02-28-2023, 07:28 PM
Hey I hope I havn't discouraged you and I know reality checks can be rough but they are also needed. I really want you to succeed and do better and I can see you have the commitment and ideas to make it happen or else I would not write all of this :D
When working alone and without a project, just designing - I find what works best is imagining you have a project, think about the time it is set in, make up some context. So maybe in your case: who are the angels up against, what is getting rammed by the sword, what world are we on, has the angel personalized the weapon, or was it a gift from god or another race perhaps, so who made it. Can we see any of this? These are just examples. Go beyond that. And then the key is using that made up stuff as context to design in. It all becomes more cohesive that way and you can give it story visually. Yes when you have clients this is all given to you, because they will have their ideas already most of the time. But as long as you're on your own you should find a workaround like this - instead of like I said designing without a lot of context. Your design does feel like blue sky, where nothing has been figured out. But blue sky also means hundreds of iterations and not six silhouettes and one finished design. Yet you have all these wonderful ideas. Learning how to communicate them visually is key! No client will accept a design that is only understood when you explain it to them with a long text paragraph.
I think going outside the box is a good thing. But you want to tie it to the stuff that people know already as well. The xenomorph in alien still has legs, arms and sharp teeth, like a lot of scary creatures. They went out of the box with some aspects but also tied it to what we know and expect. Sci fi and fantasy is always somewhat grounded in the real world. An enlarged and disgusting insect makes a better enemy then a pony. It's just in us humans to think this way, it's a universal thing, that's what I wanted to say when mentioning pop culture. It's a western way of looking at the world and if you want to appeal to western culture you dont want to disregard it. There are still enough ways to be different and unique :)
I can relate very much to the drawing a circle analogy you used. It's one thing ro know this stuff and another to put it into practice. Especially when it comes to design so much is in the thinking process and what you have figured out before. There are so many people that just design for a random fanatasy setting set somewhere in the medieval period. And thats all they think before starting. But the more you know about the world you design the more you can put into the designs itself. Creating restrictions for yourself and designing around them will probably make for better designs. But I bet you know this already.
Keep doing what you do, design is a very complex topic that cant be mastered in a day a week or a year. I hope you can take something away from this tho and I'm looking forward to what you make next!
When working alone and without a project, just designing - I find what works best is imagining you have a project, think about the time it is set in, make up some context. So maybe in your case: who are the angels up against, what is getting rammed by the sword, what world are we on, has the angel personalized the weapon, or was it a gift from god or another race perhaps, so who made it. Can we see any of this? These are just examples. Go beyond that. And then the key is using that made up stuff as context to design in. It all becomes more cohesive that way and you can give it story visually. Yes when you have clients this is all given to you, because they will have their ideas already most of the time. But as long as you're on your own you should find a workaround like this - instead of like I said designing without a lot of context. Your design does feel like blue sky, where nothing has been figured out. But blue sky also means hundreds of iterations and not six silhouettes and one finished design. Yet you have all these wonderful ideas. Learning how to communicate them visually is key! No client will accept a design that is only understood when you explain it to them with a long text paragraph.
I think going outside the box is a good thing. But you want to tie it to the stuff that people know already as well. The xenomorph in alien still has legs, arms and sharp teeth, like a lot of scary creatures. They went out of the box with some aspects but also tied it to what we know and expect. Sci fi and fantasy is always somewhat grounded in the real world. An enlarged and disgusting insect makes a better enemy then a pony. It's just in us humans to think this way, it's a universal thing, that's what I wanted to say when mentioning pop culture. It's a western way of looking at the world and if you want to appeal to western culture you dont want to disregard it. There are still enough ways to be different and unique :)
I can relate very much to the drawing a circle analogy you used. It's one thing ro know this stuff and another to put it into practice. Especially when it comes to design so much is in the thinking process and what you have figured out before. There are so many people that just design for a random fanatasy setting set somewhere in the medieval period. And thats all they think before starting. But the more you know about the world you design the more you can put into the designs itself. Creating restrictions for yourself and designing around them will probably make for better designs. But I bet you know this already.
Keep doing what you do, design is a very complex topic that cant be mastered in a day a week or a year. I hope you can take something away from this tho and I'm looking forward to what you make next!