iteration

The next part of the design process, well, my design process anyway, sounds kind of mathematical. My guess is that as an engineer or a reformed engineer that I like the idea of design being a process. That there is the sense of a scientific method about it. Some way to formalize the design process, systematize it.

I think often the perception is that art and design processes are very open-ended and very ‘artistic’, non-repeatable, non-systematic.  But I think if you look closely, the most successful artists and designers aren’t working haphazardly, but instead are working very systematically. With focus on a specific idea, or theme, or subject.  They also have a schedule. If you think about the words used to describe it, it’s an artist’s practice, or a design practice.

I have a practice, a system or process in place. I like to seek inspiration, I like to record things as I outlined in my journal entry on processing ideas. And I also like to iterate which I would consider part of my design development but also my design review process.

So you’ve had a great idea. You got some inspiration. Fantastic. But, without bursting your bubble, you know what? Ideas are a dime a dozen. I mentioned this in my last journal entry, processing ideas, as well. So, we’ve got something, an idea, from our inspiration. Now what? How do we develop this idea further?

One way that I found is through iteration, just really going deeper into what it is that you’re trying to say. What is this inspiration? What is it that spoke to you about this thing in particular? How can you take that idea and examine it more closely?

This is where you can really begin to define and give meaning to what you’re trying to say. You captured a glimpse. Now it’s time to iterate and practice and narrow the gap between your vision and what you are able to make.

It’s not necessarily about The Meaning. Maybe it’s more about looking at the forms, the shape, the color, the texture, the line. What happens if you repeat that again? And what happens if you cut it in half? What if you rotate it? What if you flipped the value, change the blacks to whites, the light colors to dark colors. What if you make it monochrome? Two colours? What if you do the same thing every day for a hundred days? In different ways. What if you work with one shape for a hundred days, see where this takes you?

I have done a couple of hundred days projects (here’s one). I have some great iterations. A string of work I can refer back to and know that I really got somewhere. Maybe I ended up with more questions than answers, but I got some more information about my idea. This information comes out of this iteration, out of going deeper, extending this idea.

Chances are that the first idea that you had was good. But what if you keep working at it? What are the chances that your 50th idea will be 50 times as good as your first idea? Even if your 50th iteration is only 10% better than your first idea, that’s still better than the first idea, right?

I think we hold first ideas quite close to our hearts, at least I know I do. It’s hard sometimes to kill our darlings and admit that maybe it could be better. Is that about the fear that if we look at our idea more closely, or too closely, that it will disappear? Or evaporate? Or on closer inspection, gasp, not be as good as we thought it was?

It’s doesn’t have to be about ‘am I going to ruin it?’  It can be about ‘can I take this and see what happens to it next?’ Being open to the possibilities. If you are worried about ruining something, take a photo before you start, make a photocopy, but then change it, alter it, go deeper.

This is where the real magic happens. This is how you go from good idea to great idea, or even brilliant idea. Artists don’t stop at the first step, they keep going.

This idea of keep going is something I’m going to review as well over this longer weekend. I’m going to dip back into a book I have revisited a few times, Austin Kleon’s Keep Going. It’s all about that. Not only having the courage to keep going and retaining or maintaining motivation. It’s also about going deeper with your idea.

So, keep going, explore further and come with me on an iterative journey.