leon_nerd

Hi Guys,

I have talked to a lot of designers on the web and also gone through several interviews and found that each designer has his/her own way of approaching each assignment.

As for me I have always gone to the drawing board first and come out with some free hand designs and then select one of them and improvise upon it. Sometimes I just mark the areas on the paper itself which I need to improvise upon and then hit PS to start with, while improvising the already marked areas. I have been doing only web designs and I am not sure if people really do this with web designing. I am not particularly comfortable with hitting my computer directly without some kind of guidelines in the form of a paper based design.

What is your style of designing?

Staur

I know that I always have to draw my idea by hand first, brainstorm, get some ideas down on paper, this step is doable in ps also. then I work in PS or Ill depend on what kind of assigment it is.

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ChrisLy

The first place I start is by researching my audience and topic. I try to get a feel for who will be looking at the work and what look would be appropriate for the audience and topic. I like to make sure that I know general histories of the topic/audience and also try to find out what the culture of the topic is. I like to make sure I don't design something that is offensive or intellectually lacking (a poster, for example, on women's history would be lacking if susan b anthony wasn't somehow (at least in reference) in there).

From there, I look for inspiration. I look at what media has come from this topic or related topics, check out other designer's work, and try to formulate some ideas. Note that all of this is for style purposes and all done before I even touch a piece of paper or open photoshop.

After that, I begin to create/compile the art that will fill the design.

Then I begin to draw and come up with concepts, styles, looks. After generalizing what I want the feel to be, I start to photoshop the art and feel around for a look that I think works. Sometimes it ends up being nothing like my original concepts (through happy accidents and whatnot). Lots of experimentation here.

As this is happening, I begin to get a feel for what my overall design will look like with type on it.

I then open indesign and choose fonts and type styles. Often, by this point, I will have created a look that lends itself easily to a certain font/typographic style.

All of the pieces fall into place at this point and most of what's left is refinement.

MediaMisfit

These things usually happen in somewhat of an order from top to bottom but I always go back for more.

- Researching
- Brainstorming on paper
- Brainstorming on my computer with Photoshop and Illustrator
- Assembling finals versions piece by piece

nbluth

I pretty much follow ChrisLy's process too. One thing that really helps me is to get some feedback a few times during the process.

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Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.
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georigin

hmmmm....
Research ( but not ina note taking way)
find out the age group. The cultural aspects, the where.

Decide what style and use a set of images related to the style.
a few sketches.

Design!!

Basically it should look kick ass; and it should get the point out/solve the problem/the aim...

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j303

I find it depends and what type of job it is, budget, time and the work environment. I've had such tight deadlines that research, sketching just isn't feasible and have literally gone straight into QXP, then to press. On the other hand - I've had weeks just working on concepts, days in PS then days preparing the finals or Ive worked in-house where there is literally no budget... It would be great that every job that comes along we could have a brainstorm, research, sketch session but I've found that in the real world this just, sometimes, doesn't happen... then I have to call on the skill we are suppose to have/learnt/ paid for - creativity. I guess what im saying here, is, for me anyway, what ever works at the time, goes!

BABYDIABOLICAL

The way I go about things tends not to be helpful to others , but , I am in the mood to talk about myself so here goes ; I do my best work after a good mulling.I just ponder the assignment for a day or two . Usually inspiration hits in the research phase . Then I spend quality time with my notebook trying to merge my great idea with the clients bland vision . At some point I just do what I want cause I am the designer .When I hire them to design things for me ....ok ok nobody pays me to design...yet! And ok i don't hire designers either...I'll just go now.

ChrisLy

What j303 said is important.
I have worked in a newsroom doing page layouts and in this situation, you'd probably have to redefine some terms. Since I may only have 5 hours to design three pages, I may redefine some of my process' terms -- research means simply reading the first few graphs of a story and 'sketching' out ideas will be done inside of indesign. Also, styles in this case are predetermined by the publication's look.

I think most of us are answering what we do in an ideal situation with a far-off deadline.