How vs. why
In my forever ongoing education as an artist/graphic designer, I made yet another realization today. I guess I’d known this for quite some time but hadn’t really articulated it. Basically, at some point in the last 5 years, I made the transition from spending the majority of my time experimenting and figuring out how to create what I have in mind, to spending the majority of my time deciding between this option and that.
Before, I would spend hours and hours trying to figure out how to shade correctly, how to create a certain effect in Photoshop, how to draw the human body, etc. Now I spend the majority of my deciding between serif vs. sans-serif, humanist vs. grotesque, red vs. slightly orange, big vs. small, photo A or photo B, javascript or actionscript, etc. etc. The question is no longer “how,” but “why” this one element or style or whatever is better than the alternative.
I think a lot of things came together to abet this transition, among them primarily the huge assortment of free Photoshop tutorials on the fabulous, crazy Internets. Now I don’t have to really learn how to do anything anymore – if I desire a certain effect, I just look up the appropriate page from my vast Delicious bookmarks collection and get the info I need right away to recreate the target look. Likewise, even though I know fairly well how to render a human figure by hand, I never really will need to, because iStockphoto.com has a ridiculously large collection of human vector figures in any imaginable pose, to be had for just a few dollars and a click. The amount of readymade resources in the design world are bafflingly huge. No wonder nowadays I find myself pondering “why” rather than “how.”
Perhaps this is just another difference between how an art-oriented mind vs. a design-oriented mind operates. Art more is about the visual expression of the unfamiliar or original. Design is about the arrangment of elements (implied: preexisting) to make something pleasing. A long time ago, I thought art and design were quite similar in process because they require many of the same visual skills, but now more and more, I’m reevaluating this belief.
However this doesn’t mean the two can’t mesh, as I would always aim for – it merely means that each discipline has a lot to learn from the process of the other. For instance, I wonder if the design process is not limiting itself by focusing too much on picking and choosing between preexisting elements. I know that there are designers out there who go all out and make/experiment with everything from scratch, but that’s not the way it is taught or practiced at a lot of firms, including the one I work at. That is something I would like to take away from the art mindset more.
Sometimes its good to be aware of what you are doing, how you are operating on a day-to-day level, what conventions you’ve fallen into and others that you’ve abandoned. Which is why I write these rambly entries, I guess. =)
You have an interesting perspective. I am in a different position for sure, but I too have been sometimes contemplative about my lack of creative “fiddling” when doing my work. Sometimes, instead, I just try to get the work done in what should be the most efficient means possible. I, however, am trying to keep my “fiddling” tendencies because I typically learn more and create a better end-product. Now it takes a lot more time, but I also find it more enjoyable sometimes. Perhaps that is why research interests me.
“The history of every major galactic civilization has passed through three distinct and recognizable phases: those of survival, inquiry, and sophistication. Otherwise known as the ‘How’, ‘Why’, and ‘Where’ phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question: ‘How can we eat?’ The second by the question: ‘Why do we eat?’ And the third by the question: ‘Where should we have lunch?’”
-HHGTTG, radio, Fit the Sixth
… followed shortly by the ‘OMNOMNOM’ phase.
Sorry, I don’t have anything intelligent to add.
is there a way to become a content writer for the site?