How to practice to have better ideas?
When you are in school, study is something very natural (or at least it should be). What do you do in school? You read a lot of books, you answer questions, you listen to the teacher, you think, you learn!
When you are a professional, specially in illustration and advertising, what do you do to get better? The same you do in school, you study and you learn! And how do you do that you might ask?
You can start by asking some questions:
What field do I want to work in?
What is my dream job?
Does my style fit to this field?
Which brands fits into my dream job?
Do they already work or could work with illustration?
For instance, for me it’s not smart to work on an illustration for luxury, my style doesn’t fit. Unless the brand decides to do something completely out of their identity, they won’t contact me. The brands that like my work are fresh, simple, fun, modern and young. Fields like food, street wear, drinks, games, books, magazines, apps, surface design (to name a few) are probably the ones who are going to contact me. So when I study illustration I try to create pieces for brands from those fields.
After I choose a brand I have to figure out what to illustrate. To be able to have an idea, I try to ask myself some questions:
What’s the brand history?
Where they sell their products?
How do I see this brand?
How do I consume it?
Once I find a good idea, I search if it have already been done. If they did something similar to my idea, I keep thinking on a new idea. If not, I work on my concept and a I make a final piece.
I try to practice illustration and work on new ideas as often as I can. This post is all about that. I hope you like it.
