Austin Kleon's books are great little no fluff kickstarters. I can't recommend them highly enough if you need a little motivator. Reading them helps get me out of my own head and get down to the work at hand. He demysiifies the process basically do the work, a little everyday keep the flow and momentum goung. As a busy Mum i've learnt how to make my time count and get down to work when I need to but he emphasised something that really helped me given the choice of an hour a day or 1 dedicated day a week for design he'd take the hour a day every time. I've been implemeting that lately and rather than having acouple of dedicated days a week i've found my designs have gone much smoother when i'm exercuining that muscle a little everyday. there's more fluidity I can easily pick up where I left off without that disjointed feeling and I don't forgot the actions i've just used in PSD and AI.
Is Finding Your Own Style Mandatory?
I've been a long term fan of Kyle and his brush set so it was sweeet to read something of him and his design methods. It's often drummed into us that we have to find our own unique style but Kyle has made a great design career as a design schizophrenic he's an advocate of keeping things fresh and interesting. Here's a link to the original article No one wants to feel like they are painting or designing by numbers churning out the same style of print in the same colour palette just to fit an aesthetic they have created for themselves. I've often wondered if I bounce around too much. My style doesn't seem to have stuck yet and that's ok some days i'll enjoy doing an intricate botanical in photoshop and other days I want to do something gestural and abstract with an indexed flattened look in illustrator. I enjoy the variety and think i'll be designing this way for a long time to come. Vive le design schizophrenics.....
