Trying to battle a full-on viral attack, I’ve tried to concentrate on work and have been going back to basics in my design process. Since reading Logo Design Love by David Airey (really recommend this for learning about the logo design process), I’ve been very conscious about my approach to projects and as such, decided to ditch the 100% techno approach and pick up the pen again. I’ve noticed my increasing bad habit of going straight to screen when conceptualising, although this hasn’t, to my knowledge, marred the results as they have been generally well received, it’s a bad habit nonetheless. I’ve got an illustration project on the go at the minute and have applied this technique by mind-mapping and basically word associating before doodling, and even then I began sketching freely on paper to explore all possibilities before hitting the screen.

It felt a bit silly at first, but once I had a collection of keywords, several images immediately came to mind, as opposed to coming up with one or two ideas off the bat and running with them straight away. The process of elimination looks at as many possibilities as possible, and it’s this exploration that strengthens the eventual final concept. As well as trying to be more aware of the thought process behind the product, I’ve actually really enjoyed going back to pen and paper. I’ve always admired the clean, cut, boldness of vector images, but there’s just a charm that comes with using analogue instruments; The rough edges, uneven spacing, even the mistakes. What do you think?

So the next time you hear from me, it’ll be from the other side of the Irish Sea, which will be a first for my blog, I think! I haven’t got a flat sorted out yet, so I’ll be doing the gracious thing of squatting at Le Éléphant’s flat while he is away working. Ahh flat-hunting. It’ll be refreshing viewing places that don’t (I really hope they don’t) have mould on the curtains, slugs in the sink, ants in the drawers, and brown paisley carpet.

Have you been going analogue this week?