Graphic Design Inspiration:: Idea Generation

1. Introduction to Idea Generation: inspiration is everywhere. Everywhere we walk, everywhere we look, we're visually bombarded by colors, shapes, textures tight and that incorporates itself into our work and into our design. But what happens when the muse doesn't show up? What happens if we have a client project and we just simply don't have the idea? This project is for idea generation. We're going to start with the beloved a thumbnail sketch, the one that everyone sort of cringes over. At first glance, we're gonna learn the benefits behind that as well. We're gonna look at mind mapping and list, making the two of those techniques really beneficial for gathering initial ideas for clients project as well. We're gonna look up some inspirations on our friend Pinterest and as well what I lovingly call analog Pinterest. Also, let's take a look at mood boards and see how they can incorporate themselves into a client project and as well to give the client mawr input as to what the project could entail. Everything can inspire us, and it can also be overwhelming. So hopefully with these tips and techniques that you're gonna learn new ways to explore the pre work of your designs 2. Supplies: you're a list of supplies that you'll need for this. We're going to need tape of some sort. I use washing in my demo, but anything that you have will work. Even glue sticks, scissors if you have those hanging around those air super useful and it's, well, something to write with pencils, markers, pens, anything you're also going to need paper. You can use a sketchbook or notebook if you want, or loose leaf paper. That's fine as well, and also some printouts from the Internet Based upon inspirations. We're gonna use this in one section. Also, only Internet access and project needs. Creative Cloud If you have any magazines, laying around is totally optional, but you could also use those if you don't have any of the pronounce, so feel free to use those 3. Project Description: all right. Time for our class project In our class notes, I have a pdf that has our actual client brief. The first page is the nitty gritty, and the second page is the copy. If you can't come up with copy on your own or you don't want Teoh for our project, we're going to be making an 11 by 17 portrait orientation music event festival poster. The one that I've included is for mostly Mozart Festival, where the client is looking for something sophisticated but fun, something that's classy but edgy. They want to bring in a new, younger audience, but they also don't want Teoh sort of polarize or exclude the elder clientele. So how do you make something fun, but also a little bit more refined? So we're going to be dealing with a dichotomy here, and you're going to have a lot within your client works. So part of our job is to figure out how do we get these two opposing forces to work together? The first part of this project is the brain story import that idea generation. So in this class, we're going to go through a variety of techniques that you can use. I'm gonna recommend that you try a little bit of each of them just to see which one works best for you. I want to see some of your process also. So take shots of your sketches or your mind mapping or your lists, and share them so that everyone can learn and involved and enjoy your work in the process as well. Something in design that's super important that isn't often talked about is the essentials to your workflow and that, you know, design word. We love efficiency. How do you find that efficient workflow if you've only thumbnail sketch door? If you hop right on the computer, chances are you aren't using the most efficient work modes. Give yourself a chance to explore and experiment. Different techniques may be one of them is the one for you to try a variety of them and create your poster. Share your results and your process in the class. Bulow. And don't forget to comment on others work as well. It's a great platform for learning from each other 4. The Thumbnail Sketch: All right, let's go ahead and get started The very beginning. You are traditionally in school, taught the thumbnail sketch. So let's go ahead and start. There are some male sketch is something. I get a lot of complaints about my classes because I hear the following. I can't drawl. They don't look right. I'm not a real artist. Ignore all all that. I want you to push it away. Don't even think about it. Do not even worry about it. That's not the point of a thumbnail sketch. The thumbnail sketch is a quick gesture. Just encapsulate the basic page layouts. They aren't really that precious there. Just thinking pictorially. However, side note. If you do want to learn more about drawling, do have another class on that on skill share. Feel free to check it out. So I'm not going to get that in depth with the sort of sketching stage on this video. But I do want to cover the absolute basics. I am going to just use a cheap coal container of newsprint. You can use your sketchbook. You can use photocopy paper. You canoes posted notes. You can use napkins. You get the idea. I think we get bogged down by the perfection of something. The perfect notebook, the perfect pencil, the perfect marker, the perfect sketch. Let's not worry about that for this. Let's instead worry about our ideas and take that preciousness and just sort of push it aside and ignore it. Ah, lot of artists and designers will also just use to shoot tissue, paper, tracing paper and the roles of the brown butcher paper. I do love working with those also, but I had some newsprint, so I've been using it for other projects. Let's check it out. No. One thing you're gonna notice. Numbers confuse a marker. You can use pencils, whatever you want to use. When I do my sketching a lot of the times, I'll just have my list making sort of entwined with it, which we're going to get toe list making just so that I can sort of map out, especially for something like this. I was working on a deck of cards for a client. All right, so we need the clubs. We need spades. We need the hearts, etcetera, etcetera. And then what do we need in each of those? I will be specific with my lists and then start generating the ideas beyond that. So you will, in my sketches see a fair number of words because I do work a lot with that. Let's just flip to a recent projects. You can see more words, more words with the doodles, and this is one of my newest projects, its branding project, and the idea of it is initially something that was supposed to be water colored with that sort of trend right now that's going on. Has the hand brushed flattering to it. So I started the sketches with that, and you could dissociate they're not. This is one system of our thumbnail sketches, just sort of all over the place, random willy nilly. What happens if it's, you know, not watercolor? What if it's in just a rectangle or square the circle? What happens if you start focusing on a section of that letter to make that mark? I want to started to say there isn't a way to do this wrong. There's no way to really do this right. It's you. It's your system. How many ideas can you generate with this and move beyond that concept of falling in love with your first idea. Now there's nothing technically wrong with that. Sometimes you will go back to it. But I think the sort of issue that arises from it is Boom. I have an idea, period. That's it. And nothing else goes beyond that. It's sort of turned out and voila. Maybe it was the best idea. But maybe in the 8th 9th 30th idea down the line might have been a little bit more of a well rounded solution to the problem. So here's what I'm gonna recommend. Draw that first idea, which would have been this one. The water color with the lettering. Okay, we got that out of the system. In my classes, I usually give anywhere from 3 to 5 or 5 to 10 depending on which class you have me in. But I'm going to be completely honest here, and I always threaten to do this in my classes. When I went to school, we to do 100 or 200 depending on her class. And I actually prefer that because they're hits a stage, really dislike have absolutely no idea of what idea I have anymore, and something happens in that idea void when you know you have to get 100 sketches out in your stock on number 72. Something happens in that void, and it's sort of like the design art crazy comes out and boom. What if I Oh my gosh, you know what else would be cool? Fill in the blank film, but and it's this sort of avalanche that happens in this void, and it just sort of changes path and what you were doing previously sort of gets annihilated. And then you start heading on this completely different adventure with your design. And in my opinion, it isn't until you do enough of them that then that's when that happens. That's when the magic it sparked, and that's when the crazy ideas become really awesome ideas. So 3 to 10 go for it. But really, let's be honest, really push yourself with the thumbnail sketches. How many can you get? So you have you get to that void stage, and then and then what happens? Basically, it's like little kids when they play, and then and then take that concept of play and bring that into your work. You build it around, shapes what happens if the sky concept gets echoed, etcetera, etcetera. What if we take this square ended? It s so I can go on and on. I usually like It's the coffee shop time you grab your coffee a sit your desk in and just start churning out idea after idea. So the first thing that I would recommend No, I'm just gonna get us a nice plain blank sheet of paper here. If you're a person that this scary plane empty piece of paper eyes a little bit daunting. Just start with making some marks so you can just free style like you saw in those. Or you can create a grid pattern for each of your drawings to go in now in our class sort of a dende, Um, section. I do have some templates for to use. Some of them are based upon the square. Some of them are based on the rectangle that's porch it, and some are in the landscape, so it's going to depend on your project, so you may use those. Also, our project that we're going to be working on is a poster project for a music festival, and it's a classical music festival they want edgy but classy, sophisticated but fun. You get the idea, this dichotomy that our clients are often wanting and you'll be in when the meanings like I want sophisticated. But I want it like a rock star. And you're like, Okay, this is one of those projects It's propping us for that client, the client that wants everything and nothing s. So let's go ahead and start with the grit. If you're sort of freaked out by this paper, start with the little structures. Our poster is going to be portrait orientation, and maybe I'll just put three on a row and I'm just doing this. So I have a basic start to my page, so I know this is going to be the our board that I'm working with, and then this is how I have to deal with my space. The thumbnail don't get bogged down by the details unless you want Teoh. Everyone has different sort of draftsmanship styles. So if you're a person that likes to get into the fiddly bits and really bring out those little subtleties, absolutely go for it. But if you would just want to take the sort of gestural quick ground go that way. Also, part of this class is figuring out what system works best for you and then incorporating into your work. And we oftentimes don't allow ourselves this period of experimentation and exploration. So maybe try some that are a little bit more fiddly and a little bit more detailed, and then try something a little bit more looser and just quick roughed in and then move onto the next one C. Which system works best for you? All right, I'm not gonna do the fiddly bit for a demo, because that would be actually quite boring for me and ju. So I'm just going to go with what I usually do if I'm working out of publication or add or what have you, And I'm just going to use boxes and shapes and lines. The boxes and shapes are going to be photos or images or graphic that I've created, and then the lines are going to be the type that actually going to bring in that detail. So it's, uh I'm going to use my copy, which is the most remote start festival. Maybe first idea a giant Mozart a while. Doesn't that look great it represents. And that's what we're after. Mostly Mozart festival. Maybe the date and time and then our location and website. All right, so maybe instead I went festival repeated a couple times, and then the date and the time and a little bit of the info here, Maybe there's no graphics on that one. Maybe I'm gonna play up with color, so I'm gonna write color underneath Just that. I don't forget what I was doing there. Maybe I'm gonna have an image here and the shape of an instrument there. And then my info there. Now I've noticed, and I'm sort of stacking everything to the right. So maybe for the next three, let's explore other alignments. See, you get the idea if you find yourself doing too many of one system, All right, so maybe it's just gonna be a scarcity. Um, So I started on the top over here, So it's not here, mostly Moz Art Festival. And maybe I'm just going to deal with color on that one also. So again, if it's, let's say, an instrument, you could just put the shape and you know that's going to be the instrument or you could rough it out if you want that little bit more detail when it's going to depend on your sketching style. Uh, so for this section, I think the best way to explore this is to actually be doing your experimentations based upon our project. So grab your sketchbook. It could be a cheap little newsprint. One like this. It could be a pretty nice, you know, mole skin. Whatever you want to work with, it can be the Post. It notes what works for you. Grab that. Use that. If you're not quite sure. Grab a couple things and then you can see how each of them work. Do some sketches, I must say around 10. So a little bit more than you would feel comfortable with. If you get to 10 and you're still flowing, go for it. Just keep on going. There's gonna be no limits and no real minimums either. This is again. Just explore, experiment and have fun with it. Eso think about your poster. You're gonna use the copy provided or you're going to make up your own. That's gonna be part of this section on. And then what elements could you see on the page and it's layouts. And how would they look in a variety of ways, really pushed the boundaries, Think outside the box on this one and have fun. Remember, it's classy but edgy. It's sophisticated fund. So how can you incorporate that with your images and your layout? All right, let's go. 5. Digital Thumbnails: just a post script on a thumbnail sketch. Some of us don't actually like toe work with paper and pencil. So you're in that type of worker. There is a solution for you as well. Let's hop onto the computer and I'm gonna show you a couple different ways that you can work If you're more of a digital worker. If you don't have the creative suite, you've been also sketch all in your ipads or mobile devices that works just as well. So let's hop onto the computer, all right. And alternative to the thumbnail sketch is just sketching within illustrator or whatever program in the Korea cloud your most comfortable with since this was a logo project and, of course, be an illustrator. So the brand that we were looking at with thumbnail sketches where I said it was going to be something like this that's a little bit more water calorie with that script. This is stage one of that. After the sketches, I do actually hoppin and I create a multiple art court document within Illustrator, and I'll show you how to do that. Just a za refresher I'm going to do command and a new document I was using tabloid. You could use any size you want and you can see right here. What's this number of art boards? This one's just one. Well, you can make as many of these as you want. Let's just take it to 20 just so that you can see. And I might a little bit more room in between so that we can see, you know, have a little bit of margin in between hit. Okay, who? Look at that thinking. This is a notebook. This is as many pages as you want to use. You can edit these to your heart's contentment. You can delete and add. There is an art boards pallet under window art boards and it will pop up. And then you can have the control of side it here so we can see it. That control of navigating it. If you didn't want the last you know, five. You can toss those you can add if you want, you can see it put up there. You can rearrange them to your heart contentment. If you want a little bit more control over that under file documents set up, you can change them here Also, this was just your general in foes and your type info. What you're going to want to click on is this one where it says edit art boards and you can see 123 etcetera. And the one that's active is the last one up here at the top is our presets are page sizes are orientation, and right there is the one we want new art board, and you can see what happens. You can line it up and you can add as many as you want. And, of course, the ones active. If you hit delete, it's going to delete it to get out of this pain. Hit your escape key and you're back to where you started. And I am gonna close this so we can just go back to this other one. So what? How I tend to work with this is I rough out the first couple ideas, then I know I need to deal with the tight faces. So I tossed those actually out into the paste board. I don't even really worry about those right away. I just want to see, you know, what do they look like? So if I wanted Teoh. I could option duplicate, duplicate, duplicate as many times as I wanted, and that's just holding down my option. And dragon an Apple de Apple de Apple D is going to make the duplicate. And then I can change the typeface to my heart's contentment. When I find ones that I like, then I bring them into the active art boards and then I start playing around with it from there. So the first couple was just that watercolor sketch idea. What happens if I put it in brackets? What happens if it's just linear? Well, then all right, this is nice. But if it's gonna be a Facebook icon and if we want flexible branding, then what would that look like if it's in a square from square to the circle, from the circles to the colors, etcetera, etcetera. I am going to recommend that you don't show this to your client because they're gonna pick the one that you probably don't like. I usually grab my favorite three, put them in a new document, and then that is what I present to the client. But this is just a digital way of sketching, so if you don't like paper and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. Remember, it's about you finding your system of what works best and most efficiently for you. So if you do prefer to work digitally, if you've only used one are bored. Try a couple different art boards and see, you know, how does that free up your thinking? And then when you zoom out, that's the apple negative. Um, then you can see what's going on. What colors are working. Which ones are, you know, maybe the green that you liked, What is close up, like down here? Maybe you liked it. Now all of sudden, you don't eso This gives you a little bit more options. So if you're not a paper sketcher, you can also do your sketches here on the computer. So if you do that to save the pdf uh, R J peg or take a screenshot are screenshot a shift apple four. Shift apple. Four. It's going to create this cross there. You can just click hold and drag over that, and it's going to make the camera sound. Dump it on your desktop if you're on a Mac user. If you were a PC user. I'm sorry, I don't know how the boost range. I think it's out print screen and it dumps it into your photos. You might have to google that one, but I am a back user, so I cannot help you there. I'll try to find a link for you, and I will put it in our class notes. But take a screenshot of your processes that we can see it and share it with the group. 6. List Making: All right, now it's time to make lists. This quick possibly might be my favorite. I am a notorious list maker. I'm just going to grab, you know, whatever is on top. This is the tracing paper. Newsprint sketchbook notebook. You got the idea. Grab anything. Um, I like to start with lists because it's sort of pre organize my thoughts before I jump into the other stage. And one thing you might find after this class is you might find a couple of these combos work in unison together. So maybe you'll be like me and you, like a little bit of list sketch and the mind map on the next page so they can all actually work together a list. This this isn't gonna be a crazy long section, because this one, I feel kind of self explanatory. But let's just go for it. The list. Let's say let's keep working with our poster project. So it's going to be our poster right? In our poster is four classical music. If we're gonna follow. If you're making up your own, you know, it's whatever genre you've chosen. Um, punk music festival. I don't know, synth. Whatever floats your boat. So it's a classical so classical music, and this is just like freestyle thinking. I'm just plunking down whatever comes in mind. So classical music, music, cello, steel, uh, file in conductor. Well, I can't spell today. Six. Maybe. Maybe it's going to be with the drums. You know that there's cos I think they're called the big Kettle style drums. Maybe that would be a nice image. Boo. A spotlight just popped in my head. So we're just grabbing whatever comes up into our head and putting it just just here. Just see where we had with it. So spotlight, uh, problems. Maybe the red red curtains stage the wood, the seats for the audience, the balcony, the the boxes that are sort of on the side side boxes. All right, what type of music? Mozart, Beethoven Symphony. Keep going. You might end up having pages of the EU's, depending on your process on that, maybe at the end, you're gonna look back and say, All right, you know what? I kind of liked what was happening with the concept. Maybe the seats in the audience that could be something interesting had that nice little dome like feels the tax might feel like it's popping out from there. Maybe you like the idea of the violin because you can get that nice sort of curvy shape within your poster. Somehow pick a couple of these like 2 to 4 to five of them, something like that. And then you can take this list idea and pop it into thumbnails and sort of start developing it. From there. You could even go through colors and the sounds and the rhythms and 44 etcetera music notes . That's when I should have written down some music notes. Something like that might be what I would call that first ideas if you think a music poster music notes, so I wouldn't necessarily go with the obvious because it is the obvious. So what's the layer or two under that? That's the ones that we're going to want to get. Teoh. Um, it could even go down to, just like when it was that, um, the spotlight that could have been something not necessarily a direct spotlight, but what shapes are attached to that. How could your colors, you know, impact with that? What if you get a really interesting grid like stage to that, and then you can start building your poster up around that sort of concepts. It might look abstracted whenever it's done, but you know that has a basis in reality, and it's going to mean more because it's gonna reflect the concept of your client's wishes . So everyone's gonna connect, the client's gonna connect and the viewers gonna connect to make them excited to come to the festival. So for this section, do some list making grab pencil of a pen, whatever you use and go to town. As usual, don't forget to share. It's fun to see everyone's process on its The process for this one's gonna be so specifically important towards our end product, because that's what's building it up. So let's share and see what you're doing. All right, I'll see in the next lesson 7. Mind Mapping: all right. Mind mapping. It's going to be akin to our list, making it but a little bit more of a definite structure to it. Mind mapping works really similarly, but it's starting more with the concept and then building out from there for mine. I'm just gonna use tracing paper. I did actually have a couple samples for you, and it is, you know, hard to see through saving as when we're doing our phone nails. I don't like the precious paper when I'm in the idea generating stage just like something that's quick, cheap, disposable. And I don't mind flipping through hundreds of sheets if I need to. Ah, lot of my projects. What is this, 100 sheets I usually use about one of these per projects. So I you know, I started a combo platter, so I'm sketching some listing some mind mapping, some of interests that we're going to be getting Teoh a little bit of everything. Just sort of get that idea. I have to put paper behind it so you can see it. But just so you can sort of see how this functions, I start with an idea in the middle and for this one. I was working with a concept of possibilities, so you could even pick goalwards with this. And this is the sort of in the early January when you're making your New Year's resolution . So what were the possibilities of the year? So for this project that you're working on, maybe yours is going to be and you can pick a work classical or you could have festival or what have you find that key word that you're shooting for? And that's going to be your starting cause for the rest of it. All right, so here it is. I was interested. I have a lot of interests, obviously. So ceramics, The designs I used to do mid Alec arts. I wanted to make more patterns, really need the work on my Etsy shop a little bit more and as well keep going on the block and instagram, etcetera, etcetera. And then I do you guess the listing on the sides. Because when I'm doing this, I'm thinking, Oh, you know what? I need some X, y and Z in order to accomplish this goal. So I dio a bit of combo platter with this one also, you can keep shooting off from there. Let me go further back this waas one working on for gift guide at a newspaper. So Alright, gift guide that is going to be our keyword. And this was in the middle of a meeting where we're with the publisher and we're also talking to the sales rep. So everyone sort of involved, you know what would be the high end gifts? The kid gifts, the retails automotive with the automotive weaken. Take it further. We had Nissan, Honda Ford and then this is where it comes in handy because what ends up happening long time when you're trying to generate ideas. If this is a holiday gift guide, how many ways can you say holiday Christmas, Christmas trees, holly, pine precedents, those. But what about what about etcetera? So you can't keep searching for the same thing. And you it helps to give each of the ads in that publication its own theme. So we sort of map that out beforehand. So we had ornaments, holly tree, and then whatever it waas plus their you know, X y z deal for that for the retails. It was going to blues and borders etcetera. So what kind of borders is it? Decorative borders. Linear border. That that? That. That that That So then you can keep going from there. All right, so I started one for the classical music poster as well. Not put that down so we can see it grabbing our handy dandy pencil. So what is classical music? So now we're shifting into our project zone. All right, so that's going to be our focus. Because we do want to have something, and we said it. We want it to be classy, but edgy. What does that mean? So half of the time, your client might not even quite know what that means. It's going to be up to you, Teoh. Define those sub structures for them. What does classy represent is it? The type faces isn't the colors. You can see how this works. All right, So what? Typefaces? Maybe they want script in a Sarah, maybe for the colors. They're thinking the browns reds, the more elegant colors. What are elegant colors for you, but that what are the edgy colors? Because we can flip that over on this side. I don't know. Neons Air having their heyday again. Maybe we want to sneak in neon in there. Maybe classy is just black and white. Maybe with a little bit of silver somewhere. Or the gold foiling or what have you Something Put gold foil down there also. So this starts is like a thought. Treat one idea to the next branch. Each branch has its, you know, little offshoots. So this is how you can just keep going with these ideas. So if we had classy with our typeface and color and I do box in the main ones so that I can find it. So what type faces then are edgy? Maybe I want the Grand Villa. Maybe I want the typewriter. Look, maybe one a nice, you know, modern San Serif. I don't know. What sort of things did Mozart do If I'm going to go with the Mozart festival or whatever your festival is, you know, Sonatas, etcetera, etcetera. You might have to refer to our friend Wiki if you want, so that you can get some cosmic. You're like, I mean, I know Mozart. Is that what that most are actually dio find out a little bit? This is that research stage as well as the gut instinct staged. Our gut instinct is we probably know how to deal with the colors and are tight faces. But what exactly is in the orchestra? You know, we have the bass, viola, violin, cello. We have our conductor. He has his baton on this podium. I put everything down that I can think of. So it may be one of those will spark an image later down the line that I can use. So for this section, do the exact same thing. What is your keyword? Find that plunk that right down in the middle, Put a nice little circle around it. What are the first rings around it? And then what sort of is based upon this? Yours might be as big as this table. Go for it. There's no size limitations with this one. You know, just keep stacking to it, taping it up to this, whatever you want. So for this section, experiment with the mind map and think of it as a word dump. Almost like what reference materials could bring themselves into this piece and in turn, function within your page layout. So if it was to conductor and his baton. Maybe that just sparked an image for you. But until you sort of just like with our thumbnail sketches, until you get enough of these down, maybe you won't have a spark. Quit. You know, keep pushing until you get that Ah ha moment that I like to call the ah ha moment. Like, Ah, this is the one. I know what I want to Dio s. Oh, this is a good way to start even before thumbnail sketches this in the list because it's going to build up our imagery for this. So give this one a shot and we will continue on in the next section. 8. Pinterest: all right. So I'm not going to belabor interest, because I know we have all fallen down that rabbit hole, but I did want to talk briefly about how you can use it for work. So in this case, I actually use it for student projects or student inspirations. And also for ones that are a little bit more, you know, four client to client, like this project that I had where the client wanted a letter press invite that was rustic . And I had this inkling, as we often do with clients, that the word rustic to me it might not be what the rustic her waas. And, uh, I think that what, you actually want it with something more along lines like this. It was a more whimsical nature, based rather than actual rustic. So what I like to do is use contrast to prep clients for at least, like it's like a mood board for them. So which ones do you like? Which ones, you know? Are you leaning more towards which ones do you have a response, Teoh. So it could be really beneficial for this and as well when I'm working on committees when we're building an artist's coop in this one area. They wanted complete branding concepts and not just what the logo would look like. But what was aesthetic of their actual store? What were their clients? What did the store displays look like? Etcetera eso when you're on a committee and I think there was around 15 on this committee when we're building this, um, this is really great way again to mood board and get everyone on the same page. Now, one of the issues that you might find when it comes to Pinterest is that you will pin pen, pen, pen, pen, pen and forget what you pinned. So that's going to Segway us into our next section. 9. Analog Pinterest: right now a little bit of analog Pinterest. What happens a lot of the time since we fall down that rabbit hole if interest and we pin pin pin. We have thousands and thousands of things in our desired on boards, and we never go back and organize it, and we don't often go back to it in general. But there was a lot of ideas in there that might be influential to your work in the future . So what I like to dio is do something called and a long interest. It's sort of scrapbook e also, but it's not, you know, it's not like scrapbooking, your family. It's sort of like scrapbooking your ideas, so to speak. I am a sucker for the target dollar, Ben. So I always pick up whenever it's either you know, inexpensive journals and notebooks in the front s O. That, and I'll just flip it around. I can put the ideas that I like and I see around, um, in it and then I could refer back to it s o this one. This one was a pattern project that we were working on, and I wanted to just sort of think about what was the colors that I liked? What are the shapes that I like? So I did start with Pinterest and there is a board of it on there. But the ones that I really like, they went ahead and then I just printed it out. So there are a lot here, of course, in some shapes and things that I like patterns on things repeats non repeats, nice geometrics pieces that, for whatever reason, influenced me. At that time, you can use scotch tape. You can use pretty washi tape of all you're gonna need is a print out of some sort. And some of these I do just do in black and white. If it's just, you know, something for drawling or ceramics or what have you keep a notebook? Pretty much for every subject that I'm interested in so somewhere gonna be more graphic design and pattern based. Some are gonna be ceramic based. Actually, do have the ceramic one here also. So if you wanted to see that, it's just a nice way for me to go back and think about it. It's so much different when you see it in paper in front of you and to look at the forms and the textures and the colors versus scrolling through on the screen. I have some issues reading on the Internet. For some reason, I like the book in the paper tangible in front of me, and I feel like sometimes this version is the exact same way. This is similar to mood boards, but it's just for you and your reference. If you don't have access to a printer, I get a lot of magazines. Also, um, the ones that I like have you know, the colors and here is perfect. One thing I love about the home interior ones is you can get what's basically on Pinterest but here in print format. So if you really like something, once you're done reading it, just cut it out and then you just glue it in and be able to access it at any time. There are some great deals on Amazon for magazines. Grab one at your grocery store and also check your libraries and book sales because a lot of times people will donate them or when at the libraries they go out of code, they'll put them for sale on then you can get them for a really cheap price. And those air kind of nice, because then you don't feel quite so precious. Like cutting up a really nice magazine versus coming up When you got in the junk, Ben, A library is completely different. But use anything. You sail bills, etcetera. What? What can you cut and paste from? Basically. So for this, we're gonna need our scissors. You're going to need tape of some sort. I use washi tape, but you could just use scotch tape. You can use duct tape, tape tape to your heart's contentment. How's that sound? And then just grab them and just start cutting, cutting and pasting. I like to do this stage when I'm actually watching a movie or television because this doesn't this stage of it doesn't require a whole lot of thought. Uh, so, you know, have a movie going and listen to some music. Have some tea. Next, you know, to your desk area or your couch and just just have some fun working. Um, grabs a member tape, All right. And your guests that go ahead and just tape that in, uh, you can get really fancy with this if you want, or if you just be pretty straightforward like this. As we said at the beginning, this is you finding out what processes work best for you. Sex floor, You know, Do you want to make the layouts a little bit more interesting? Maybe you're gonna actually make it more of a collage. Go for it. Work, Work in the style that makes you happy. Um, find things that air inspiring Teoh. And then what's nice with this is when your end those and we all have them. I have so many ideas, have so many ideas, and then you sit down to work, and then you're like, I actually don't have any idea now what happened? I love these for that because I just go. Okay, grab one. I keep them on a shelf beside my work area. Just grab one and flip through it. And maybe color is going to spark the idea. Or the little brush works here, etcetera. Whatever it is, sometimes you just need that extra little push. If you're in that the drought there drought stage of inspiration. So this product there, this course is about, you know, inspiration, General, how do you idea? Generate, But also what happens when you don't have the ideas that could be also one of the trickiest stuff, having too many ideas and then having no ideas. These air. Great, because it gives you a tangible that you can refer back to in glean from and seek the inspiration that babies rule re spark you that day. That inspired you the previous day. So these air great just to keep around in that drought period. So for this project, maybe print out like I don't know depends on your notebook to on the page, maybe five sheets, so it gives you 10. It just gives you a little bit to start with. You can keep them in a separate note book if you want or, you know, just put in your sketchbook. That's fine also, so whatever works best for you think about the project. You know, classical music. What textures were colors? What typefaces, What layouts? What poster styles Are you thinking? Swiss? Are you thinking grunge? Etcetera, research, whatever that is. Print out a couple, tape them in and, as usual, share them with us that we can see part of your process 10. Mood Boards: mood boards could be a lot of fun. I like to think of them as a sort of digital collage. You can use them just for your own sort of guidance and set it up the concept. Are you working on a brand? What are their colors, their textures? What images relate to it? Or are you creating one to show your client? So it's gonna be a little bit more polished, So let's take a look at both of those, All right, So for our mood boards, you can use your magazines, of course, if you want. But if it's a really case specific project, and I'm just going to use my files from the co op that we were building, um, it might be easier to start with the online inspirations and then Rangel the ones that are the most important that encapsulate your project. The best eso for this one. You can use foot shop to do the collage of your mood boards. You can use illustrator. I actually had binding in design because I like to think an in design, but what you want to do is look through some of the things that you have pinned and maybe grab around 10 10. That represents, uh, project in its purest form. So I don't know. Maybe they like the idea of the reclaimed crate. Look for their counters and the register. Right click download that linked file. Actually, let's just download it, are downloads and then just assemble all of the ones that you find that would work best for your project, minimizing this hopping into in design. Eso Then what I ended up doing is picking out, in this case 24688 of the pieces to present to the community as a sort of guideline as to where we wanted to take this brand. And it's, you know, vision for the community. Eso think of this is a digital collage. What represents them? What sort of gritting would represent it most? You know, these could be really decorative. They could be kind of plane. It's going to be completely up to you, but it's nice to have them gathered in one spot. And when I have these, I like, too. Print them out and just sort of tack them up and stare at them for a while while I think about where does this project need to go? Etcetera also gets everyone on the same page, and it helps with, you know, building the brand and burled in the vision that they have that 11. Conclusion: from mood boards to mind maps, toe lists and sketches to our friend Pinterest, an analog Pinterest. We've explored a lot of techniques today, and I hope that you're going to be able to incorporate some of them into your workflow. Remember, one of best things that you can do is find a way of working that works best for you. And this class is designed to help you explore and experiment with new ways of doing that. I hope you have fun with the project to be sure to share it below, and I'll see you next time.