Editorial Design Inspiration for the New ABDZ
Editorial Design Inspiration for the New ABDZ
abduzeedo
Jun 19, 2018
For the past few weeks, I have been collecting visual references in branding as well as editorial design and sketching some ideas for a significant redesign for the Abduzeedo brand and site. I have been refining some of the concepts, at least, in my head they are crystal clear. For the brand, I want to make it friendlier and more abstract. For the site and overall branding collaterals, I want to keep it very simple and minimalist. So for this post, I want to share some of the visual references I have been collecting for the new website.
Most of the images for this post are editorial design examples I found on Pinterest. Each one has a particular area that caught my attention. It might have been the typography, the white space, or the way they call out a specific part of the content by the use of color. One characteristic they all share in common, the clean look with little to no color (just black and white) for content besides imagery.
I hope you like the direction we are heading and I will be sharing more about the process very soon. Till then, enjoy these editorial design inspiration.
Editorial Design
editorial design
How I Stay Creatively Inspired As A Graphic Designer
What drives me to do what I love and what inspires me to keep loving what I do?For every designer, it’s easy to fall into a rut because we’ve all been there at one point or another. Whether it’s from the same predictable routine, or simply, a lack of muse that leaves one feeling uninspired with their workflow — sometimes we begin to question our creative selves.To give some background, I am a Graphic Designer from Toronto and throughout my career, I honestly have been in that awkward creative-limbo where I’ve encountered blank slates, and at times, lacked the motivation to really stand behind the designs that I was tasked to create.However, despite those hiccups, I’ve come by a mantra that I’ve learnt to use as a constant reminder: “Do what you love, love what you do.”It’s a simple phrase, but how do you actually live by those words? This goes beyond then just gathering a Pinterest board (don’t get me wrong, those are still good design resources), but rather, it’s about discovering what drives your passion in the design field and how to inspire your creative imagination.Let me share 6 simple efforts that I personally carry out and make time for myself in order to grow my innovative curiosity and momentum.#1. Don’t just spot creative muse, actually understand why it inspired you in the first place.I like to draw creative enlightenment from random places, things and scenarios within my surroundings, where I’ve begun to coin these moments of inspiration as ‘design inspos’.Creative triggers are subjective, so my collective ‘design inspos’ are my own personal sightings that I find visually engaging. Sometimes I will spot an intricate mural on a building, a beautifully illustrated book cover in a storefront window or a cleverly designed menu while dining at a restaurant.It’s just a matter of noticing these little gems and taking a moment to actually ask yourself: “Why does this intrigue me?”When you become an observer, you learn a lot about yourself as a designer as you decipher what aspects of a design draws your attention in the first place. Overtime, I became more conscious of the creativity all around me, sometimes I would even research and look into the designers/artists behind those works to feed my inspirational fascination. When you analyze and grasp why a ‘design inspo’ speaks to you, you can begin to generate your creative ideas based on those pinpoint observations and takeaways.I was intrigued with these vines’ compositional integration with the mural’s gradient. (Art Square Cafe & Creperie, Toronto) — MY TAKEAWAY: How can I incorporate my illustrative designs with real life scenery?I drew inspiration from this artist’s distinctive style. (Mural by Thomarya Fergus, Visual Artist/Tattooist, Kensington Market, Toronto) — MY TAKEAWAY: To try experimenting with freehand-styled illustrations.#2. Get back to the basics, grab a pencil (or stylus).During my daily morning commute, I find time to doodle and jot down my free-flowing thoughts. This is an easy exercise, but it’s honestly about taking the time out of your day to have fun with it. It’s not about finalizing drafts but recording your spur-of-the-moment ideas while they’re fresh in your head.This allows you to create a starting point that could potentially branch out into passion driven side-projects. I use my daily rough sketches as reminders to expand on my potential ideas even further, sometimes even using them as a preliminary scope to begin building an envisioned concept.I took one of my rough sketches and photographed it being framed by a pair of eyeglasses. This collaborative experiment opened up a floodgate of potential creative concepts.Based on that first rough sketch, I was inspired to create more mixed media projects that incorporated my photography with my digital drawings.#3. Find passion in telling visual stories that are personal and meaningful to you.As designers, we are visual communicators, therefore we need to step back and remind ourselves that though we have bills to pay and we’re hired to tell other people’s stories, we can’t forget to also share our own.We have the power to visualize narratives and make ideas tangible, so make the effort to design something that you can feel equally as passionate about as you do when creating it.When I began to relate some of my interests and personal experiences into my design work, I became more invested and immersed with the projects that I had a connection with.Whether you are fortunate to work with a client that aligns with your interests or just being proactive enough to plan your own side-projects to share stories that resonate with you, it is a refreshing experience that’ll ignite your excitement and fulfillment as a designer.After volunteering at a cat shelter, I designed a brochure template related to nonprofit Animal Welfare organizations — not only was I able to execute a design concept that promoted a cause that I passionately supported, in the process I also had a lot of fun creating it.Three years ago, I was attending a conference in Charleston, SC when the tragic shooting took place at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. In the aftermath, I was moved by the community’s outpour of love and continued faith in humanity, inspiring me to illustrate a dedication to the 9 victims. ❤“It’s funny, I came to Charleston to become inspired creatively profession-wise (which I totally did), but I ended up drawing inspiration from a community that held strength and love in a time of uncertainty, controversy and grievance. To the citizens of Charleston, I thank you for sharing this aspect of life, whether you intended to or not — you are truly amazing.” [Read my full excerpt]#4. Step outside of your creative comfort zone and challenge yourself with different limitations.From the previous examples so far within this blog post, you can observe that my personal design style is playful and colourful. However, sometimes I will challenge myself to switch up the way I express myself creatively.Now and then, I will take on the 7-Day Black & White Challenge via Instagram. For a week, you are limited to posting only black and white photography with no people or explanations. I usually don’t lean towards black and white visuals, so with those restrictions in mind, I’m challenged to reevaluate my usual creative approach.I’m challenged to be more observant of certain design assets that I sometimes overlook — such as this scene’s various visual textures and patterns.Without the use of colour, I’m driven to analyze and convey my surroundings with a different creative lens.The reason why I find this daily effort inspirational is because when you push yourself outside of your comfort zone (which in my case, is relying on colour for impact), it affects your design decisions and strategy. When you strip away a visual asset or style that you would often comfortably use and gravitate towards, you’re challenged to be creatively resourceful and adaptive.Are you primarily a print-focused layout designer? Then explore the challenge of designing a layout for a UI/web project. Do you often work with a specific style? Switch it up with different font choices or colour palettes. In a nutshell, venturing into different design approaches and parameters will not only grow your diversity as a designer, but may also inspire you along the way.#5. Interact with creative industry leaders and peers.It’s one thing to sign up for a conference to hear a design-related lecture or to stream an online creative talk, but also try to get involved within the Design community to directly engage with fellow industry leaders and experienced colleagues/peers.The creative mind can be like a sponge, if you feed that curiosity and get involved with individuals that you can learn from, you continue to build your passion and interests for the design field.Engage with industry leaders: A great opportunity is registering for Design workshops, discussion panels and/or meet-&-greets. This way, you can work first-hand with knowledgable and well-known Creatives within the design community, as well as converse with industry leaders up close and personal.I attended the “Make a Logo the DDC Way Workshop” hosted by Aaron Draplin, logo designer and founder of Draplin Design Co., where I got to work first-hand with this kickass designer to visualize a vector inspired by my company’s office dog.Engage with your peers: Whether you carry out weekly design critiques or brain-storming sessions, make it a habit to become more aware of what your team members are working on and ask to be involved with the process if it interests you. Even if you’re not tasked to work directly on a certain project, observing as a spectator can be influential to your own design thinking process. Ask questions, review their design ideas and become inspired by their experiences and learnings.#6. Treat yourself to a new creative outlet, exploration of different tools leads to inspiration.This last effort is about exploring different creative outlets to hone in and exercise your imagination. It’s good to focus on perfecting our digital skills and knowledge of the latest design softwares, but sometimes we need to take a break from a computer-centric environment.After all, design goes beyond what is presumably achievable on a computer screen — so try exercising your design fundamentals through different mediums as an inspirational tactic. Personally, I like to work hands-on with new tools and crafts so I can self-explore my creative self and bring my design ideas to life through experimental outlets.After taking a class to create Pysanka Ukrainian Easter Eggs (a technique that uses wax to inscribe folk designs), I later became facinated with creating different design patterns.When I attended a Galaxy watercolor painting workshop, I was inspired to continue recreating layered gradients with textures in some of my design passion projects.I also like to go back to the basics with hand brush lettering to exercise my typography…and as you tell, I like to poke fun at my hubbie, Richard, lol.Thanks for reading my first blog post :)Overall, each of us as designers have our own subjective efforts to help us cultivate inspirational muse and personal motivation — however, I hope that some of my advice was helpful in discovering your ‘design-inspos’.Please feel free to comment and let me know how you personally stay driven and inspired as a fellow creative. I would love to hear how you keep doing what you love and loving what you do!Happy creating, folks! 👏How I Stay Creatively Inspired As A Graphic Designer was originally published in Muzli - Design Inspiration on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.