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[00:00:01.20] Most designers are very hard workers.
[00:00:04.08] We think through and create unique ideas,
refine our ideas, and turn these ideas
[00:00:10.06] into compelling designs.
[00:00:12.22] This process takes a
great deal of creative energy.
[00:00:16.11] Over the course of time we all produce
a lot of work and a lot of ideas we create
[00:00:20.99] are never ultimately used by our clients.
[00:00:24.64] So what you do if you have more ideas than
you can use, it's a good problem to have.
[00:00:30.64] So let me share a good creative
habit with you, I like to call it
[00:00:34.84] Renewable Creative Energy.
[00:00:37.05] I encourage you to establish a system
system where you can start archiving your
[00:00:42.04] unused ideas and graphics.
[00:00:44.67] Whether they are sketches or Vector comps,
I want you to put in place an easy
[00:00:49.66] way for you to file your unused
designs and concepts for future reference.
[00:00:55.75] For my sketches, I have a simple
folder I put unused sketches into, and for
[00:01:00.77] my Vector comps, I keep a folder on my
computer that I can easily access and review.
[00:01:07.39] The longer you work in the industry
the more an archive like this
[00:01:12.08] may assist you on a future job.
[00:01:13.58] For example, you may create a handful
of concepts for a client's logo project.
[00:01:19.53] And your client only
ends up using one direction.
[00:01:22.80] The rest may be good concepts but they
are now design orphans sitting on your
[00:01:27.94] hard drive collecting dust. Awhile later
another client similar to the previous
[00:01:33.71] wants you to create an identity for
their business and you're able to
[00:01:38.91] reuse one of the orphan designs.
[00:01:41.96] So we're going to take a look at the
folder that I keep on my computer and
[00:01:46.56] I just happened to name it Folder_of_Lost_
Ideas, and anytime I work on a project
[00:01:51.35] and I have a bunch of unused concepts, I'll
usually copy that file and place it in this folder.
[00:01:57.72] That way I can go into this if I ever
have another project that comes up
[00:02:02.67] that kind of aligns with another
project I worked on previously.
[00:02:06.16] In this case, we're going to open up
this Renewable_Creative_Energy file here
[00:02:11.13] and I'm going to walk you through kind
of how the whole process of
[00:02:16.25] renewable creative energy can work.
[00:02:18.15] Now years ago I had a very talented
creative person give me some of the
[00:02:23.57] best advice I've ever gotten in 25 years and
that is he said, you get the work you show.
[00:02:29.41] And that's proven to really be true for me.
[00:02:33.30] This is a project I worked on for a
church up in the Pacific Northwest
[00:02:37.05] about four years ago.
[00:02:38.81] And as soon as I posted this on my site,
I had other churches approach me about
[00:02:43.56] creating logo projects for them.
[00:02:46.02] I didn't set out to get this type
of work, it's just kind of happened.
[00:02:49.73] So it's all started with this project.
[00:02:52.46] The first church to contact me was one
called Tapestry Church they are located
[00:02:56.91] out of California and this was one of
the concepts that I presented to them.
[00:03:02.39] I created a bunch of other concepts
and they actually went for another
[00:03:06.75] design direction but this was one of the ones
that I created for them that I really liked.
[00:03:11.76] Now a little while later another church
approach me, called Alive Church and
[00:03:16.97] I took that concept and retooled it
to present to them and they loved it.
[00:03:21.49] This is actually the design direction
they went for their church and I created
[00:03:26.64] other secondary branding elements for
them such as the banner graphic
[00:03:31.67] and the pattern design you can see here.
[00:03:33.89] Now when I created all the different
design directions for Alive Church,
[00:03:39.05] I also created a direction that looks like
this, it was a linear line type of modular
[00:03:43.85] system and they liked it, they just
didn't think it was a good fit for where
[00:03:48.43] they wanted to go, but when another
church contacted me called Hope Church,
[00:03:54.05] I turned that linear line project into
one of the directions that I presented
[00:03:59.32] to them and they really liked this.
[00:04:01.15] Another direction I presented
to the Hope Church was this.
[00:04:05.28] Now they didn't go with this
direction but I really like this direction.
[00:04:09.77] So when another church contacted me
called The Place, I kind of reused that
[00:04:15.60] design direction to pitch to them.
[00:04:18.24] Now The Place, they liked this but
they felt that it wasn't what they are
[00:04:22.58] trying to communicate.
[00:04:23.62] They would like to see some kind of
graphic that was like a Broken Vessel
[00:04:27.99] and the Holy Spirit being poured into it.
[00:04:30.46] And I just happened to create a design
direction on the Hope Church that looked
[00:04:36.06] like this but they didn't go for it so I
showed this to The Place and they said,
[00:04:40.88] yeah that's kind of the direction we
want but can you just retool the style,
[00:04:45.31] and so that's all I did.
[00:04:46.44] I just took that general idea and
created this final identity system for them,
[00:04:52.68] and you can also see the
iconography that goes with that.
[00:04:56.57] So that's how one project can assist with
the future project and how you can reuse assets.
[00:05:05.34] This is Renewable Creative Energy in action.
[00:05:09.29] Your creative process doesn't always
have to re-create the wheel, and no,
[00:05:14.63] it's not a sin to rip yourself off
either, rather it's just working smart.
[00:05:19.85] Of course, I don't do this for all my
projects but at times one client's needs
[00:05:25.48] will overlap another client's needs.
[00:05:27.67] So take the time to go through your
past projects and harvest all of those
[00:05:33.01] unused ideas that may be a good fit for
another client, and begin tapping into
[00:05:39.17] your own Renewable Creative Energy.
[00:05:42.93]