Read, Re-Read, Repeat

Intuition is a gem. A rare precious gem for us creatives. It guides us on our creative discovery, lead us to interesting solutions to problems, tells us wether or not our work feels or looks right. Intuition, like a gem, need time to shape. We need to burn it with constant heat to make it useful. A time consuming investation that worth to wait.

“Intuition does not come to an unprepared mind. You need to train before it happens.” For me, reading and practicing collection of articles below is a part of my intuition training. Hard workout for my creative muscles. What’s yours?

Design Principles Series

image downloaded from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

image downloaded from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

Get back to basic with this series of article by Steven Bradley. On the first part, Steven writes about basic theory and definitions of gestalt principles. Gestalt principles are important to understand. They provide a visual foundation of everything designers do. Make sure you read other articles of this comprehensive series.

Improve Your Artwork by Learning to See Light and Shadow

image downloaded from http://design.tutsplus.com/

image downloaded from http://design.tutsplus.com/

Another great series of basic principles. The different is, this one intended for illustrators. First part explains about light, shadows, reflection, and edges. Monika Zagrobelna, the writer of this series, writes “If your painting looks flat and you need to draw outlines to bring attention to the shapes, you’re doing it wrong. Lines should appear on their own as borders between two different values, so they’re based fully on contrast.” Read the rest of the series: Color Fundamentals: Shading and Advanced Coloring.

Learning to See

image downloaded from https://ia.net/

image downloaded from https://ia.net/

“Learning to design is learning to see”, an extract that explain the main idea of this “love letter to designers”. Part of designers job is to clearly express things visually. That means two things: to see as a “designer” and as “non-designers”. How to balance that and develop your taste? Read the rest of this retrospective article.