Happy 2012

My first note of the year. I usually do a review of the previous year and a look ahead at the coming - but I'll skip that for now.

I came across this site on Twitter yesterday and there was a statement by Andy Clarke that caused a bit of commotion but that's not what caught my attention.

What did was this by the very talented Vierle Pieters and the ensuing video (embedded below):

Considering my heavy workload, and the fact that things are always so busy, someone was asking me how I manage to stay creative at all times, and how I always find the motivation to design as best I can. I thought about it for a bit. Time is a factor that plays a major role in the creative process. To be able to stay at your best creativity-wise, you sometimes need extra time. As a creator, you can always create 'something' in a short period of time, but you won't be able to give it your best if that period is really short. Give yourself extra time and you will create something way better. Sometimes it's good to let a project rest and look back. Sometimes you have a creativity block and you really need a break. I think it's important with every project to make sure you have enough time; that little extra can make the difference.

That extra bit of time can make all the difference in design. I started a project on December 22nd 2010 and I've been slowly (very slowly) iterating it for the client.

Thankfully the client is in no rush and so they're happy for me to work on it in short bursts and I've seen benefit in that. Each time I come back to the project after a 2 or 3 week hiatus, I feel like I've improved the design and development aspects each time.

As an aside, I've noticed with this project that when I moved from the Photoshop comps into actually developing the site in Apri 2011, I've been relying less on Photoshop to design the site and using CSS where possible. Photoshop will always have a place in my design toolkit sure for textured elements etc but CSS is getting to a point where you can design much without images.