Generating concepts / ideas

tr2005

New Member
I've been working as a freelance graphic designer for several years after graduating. I seem to do okay in earning a half-decent wage whilst working on quite fun projects that are good for my portfolio.

I have no problem when it comes to making things look aesthetically pleasing, however I feel my weakpoint is the ideas side of things. I am always sure to come up with an actual 'concept' when it comes to any of the branding projects I've worked on, but they are often very abstract to the point where no-one would get it unless they had it explained to them... and it takes me a long time to come up with any ideas that I feel are worth using

What I struggle with the most, is things like advertising campaigns. I've been expected to come up with ideas for these a couple of times in my freelance career and it's not worked out very well. It's like I just don't know where to start with them, and my mind is blank. Having said that, I do want to get better at them

I'm in the process of trying to get a job in a design agency to get more experience, however I did recently get turned down by one agency because of this weak-point of mine. And I worry that if I do get a job, they may realise further down the line that I struggle to come up with ideas, and I may end up getting finished up.

Does anyone else have this problem? and what can I do about it? Any recommended books to read etc? At the minute Im thinking 'One Minute Briefs' on twitter could be a good place to start
 
I'm guessing that as a freelancer you work alone (I do).

I find that it can be hard to think big for larger projects when I've only got the one head.
Maybe you'll find that when you're in an agency environment where there are others to bounce ideas off and/or to co-operate with, you'll find that this changes?

For example:
I do a lot of work with a muralist/graffiti company and we do a lot of things like bar re-furb's and we're often we drop on site with little idea of how to approach it.
We get our heads together (often over Pinterest) and the ideas start to happen.
There have been times we've ended up creating the branding, logos, marketing campaigns and all sorts of things over and above of our brief much to the joy of the client.
It's not uncommon for us to brainstorm in the hotel room though the night before we even know it.

What I'm trying to say is not to judge yourself and your creativity when you work alone.
Bigger projects often require more heads which fuel the idea process.
It's a bonus if these people have enthusiasm and are like minded to yourself. ;)
 
What sort of work do you typically do for clients. I'm guessing a bit of everything? If possible try and narrow down your skill set to a particular field and stick to what you know and enjoy. I don't touch advertising myself, save for rare occasions when I'm working alongside someone else, as it's just a completely different type of thing to what I do for a living. I started off doing this and that for different clients, but now try and focus on websites/interfaces and branding, because I enjoy these, they're marketable, and, well, I can do it.

Every once in a while a client will throw something new at me and I'll and tackle it to the best of my ability, often surprising myself, but there's times when I have to admit up front that I'm not the best person for the job and suggest they find someone else. It's best to be honest and not take the work on than to struggle through, deliver a mediocre outcome and risk wasting everyone's time. It's worth building a network of people you trust who can help out when you lack experience in a certain field. This also means you don't necessarily have to say "no, but rather "no, but I know someone who can…"

This way you can keep the relationship with your client strong.

If you're approaching a studio for employment, it's absolutely essential that your work resonates with the work they do. There's obviously no point showing a portfolio of digital apps to a traditional print house. By all means, throw in one or two good examples of other areas you're strong in, but make sure the work you present is strong and fits with their field of work. If your advertising work is weak, just take it all out and let them only see your best work.
 
Thanks for the responses!

Scotty — I kind of work alone, but a lot of the work I do is for design agencies (either onsite or remote). Having other people to bounce ideas off would be good, but I do need to improve in certain areas myself (mainly just the ideas side of things).

Paul — It kind of is a bit of everything, mainly branding and designing for print and web... I used to design mainly for the web but found I just wasn't enjoying working on the same thing all the time. I had to branch out so that I could work on a mix of different things because, like a lot of designers, I wanted variety. I've found that more variety has improved my design skills in a way... e.g. doing more print design improved my web design as a result (because originally I was feeling too limited by the constraints of the web which led to my designs being too conservative and also a little cookie-cutter-esque).

I don't just mean ideas for advertising however, I would also like to improve my concept generation for things like logos and branding too. I too sometimes turn things down if I know it's not up my street... but I've known a number of designers to be good at the skills I mentioned above aswell as being good at thinking of ideas for campaigns etc, and it seems a lot of design agencies pretty much expect it from designers.

I had a nose through Edward De Bono's 'Lateral Thinking' book the other day but it looked so hard to take in, I wouldn't mind finding something similar but just a bit more 'readable'
 
Talk us through your kind of design process so to speak. What do you do before you launch one of your design applications?

Reason I ask is I find a lot of the time, struggling for ideas/concepts/inspiration to down to a lack of time spent researching the said brief / project. Research is arguably the most important stage of any design process. It would be interesting to hear how you go about things.
 
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