- barbedwards723
Designing can be messy
Fall is officially here! That means more Holiday card designs, centerpieces, wine glasses, door hangings, YAY! I’ve been blessed to already have a few custom card order requests in the pipeline and wanted to share a funny example of how I need to figure out a better design process. Many people look at a finished card and think, oh I can make that myself and you know what? In some cases, the end design is definitely something that is easy to replicate BUT the process to get to that end card is not as easy. Not to mention the tools, supplies and techniques that need to be learned. For those interested, my current process is sometimes a complete mess, I tend to be a very literal first drafter. …. But I really am working on it LOL
Perfect example; customer requested a bridal shower card for a bride who enjoys hiking and loves, loves, loves, her dog. My first try was to fight through how to capture a mountain, with a couple on top, alongside their dog, under a wedding canopy. What the heck was I thinking! That’s not all going to fit on a 4.25 x 5.5 card front. I spent a good hour trying to design it and figure out how to actually make it so it wouldn’t look like a 3 year old did a drawing! Ran through a ton of supplies, made a mess and in the end didn’t even have a card finished. But you power through. During the second hour, I got tired and started to just play around with a few different basic ideas, what type of fold do I want? What color scheme would work? Then my head spiraled again….Do I already have a stamp set I could use or do I need to go to Cricut for an image, size the image, pick the vinyl, cut the vinyl and apply the vinyl? How do I incorporate the dog? Do I want to use patterned paper or create my own background? Wait, is the bride traditional or more modern in style? Simple or fancy? I guess my point here is it’s so easy to overthink designing and get stuck in all the questions but you have to go on from there. Designing needs to be organic and once I let go of thinking about whether I’m meeting the exact literal guidelines, I made some really cool cards that my customer really loved too.
The 3 designs are below. She bought the one that I made last and almost didn’t even show her! You just never know, so design away, there are no mistakes just creative progress….
Don’t get me wrong not all of my designing goes like this, but when it does, it definitely pushes me as an artist and a human. Do any of you overthink things only to find out later that your gut would have led you better than your head ever did?
