Do you have a creative process?
I’d like to hear about it and how it’s related to your type. I’ll write mine down but I’m really interested in hearing from anybody who likes design.
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I’m honestly not sure on how it relates to my type because I’m a gut type. Tbh I think I used my 4 fix more which did made me mistype as a 4 around 7 years ago. But I’ve grown since then and realized how my image isn’t my first priority and I was ready to abandon it when more important things came up. Most recently, I had to leave anything related to design because I had zero autonomy or choice over my work.
Most of my inspiration starts by looking at very undesigned stuff. The less designed it is, the better. Not necessarily ugly though, rather unintentional. Recently I started to look at furniture in my grandmothers house, how nothing really fits together, maybe the streaks of paint on wood would be interesting. Maybe it’s the brassy look of the picture frames. Or the dead flowers that nobody decided to throw away. Once I find something inspiring, I start with the creative process.
At this point I take the object and understand it fully. What makes the object this way, what are its properties, what can I repeat/emphasise and what should I ignore. There isn’t much logic behind it besides the fact that I like certain things and not others. Once I pick with aspect I want, I’ll try to reproduce the same “unintentional” effect that inspired me. Whether it’s a painting method, or texture that I want in my furniture, whatever it is, I’ll shape it in a way that makes me experience that image again.
At the beginning, it’s usually very raw and I prefer not showing anyone. Usually this point is the most fragile point - interference really confuses me and I lose focus. Most people discourage me because they “haven’t seen anything like it before”. So I keep my work hidden until I’m done.
Here’s a picture of an exercise I did years ago.
I had to design a package for an object that was given to us with my partner, and we were given an orange.
So I started with the basics like the appearance, the texture, the smell and the leathery feeling. I like how peeling it gives a spiral form, so i started with that, like i image 1.
At that point my partner wanted the orange to be placed in a flower bud but that was an idea that I’ve seen before - I suggested we put petals on the spiral. This is the point where I usually stop, like in the second image, I like keeping things at a simple drawing form in a way that only people who are able to visualize it will get it.
We’ve made a cardboard prototype of it and I fitted a small mechanism that allows the spiral to unwind, the go back to its original shape. We’ve placed the orange inside.
I’ve photoshopped it to how the packaging could look, but when I put this much thought into something, it doesn’t matter how it turns out in the end because I feel like it’s irreplicable. The sketch and cardboard model is enough inspiration. I also like ideas that are half way done and aren't polished, this way I could imagine it or finish it in different ways depending on my mood.
It’s not practical, not fully formed and nothing that could be placed in a magazine, but to me it’s a seed that grows over the years until one day I make something better with it. Maybe I’ll refine it, add more spirals, maybe I want it to be glass like and transparent. I continue to repeat this until everything I do has a rhythm, somehow I discover what’s me in the process by looking at 10 things that I produced.