Wellness is very much a ‘thing’ just now.

Feeling fulfilled by what you do. Looking after yourself. Getting your head in a ‘good’ place. Dealing properly with anxiety, stress and pressure. A healthy balance of work and play!

It’s something we are all encouraged to strive for and yet, it does come from a place of privilege. It assumes we all have a choice when it comes to working and that we don’t need every working hour we’re offered in order to scrape by. It assumes good health. It assumes the opportunities exist and that we have the necessary skills. It assumes we can work at all. It assumes too much of a world where only the tiniest percentage of us are happy in their work, sadly. My pet hate is motivational images telling you that your dreams are sitting there, just waiting for you to grasp them in some trite inspirational sentence. They’re not. Not waiting for you, that is.

Still, that said. I made some tough choices a while back and find myself now in a rare position to avail of such a thing. I’ve achieved a modicum of ‘balance’ and I know I’m very lucky. I’m fully aware of that luck, its transience and frankly, I’ll take it while it’s going.

I’m also aware, that for the outsider looking in on Social media (I play a LOT on Twitter, I admit) that it must seem that I have the perfect life. I get to work from home. I post pictures from the beach every day. I get to see my family more than most working parents. I also get to pick and choose my projects.

Not so. Social media never shows the whole picture – it’s curated snapshots of what we let people see, after all. It ironically takes a lot of effort behind the scenes to maintain work balance. It does take luck, but it also takes calculated action, listening and saying the right thing at the right time. Things ARE good, right now. They’re not always. They haven’t always been. They can’t be, can they?

I intentionally gave up a permanent job to go back to what I love. Games. Freelance Design. Creating. Teaching.  It wasn’t done lightly. I had very little savings. No recourse if it all went horribly wrong.

All I had was faith that I could make it work and the support of my wife, who was also making her own leap for that very same balance between work and creativity. (https://yvonneleonceramics.com/) Timing, huh?

What needs to be made clear to those looking in is that all this DIDN’T JUST HAPPEN. I contacted every single contact I’ve ever made, pulling in favours from friends, making sure everyone knew I was on the market for work again. Working hard. Yvonne did much the same, building on her name and letting everyone know about her art – she’s been getting ready for this for over twenty years. We worried. We fretted. We worried some more. We had second and third and many more thoughts. And money swiftly became a problem.

I carefully considered all my experience and skills and where to focus them, built a new website, polished my c.v., re-branded myself to fit the kind of work I was looking for and launched WeeGem Design into the wind in what is, no illusions here, a very crowded creative market.

Kinda brave?

Kinda stupid?

Is there a difference?

The thing is, I have done this before and been doing what I do for a long time. I’ve many years of working for ‘the man’ and freelancing under my belt. I know hard work and I’m not scared of it. I wasn’t just leaping into the unknown. I’m also privileged, in a way, to have had the experience of making some amazing ‘things’ in the past and to still have a hunger to do so much more, learn so much more. The things I’ve made can be shown to potential clients and help me get more work. I’ve a good idea of how to sell what I do and feel like I’m at the top of my game.

I also knew I’d have to take ‘Barge-pole’ jobs for a while.  (Jobs you wouldn’t normally touch with a barge-pole.) But when the bills are coming in faster than the invoices, you do what you have to do. That’s the price of independence. It’s hard work and you have to do MANY things instead of just one to get by. And how much is enough? It’s so easy to overload yourself too when you’re afraid of turning away work.

Through trying everything I could and six months of using a maxed out credit card to pay the bills, the stars finally aligned, all the wooing and waiting patiently for contacts to get back to me paid off and I got to work with some great clients on the BIG fun projects I was yearning for. I’m making games for kids again, teaching Game Art at Pulse College (which I adore – Pulse College – Games), and writing my children’s books at last.

(If you are going freelance, make sure you have at least six months worth of savings. Those first precious invoices can take a LONG time to appear from initial meetings to completion.)

So I’ve arrived there. That mystical place they speak of. Balance. Of a sort. I’m so much happier now than I was and while I don’t pretend its easy, it is better.

I get to spend time with my wife and kids instead of being stuck on the M50 ring road around Dublin for two hours a day, I’m loving the work I get to do. I get to walk the beach at dawn with Hobbes the dog (who is far more popular on my twitter and instagram feeds than me.) That time is well spent thinking about the day ahead and working through problems.

My wife works half her week in the city and the rest in her Ceramic studio in the garden. So if the kids get sick, or there’s an emergency or something needing done, we’re always ‘present’. That’s our gift to them and to ourselves. Our relationship is stronger for it, we’re less stressed and our kids are very happy. We have just enough money coming in to cover the bills. We’re certainly not rich… nor poor. We have enough. Perfect, no?

But…

Balance is a precarious thing. You’re on a tightrope. You really do have to concentrate to stay there. I’m lucky, for now. I need to be continuously conscious of all the things I mentioned earlier. Money. Health. Opportunities. Skills. Ability. The balance anyone has right now is dependent on having all those things.

I need to work hard to maintain them, otherwise the entire house of cards will topple. The universe doesn’t owe us balance. It doesn’t care if we rise or if we fall. We have to maintain it ourselves as best we can. Keep learning new skills. Maintain an appetite to see and hear new things. Stay on the curve of technology and trends. Meet new contacts and maintain old ones. Make careful decisions as to what work to take on next and make sure it’s not too little or too much. And very importantly, help others if you’re now in a position to do so.

Paradoxically, finding Balance is hard. Balance is fleeting. 
You may need to spend a lot of time out of balance to even recognise what it is you really need, but don’t give up trying to find it. Having it, at least for a while, is worth all the work.

Thanks for reading. For more nonsense, catch me on The Twitter  or  Instagram.

The variables in design are practically infinite. So how can any designer navigate successfully through all the decisions they are required to make? Especially when one person will gush delightedly over the finished article while another snorts in disgust.

Individual choices and preferences create a literal minefield for every designer. When it comes to Art direction or navigating a brief, I like to refer to the ‘Cup of Tea’ effect.

Bear with me here – If you offer someone a cup of tea, they would like it prepared in their own particular way. (I hate making tea for other people, incidentally.)

With only 4 very simple ingredients; Water, Teabag, Milk and Sugar, look at the incredible variety of personal preferences that generates. It’s actually extremely difficult to prepare ‘the’ cup of tea to someone else’s exact taste. Strong, weak, milky, black, sweet?

Just as everyone likes their simple cup of tea ‘just so’, everyone will come up with something different for even the most basic brief.

Set a brief as simple as a ‘Blue Mountain’?

Try it with a group of artists – see how many shades of Blue you get and what shapes are created. The permutations may be surprising, because in your head, YOUR idea of what a Blue Mountain should be is the one you’d be looking for. Not necessarily theirs.

When you start to consider purpose, aesthetics, emotion and then throw in pure subjectivity, its a wonder anything gets designed at all!

So how do we do it?

Well, with all that in mind, its plain that a ‘simple’ brief is not as clear cut and easy as it may initially sound. Read it carefully. Break it down. Talk it through. Are you clear on all points?

You need to examine carefully who and what it is for. What’s current? What’s trending? Most importantly, what does your client really expect? (Your client may be you, by the way.)

Do they even really know what they want? This is not unusual.

Make a mood board that hits every note you’ve registered and then bring your own suggestions into it.

Get your client to pore over this mood board and register their reactions carefully. What do they smile at, what makes them frown and what makes them recoil in horror?

The trick is to get a reaction. Any reaction. Because that gives you vital information you need to get started.

Don’t be scared to throw in some horrific designs in order to provoke these emotions. It’s like a game of ‘Hot and cold.’ Narrow it down using extremes. Just make sure you explain what you’ve done afterwards or they may question your judgement.

Pay careful attention to the brief and here’s the important thing…don’t try and please everyone. Think about that cup of tea. Some people hate sugar. Some people like their tea so sweet they want the spoon to stand up in it. Again, who is it for?

Some people will not like what you’ve done. That’s ok, as long as your client and you are satisfied. Besides, if you don’t provoke some sort of reaction in anyone then you’ve probably done something very strange or bland indeed!

What’s my particular cup of tea? Hell, I only drink coffee…but that’s another story.

Thanks for reading!

MD

I’m Freelancing again.

I dipped into a permanent job for a while there, I learned a great many things and did some interesting work in the confines of what was required. But it wasn’t enough.

Turns out, I need the buzz of the entire Production process. The discussion, the brainstorming, the concept, the refinement and then, finally, the magic and work involved in making something new. There’s an energy in all of that, watching all the strands come together and understanding the ‘why’ of it.

In the job I had, I was just a small part of a machine. An important part, sure, but knowing what the big picture was wasn’t really required. Just to focus on the part of production I was in charge of.

And that production could have continued for years to come within that well oiled machine.

But I happen to like the big picture. I’m not a designer who likes to be sequestered away somewhere. I need to be deep in the mix, talking and problem solving. I also enjoy getting out there and meeting potential new clients. New contacts. Listening for inklings of work and opportunities. Or just listening, sharing and learning. I also need the fear and danger in seeking work and interesting projects. I think my creativity thrives on it.

Know thyself, huh? It was time to go.

I also loved teaching my Game Art classes, and I had to give that up due to my ‘full time’ commitments. I’m now very happy to announce that I’ll be resuming my duties in Pulse College and looking forward to it immensely. Teaching in such a vibrant and changing field forces you to update and continue to advance your own skills. Teachers need to learn too. The tools and methods change so fast, while the core principles of good design remain relatively sound. And things HAVE changed out there in the short time I’ve been ‘away’.

You see, being a designer is a bit like being a shark. Cool metaphor, huh? No? A cuddly shark then? No, not because we’re at the top of the food chain (we’re not) or beautifully efficient pinnacles of evolution (No, we’re not that either.)

We’re like sharks because if we stop swimming, stop learning, then we’re dead in the water. Simple as that.

But recruiters aren’t looking for sharks these days… oh no, they want UNICORNS.

Yes, folks. The legendary Unicorn. A Designer who can not only ‘Art’, animate, create beautiful UI’s and be a master of Graphic Design…no, they can Code too. Oh and they’re also experts in UIX. The Unicorn.

(I recently stated in an office full of adult professionals that, “I’m not a Unicorn.” Nobody blinked. What a world we live in!)

There is a lot of potential work out there for a Designer now with a bewildering array of new titles and lists of ‘desired skills’ that only super powered humans could aspire to. I’ve seen lists as long as my arm mentioning ‘Rock Star Designer wanted’, coding skills including html5, CSS, Java & whatever, UI/UIX expertise and oh, wait a minute… did we mention ‘CREATIVITY’ anywhere in there?

They probably do mention it, but let’s face it, if you can do all those things AND make whatever it is you’re designing look great, you’re a rare beast and will probably be hunted down and your head pinned to a wall. You may as well run the company while you’re at it.

It seems like an accolade, but I wonder if it’s just an elaborate cost cutting exercise for HR?

These people do exist. There are some out there doing very well, I assume. But I have to question you as a company if you need ONE person to do all these things. I’m going to assume you can’t afford a team. I’m going to assume that this ONE person is going to be under tremendous pressure. I’m also going to assume they’re going to have problems focusing on ONE thing at a time.

I’m not a Unicorn. I do, however, have a great deal of experience with production, Art Direction and UI’s. That’s quite a lot for one person, in my humble opinion. I may not code, but I do know how to work with developers and what they need from me. Someone needs to concentrate on the vision and the visuals while someone is making sure the algorithms behind it are working. They’re two very different but symbiotic mindsets.
It’s an exciting time. I’m very glad to be back. It’s what I needed to do and I’m writing and making ‘things’ again. Please give me a shout if you want to work with me on something interesting.

And while I may not be a Unicorn (many apologies,) I think you’ll find I’m one hell of a good Designer.

A fun illustration for the @AnimalAlphabets Twitter collective. 

Let’s talk a bit about reference. I’ve encountered many artists who insist on dreaming things up wholesale from the contents of their own head. That’s fine if you’re the owner, or it’s stylised completely or it’s a pure flight of fancy. For comic books, the quantity of abdominal muscles need not necessarily relate to normal human physiology. However…

…I do a lot of illustrative work for educational media and games. Over the years I’ve found that for client work, it’s vitally important that the metaphorical spade is a spade. It has to look like what it’s supposed to be, or an iconic representation the end viewer or client has to recognise.

Take a seat and let’s draw a…chair for example.

Before you leap into action and start drawing the chair you’re thinking of in your mind, just consider for a moment. What type of chair is it?

We all bring our unique mixture of knowledge and perspective into everything we create. Did you grow up with wooden chairs in your home? Stylised? Antique? Plastic? IKEA? Armchairs? Stools? High Back? Is it a school chair? What do school chairs look like these days? Suddenly a simple ‘chair’ is not so clear cut.

We need some context. Who does the chair belong to? Where’s the illustration set? Who is the illustration for? When is it? Is it new or worn? What’s the style?

These are the things a professional illustrator needs to think about unless they want a slew of revisions after drawing a beautiful but ‘wrong’ image.

There’s absolutely no shame in collecting as much reference as you think you’ll need. It’s not copying (don’t do that, btw). It’s not cheating! You need to know what something looks like or people will spot straight away that ‘something’ isn’t quite right. Don’t assume the visual is waiting all perfectly formed in your memory. We’re not encyclopaedia’s, after all.

I’ve had to art direct teams in other countries and the problem of context was an everyday challenge. You can’t presume people will apply the same frame of reference to a description or even be familiar with the object in question. Cue ‘Dogs that look a bit like bears’, ‘Dolphins with Shark tails’ or ‘vehicles that can’t move.’

I’ve had to nail down exacting specifics and send reference material for the desired context every time. And reference is in abundance. Everything has been done, somewhere and by someone. They’ve already thought about it. Look at what they did. Examine it. Collect it. Then make it your own and better.

So, what’s my point? Well…the job of a good illustrator is to select from an incredibly wide array of choices and find the one that best suits the brief, the client, the composition and their own style. Google is your friend here, as is finding the keywords to get what you need. Browse through some books and try to find what makes a ‘Sun Fish’ look like a ‘Sun Fish’ for example. Have you seen one of those? Google it – it’s quite incredible!

It takes a bit of practise. Get a heap of reference images and collate them all on a digital mood board. Find and distil from all of it the essence of the image you need – be it as simple as an everyday household object (A kettle? Y’know how many different types of kettle there are?!) to something far more complex. (e.g. Combine Harvester, an Apatosaurus, a street scene in 1876 or even a fictional world of toys with evil technogrowth?)

So go digging for that reference and become skilled at unearthing it. It takes a little time, but it’ll save you revisiting work. And you’ll learn some interesting things about, well, whatever it is you’re about to recreate.

Brief – an attacking vine with electric/tech properties.

Using the reference…

This is a sticky one for me. I once called myself a ‘Graphic Designer’. It used to satisfy most folk in casual conversation, but it’s just not cutting it these days.

I then switched to the more general description, “Designer”, but now that seems to indicate you can do pretty much everything.

Recruiters ask, “Oh, you make websites?” and I say, “Well, no, I wouldn’t touch websites with a barge pole,” and then they may say, “Oh – sort of like UX. How’s your c++, Xcode and html5 skills?” I then give a twisted half smile and shake my head slowly. No. I design games and educational multi media for kids and sometimes grown ups. I also do… no… there’s a lot in there. Lets start with what I don’t do.

Best way to describe it – I do Everything But Code! Is that a title? Can I use that?

Hi, I’m an EBC Master. Hmm. Not doing it for me. You?

So… I animate, design UI’s, create Characters, storyboard, illustrate, do a bit of Game Design, technical art, concept Apps, art for print, and, hey, I even write. Make stuff. It’s a mouthful but not a bad spread of skills, if I may say so, and I do some of them well. Working with a good team makes up for any shortfalls. But when I look at “Design” jobs in LinkedIn or get calls from recruiters, as soon as they hear I don’t code, they go a bit quiet. They’re not sure where I fit.

(If you’re of an artistic bent in either games, multimedia or Apps, be prepared to tick the ‘Other – please specify’ box on forms quite often. )

There are Designers out there who CAN do everything. They’re a rare hybrid and if you’re lucky enough to be one, bless you and all who sail in you. You’re a fortunate and talented individual.

Many of us though, think of ourselves as creative because that’s the space our talents and interests have brought us. Purely visual. And some of the paths you might be steered down with that can be curiously limiting. I fell into a strange, hybrid, educational niche where I learned enough technical knowledge to appreciate what developers/programmers do… and enough savvy to know that although I could code by applying myself, I wouldn’t be particularly good at it.

It’s a part of my brain I don’t enjoy using.

So I don’t. And that’s ok – instead, I can work in tandem with a good programmer and we form a symbiosis. We understand enough about each other to make it all work.

(That said, admittedly I’m prodding at the new Unity 2D engine with some interest.)

However.

To all aspiring designers out there who DO want to work in multimedia or Games, that creative side of your brain is going to need to have a long, difficult chat with the logical side. Whether it wants to or not. The very word ‘Designer’ has become blurred and such a catch all. Game Developers are making Art and Artists are making games. Crossing the lines. The technical constraints on outputting game art are quite stringent.

If you want to get into that field, you’re certainly going to have to broaden your horizons and learn to do things that fall out of your comfort zones. I’m not saying you need to be able to do everything, but budgets are increasingly limited and projects need people who can cross several disciplines. They need to be willing to do whatever they possibly can. Try!

Frankly, if I had the Art budget, I’d hire a kick ass concept artist solely for characters. A Background artist who does breath-taking digital painting. A ninja Animator who makes characters live and breathe. A UI expert who anally polishes every button to an exquisite shine. But I usually can’t. Its usually all on me.

It’s a shame, but that’s where we are in the Start-up/indie environment. I do know some Concept artists who are in California and doing well in AAA games who HAVE massive budgets to go niche with their departments. If that’s solely what you want to do, you may have to target the larger studios and try to forge your own space in a bigger environment.

So to conclude – no, a Designer doesn’t need to be able to do everything. But it helps to have as broad a range of skills as you can. Never stop learning. Try your hand at as much as you can. Keep up with the new.

What is a Designer? Pretty valuable, actually. Get them on board and your game/app/product will look amazing at the end of the day. Don’t underestimate the professional shine a good one can bring. Oh. And if you’re only willing to specialise in one thing…

…then you’d better be absolutely incredible at it! Good luck.