Illustrator Phillip Knight has put together a great book that looks at the way designers and illustrators use sketchbooks. The book looks at the sketchbook processes of several great illustrator / designers such as Andrew Degraff, Tom Gauld, Iain Macarthur and Sketchybeast.

I have to say my sketchbook work pales in comparison with the beauty of some of the other contributors’ efforts. I do find the creative process fascinating. It seems to be the case that more illustrative mark-makers tend to approach their sketchbooks as pieces of work in themselves, whereas designers often work more like engineers who are trying to solve a problem. For me, the sketchbook is a cognitive tool that facilitates the production of work. It is functional and doesn’t have to look good because I am the only person who ever sees it.

The more I think about it the more complex and intriguing the sketchbook becomes.

I have recently graduated from Liverpool School of Art. Over the past three years I’ve learnt a huge amount about design, and about myself. There are however a handful of things that stand out as being particularly useful, so I thought I would share them with you.

1. “Being process oriented, not product driven is the most important and difficult skill for a designer to develop” – Matthew Frederick. As a student, I had a tendency to sit down in front of a blank piece of paper and expect the perfect solution to materialize miraculously. Often a solution did materialize, but it was always a very long way from being perfect. The trouble was that I was focussing too much on the product or end-point of creativity and was always in a rush to get to the end. A simple acceptance that ideas need to be developed, explored, played with, discarded and revived, has ultimately led to better ideas. Sometimes prospective clients will ask me to solve a problem right there at the meeting table. It is easy to get drawn into this challenge and blurt out some initial ideas but it is important for both parties to realize that creativity is a process, not a super power.

2. Don’t be afraid to throw away good ideas. Don’t be quick to fall in love with them. Be skeptical of them and test them thoroughly. Love can blind reason, and a good idea is not an idea that you personally like, it is an idea that works (although having both is preferable).

3. Meta-think. Think about your thinking. Thinking is a skill that can be improved. We develop critical thinking skills at art school that we can apply not just to art and design, but to our own creative processes. To be creative we have to control our creativity and focus it on specific problems. To control it we need to understand it. One simple way of doing this is to evaluate a project once it has been signed off. Consider which processes could have been more fruitful and where you slipped up and make a conscious effort to change these behaviours next time.

4. Forget rules. There is really only one rule, that is that there are no rules. The reality of design is that it takes place in a multifaceted world containing thousands of overlapping and interacting concepts. It is tempting to attempt to draw up “rules of design” because we believe they will make our lives more efficient. In fact I’m doing it right now but accepting that the entirety of existence cannot be rationalised and compartmentalised is a big step towards becoming a more efficient designer. In fact it leads you toward being more process oriented because your focus shifts from individual atoms of knowlege themselves, to the ability to find knowlege as and when we need it, and the ability to identify areas where we lack knowlege.

5. Praxis. Do something without theory. Start in the middle. Every so often, we get stuck. Like a rabbit caught in headlights, it is better to run in any direction than to remain paralyzed. There is also a scientific basis for believing that doing things without thinking too much is good for our creativity because it relaxes the mind so that when our subconscious throws out ideas at random, we are able to hear them properly.

6. “Good design is as little design as possible” – Dieter Rams. Not all things need to be meticulously designed. Some things are damaged by design. In my opinion, the best designers can see when a project doesn’t need to be designed or only requires minimal input. This might mean that the designer loses out on a lot of work, but he has protected his professional integrity.

7. “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be” – Paul Arden. The people who I like the most in this world are the ones who strive to be better than they are. I love ambitious people. In fact I think we need more ambitious souls. Far too often I get the feeling that some people simply have it too easy. It’s too easy to do the bare minimum and live a comfortable but completely meaningless (and frankly boring) life. Ambitious people generate meaning in their own lives and operate autonomously. Resisting peer pressure and the deeply ingrained doctrine of pop culture conformity and being honest about our true aspirations is perhaps one of the most courageous things a young person can do.

8. Success and happiness are not evaluated by other people. We have a tendency to believe incorrectly that we are only successful when other people say so, or when we live up to other people’s expectations for us. Success is something that only we can evaluate ourselves.

9. Understand your own creative muscles. Manage your creativity. When we first start in art school, we are rough diamonds. We have demonstrated that we have some creative abilities, but they need to be understood and tamed so that we can focus them directionally. Creativity is like a muscle; it gets stronger with training and it atrophies if we neglect it. It is also important to understand which conditions are conducive to being creative at maximum productivity. Look after your noodle and it will look after you.

10. There is always more to learn. We learn a lot of discrete information at university, but you also learn how to learn. You are equipped with tools and strategies for finding the information that you need and processing it in ways that are useful. Life post-uni for a creative person is simply a continuation of education. The training wheels are off, so to speak. This is the real attraction of graphic design for me. It is a job that presents new challenges every day, new people to meet who enrich our experiences and ideas, and new things to learn that benefit the quality of our work.

Laser Cut Business Cards from Mike Harding on Vimeo.