographic process involves some sort of production for example in fashion, an art director would be in charge of choosing the backgrounds, design the sets, and can also be involved in the look of the models, the combination of colors, etc.

In the case of motion pictures, an art director is in charge of designing almost everything that we see, from the color but everything that involves developing fake brands, labels, book covers, intro titles, etc involves artistic direction to a lot of extended degrees. Different art directors or product designers are involved in different levels of production. Where it is to define a color scheme throughout the movie, or how will the graphic design of the posters and decorations of the shots will look like.

In gaming an art director is responsible of guiding the whole look and feel of the game. It is in charge of communicating with all the departments of production in order to keep the aesthetic of the game consistent.

In advertising the term art director also applies to graphic designers, that work as a duo with a creative director or copywriter, visualizing ideas. So one thinks the other one makes those ideas happen. Or both.

The term is so vast that it is very hard to cover everything up now, I will try to get into more detail as I write more posts, but this should give a general panorama.

How do I become an art director?

There is no real school for this but I would say the most common places to start are graphic design or art schools. I would take a wild guess and say that a big percentage of the industry standard art directors come from these places. The rest come from other disciplines, and a lot are self taught creatives.

And I guess it all comes down to developing great taste.

Cultivating visual and general knowledge will be always the best way towards moving forward in one’s path in this discipline.

It is really important to have a good “library” in your mind’s eye that is being almost constantly updated with visual references that you can access. Your sources and inspirations will become your tools of the trade.

Most art directors produce most of their work. Or did at some point of their careers. If they are delegating work its is much better for them to have a previous understanding of the creative process.

Books

Some of my books and Blue-Rays.

One of the first places to start are books. Most prolific art directors have usually huge design and art book libraries that become their first point of contact with any project.

It is of the utmost importance to start building a good design/art library if you want to have the means to make a difference in this career.

What books have compared to digital resources is first, there is usually a specific theme being presented. Wether it is a collection of photographic works, or a design compilation in most cases there is usually a theme that you know you can look up to. There are always texts written down that try to make you go in depth into the presented subject (although in many cases there are just for filling pages) and the most important thing is the time that you can spend with a book and its material presence makes you in some way develop a deeper connection to the work.

Digital media is ephemeral. It’s there but you cannot touch it, and it really depends on your battery levels and your internet connection. It is as if it feels that with books you can absorb knowledge in a much rooted level.

The time you can spend looking and analyzing one image, how close you can get with your physical eye to the paper and the tactile experience makes everything a whole experience.

Digital media feels just something more mental and not so experiential.

Sometimes I am even surprised when I go to creative’s houses and see so little design books. And I can say almost for certain that the size of your library can at some level correspond with your quality of a designer. Usually all successful and prolific designers are book junkies.

Culture

Pexels

Who you are will directly reflect on your work. What music do you like, what did you listened when you were a teenager, the artists that you admire, the decoration of your home, your general interests, whether it is politics, history, art, etc.

A general knowledge about art in the world and how the different points of view have affected societies around the world. After all an art director should know something about art.

Most schools have some sort of art history course, and a lot of self taught designers/art directors usually have one or two big artists as inspirations that got them into the game. For a general introduction to art history I recommend The Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich.

It offers a general panorama about all art history since the early civilizations until today, and it is all done with work that can be easily found at the most important museums around the world.

This brings me to my second point: Museums.

Museums are by definition the house of the muses. As design books, the exhibitions are curated live visual content.

It is always good practice to go to museums and exhibitions.

Your mind is open to absorbing information in a different way of a book, or digital, the experience here involves a different state of mind and a physical presence. And you can buy a nice book or two in the gift shop.

I find it also really interesting going to the theater, or music venues. They both involve such an amount of creative preparation and execution that always allows your creative mind to flow in a different state and make unusual connections.

Also the illusion of disconnection can bring out solutions to creative problems that have been roaming the mind for a long and stressful week.

So, all of this is what makes you a valuable individual. To develop and nurture your taste through these experiences means that you are developing yourself and creating value to your profession. It is important to always have a keen and open mind and let curiosity be your guide.

It is also super important that you are open to understand and ask the right questions about everything. Some interesting things to ask your self are:

  • What am I doing here?
  • Who’s work am I experiencing?
  • When was it created?
  • What was happening in the world at that moment?
  • Why is this exhibition/concert here and not somewhere else?
  • What questions would I ask the artist/s if they were present?
  • Why do I like this?

Digital Tools

PEXELS

We live now in a world and an industry that spins around digital tools to make our lives easier and generate value one click at a time. I don’t really see much room today for any artist or designer that wants to be part of this industry without using digital tools at some point.

I am assuming that you are already familiar with the Adobe creative package. “Photoshoped” has become part of our language, so lets speak about some tools of the trade that I personally use that make my life easier.

I would say that my first tool whenever I have to do research is Pinterest. They have become industry standard and their algorithms seem to “get me”. This is scary. But the way it is designed for me gives a huge advantage on organizing and categorizing my visual references.

I have tried tagging references, syncing them to my different cloud accounts but in the end this takes so much work and investment that I end up using just Pinterest and then browsing the dark corners of the internet for lateral references using my own personal mind library.

The biggest disadvantage that we have with Pinterest is that you get to see a lot of already processed work. You don’t get to the core of things, but just look at masticated and regurgitated beautiful images that present the current state of the zeitgeist. Be careful with this.

But a good art director will know exactly up to what point use and what to use from these images. I will expand more on this in later posts.

My personal Pinterest collection

Google Images

My second in command image search engine. This looks around the whole internet and tries to find the best match according to your search. It is not tainted by design, and you can filter really good by usage rights, color, and size.

It is great to find some of these hidden gems that are in the public domain.

Picasa.

I use sometimes Picasa’s collage tool to create moodboards. Now a days it is called google photos I think and the tool is still there but it is a bit more uncomfortable to use since it’s all web/cloud based. I recommend getting an older version.

Vimeo.

Since I am involved in the Motion Graphics / VFX branch I use Vimeo as my number one video inspiration. I like the website Motionographer too as a curated selection of great Motion Graphics and Interviews but Vimeo as a social network feed of what all my colleagues and studios that I like are looking at the moment. I get a great source ranging from finished work to more experimental tests, etc.

My Vimeo likes

Blogs and RSS feeds.

There is a TON of beautiful work and curated content out there. Something similar happens to me like with Pinterest, but there is SO MUCH information going and all these beautiful curated blogs, but in the end I have the feeling that they all dissolve in the internet’s creative ether.

Sites like tumblr have beautiful curated work but they become just a compilation of beautiful images… and that’s it.

There are some specific blogs that have a very strong focus in curated content and a bit more exploration on the work such as Bibliodissey that focuses on book related stuff, buthowdoesitfloat, etc.

You can collect all this information using an RSS feed and create your own curated feed of curated content delivered on demand.

I can go forever (and probably will later on), there is always a new tool coming up ready to replace an old one Pinterest replaced FFFOUND for example.

In my personal opinion it is better to keep it simple. I always keep a folder in my desktop called “PicRefs” where I just collect the nice random things that I find on the internet, and I take a look every couple of months or so. It is very pleasing to actually see those references and they take you back to that moment where you selected them and you can also see a line that reflects your taste and interest through time.

Spend some time exploring great inspiration sources, analysing them and categorizing them for future use.

Summing up

I have just written about a basic spectrum of basic things about being an Art Director. This is a very broad discipline but some of the foundational elements can be shared along the line of the different areas.

One last thought for this post is that a good art director is also a good communicator. Without being able to communicate your ideas and thoughts to someone else will be the difference between success and great success in any creative endeavor.

It is important to get this basics right. General knowledge and good access to creative source material is key to start. And critical thinking and a constructive and de-constructive mind open the paths to better work and ideas.

I guess that if you found this post in this platform most of this stuff is covered, but in that case, take it as a reminder of those basics that we sometimes forget. Most designers now look only at digital things, go back to books.

Others just go home and watch television or browse reddit and forget that going out to a concert might as well open your mind to new ideas and people could spend part of their weekends exploring the cultural offering from your city/town.

Read a book about the life of David Bowie or explore the futuristic possibilities of virtual reality in Ready Player One. Enrich your life so you can enrich your work, it is that simple.

See you on the next post. Thanks a lot.

© Ivan Flugelman 2022 Creative Direction, Design & Strategy in the Metaverse.

#metaverse