Creation

Now that you've explored the fundamental principles of graphic design in the previous two chapters—understanding color and contrast—you might be wondering, "How do I turn these concepts into compelling designs?" The answer lies in the transformative process of creation.

Design is much more than a theoretical discipline—it's a craft, an art form, and a means of effective communication. Learning the principles of design is a crucial foundation, but true mastery comes through hands-on experience, through creation.

Getting Started

The theory you've read and reflected in this module provides the groundwork for basic design, but applying that knowledge in practical projects is where you truly grasp the concepts. By creating your designs, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how color, contrast, typography, and other elements work together. There will be times in this course where you feel that you do not have the skill set to create something on par with professional works (see the illustration to the right), or are confused as to how to achieve a certain look or style. That's okay! No one is born proficient in design, and even the best designers in the world were once where you are standing now. Many subdisciplines of design also rely on a strong knowledge of the rest of the natural world (such as math and science), or cross disciplinary ideas (psychology, sociology, education). The best approach to learning design is to create materials that interest you, and start developing the vocabulary to critique the ubiquitous or invisible designs that surround you in your everyday life.

In this chapter, you'll review common strategies to help kickstart your creative journey as a designer.

What You'll Be Creating This Semester

The TGJ Digital Design course is structured to help develop your skills across a wide array of media. In this course, you'll have opportunities to work with print material (such as branding labels, schematic diagrams, posters), digital content (such as websites, typefaces, audio/visual works) and experimental mediums (such as VR/AR, 3D printing, and streaming platforms)

Beverage Label Assignment

Subway Map Assignment

Typography Assignment

3D Printing Assignment

Streaming Assignment

Beat Match Assignment

Strategies for Learning Design

Create a Road Map

Design is not just about creativity; it's also about strategic thinking and effective planning. That's where roadmapping comes into play. Roadmapping in design is the process of creating a structured plan to guide a project from its initial concept to successful execution. Begin by clearly defining the project's goals, objectives, and constraints. What problem are you trying to solve, and what are the project's specific requirements? Be as detailed as possible. It helps to jot down your ideas and thoughts in some external location (paper notebook, notes app, Word doc, etc.) to help organize your thinking.

Reverse Engineer

Choose a design you admire and attempt to reverse engineer it. Analyze the color choices, typography, layout, and other design elements. Try to recreate it as closely as possible. This exercise not only sharpens your technical skills but also helps you understand the decisions that went into creating the original design.

Download a copy of the design, trace it out, find the fonts used, dissect the work piece-by-piece. Just remember that these designs still belong to those who made them, even if you make your own version.

Seek Inspiration

Inspiration can be found everywhere, from nature to architecture, from street art to packaging. Explore image search engines, social media platforms, and design showcases for ideas. There are loads of fantastic platforms that provide you with inspiration, some will even provide some template files for you to work directly on (but make sure you are following copyright laws and academic honesty policies if you decide to submit this work for evaluation in the course).

Take note of designs that catch your eye and analyze why they work.

Develop Your Vocabulary

Expand your design vocabulary by seeking out resources that translate what you see into technical terms. YouTube tutorials, tutorials for the software we are working with, design books and materials provided to you by the teacher, and discussions with peers and instructors can help you grasp the terminology and concepts used in the industry.

Redesign Existing Works

Challenge yourself to redesign an existing work to serve a better purpose. Whether it's a poster, a website, or a logo, think about how you can improve it. Redesigning existing works not only flexes your creative muscles but also teaches you to critically evaluate design choices.

Collaborate and Seek Feedback

Don't hesitate to collaborate with peers or seek feedback from your teacher. Critiques and feedback are invaluable for growth. They provide fresh perspectives and help you refine your designs. The best thing you can do to improve is to acknolwedge that there is always room for growth and that criticisms of your work don't necessarily need to be taken negatively.

When Stuck, Just Create!

Much like writers and poets, designers experience their own form of "writer's block". One of the best ways to unstick yourself from these moments is to just open a new document and see where your brain takes you. Approach a blank canvas with some humility, knowing that your first brush strokes of any work will always need refining. Even great works go through multiple iterations and versions before arriving at the end.

Reflection #3 - Creation

Your culminating activity for this course is a portfolio of all of your best works you create this semester. You will begin this process today!

Prepare a 200 word reflection on the topic of where you stand today in your journey as a budding designer. Use the following prompts as a guideline for your reflection. You do not need to answer all of them. Do you have prior experience in design or are you completely new to these concepts? How creative are you? How technical are you? What assignment are you excited to try out the most? What are your worries or fears? What strategies are you interest in trying? What have your thoughts been throughout reading these 3 chapters?

Upload your completed reflection to the virtual classroom space.

In preparation for your culminating activity, you'll want to make sure you keep a detailed log of your work, your files, and your processes. Take some time now to establish where you will save your work this semester. It is recommended that you opt to save your work in the cloud to avoid losing work. Also, be sure to give all of your files proper descriptive filenames to help you locate what you need later down the road.

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