Five (5) Creative Process for Designers

February 8, 2021

Written by Najihah Najlaa

We just finished with our Weekly Webinar #3 – The Creative Process for Designers last week! We had a pleasant time discussing about so many things such as, Freelancing, the structure, the steps involved in creative process and many more! Here’s the takeaways of the main topics I’ve shared during my Weekly Webinar #3 – The Creative Process for Designers!

The FIVE (5) SYSTEMATIC Creative Process

1. The Clients

Clients are the first persona you encounter when getting an inquiry. You received a request to help them to solve a problem. THEIR problem. Being a graphic designer or a Creative is all about solving problems there is. Not like an Artist. Artists share and express their emotions and thoughts thru their ARTS. They help attract others who are relatable to them. If you are a designer, finding ways to solve someone’s problems. Being creative is the ability to create new ideas to design new perspectives on existing ones.

What are the first steps after getting a client?

Establish the scope of Work (SOW) – What exactly do they want me to do for them?
Provide quote for the project – How much you need to charge for your work?
Is this project you want to work on? – Will you enjoy making it with THEM?

2. The Discovery

What is there for you to discover? INFORMATION. Gather as many information as possible.

What to gather?

Begin by gathering all information of the project.
Involve everyone at different levels and get as many information as possible.
Write down everything that you collected into a general brief (Creative Brief)
Avoid missing information & miscommunication

3. The Strategy

You need a strategy to gather all information needed about the project. You have to ensure all main goals are defined properly & ACCURATELY. Start with brainstorming. Inspiration can come from anywhere.

Where should I start?

Connect all information – Experiments the ideas.
Deductive ideation – Leverage design thinking to develop visuals.
Capture ideas – Do simple thumbnail drawing, or sketches.

What is the best practice?

Media, capture your attentions thru media consumption
Wander on internet can work too
Looking at other people’s work for inspo
Go thru all your past collection / works
Create moodboard of ideas

4. Creative Work

Focus on the sketches and quick iteration. The sketches are all very small and quick. Create the visuals. Spent time sketching and sketching, finally try to come up with a pretty good idea of the direction you want to bring the final product.

What should I consider?

Choosing style, colors, type etc – Pick the best aesthetic for design.
Create sketches – Thumbnail drawing to assist vector building.
Learn the skills – Create precise vector-based artwork.

Why sketches / wire-framing?

Quick and iterative
Time to question your design and try & error (ie: test your typeface, colors, etc)
Questions: “How the product will function?” “How interface will feel? “ “How the logo will be?” “What is the potential issues and solution could be?”

5. Finishing Project

Here is where the details of the final design take place and your end-result. Focus goes in polishing the whole product, making sure everything is working smooth and properly. Open mind for flexibility. Creativity is eager for knowledge. The more you want to learn, the more creativity is maximized.

How should I deliver?

Organize assets – File naming, folder system, etc
File format – Variety of creative assets.
Archiving – Create brand standard guide.

Creative Doesn’t Have to be Linear….

Those are the SYSTEMATIC way on how can you improve your creative process but it does not have to be linear as exactly like stated above. You are welcome to tweak based on your experience and preferences, depending on when is the best time and best way to get your creative juice flowing!

“Your structure has to be linear, but your process doesn’t.”

Start with a Piece of Puzzle

If you’re writing a novel you could actually start with the middle or the end.
You could start with a scene of a movie or with a description character in your screenplay
If you’re stuck on building a user interface, design the second or third screen. Then come back to the first.
For Logo designer, have the whole shape first then come back to refine it.

One of the things I’ve learned through the years is that be creative is not only a matter of having a well structured plan. This need to be accompanied by a good dose of spices. This extra ingredient of creativity, sometime can be found by thinking out of the box. GET OUTSIDE OF THE BOX. Go outside of your routine. Do something different everyday. A small difference goes a long way.

I hope this article will be a good inspiration for some of you and help you to understand better your road journey to creativity.

Thank you very much for reading it and have a great day!