It always starts the exact same way: a blank notepad, a red marker, a cup of coffee, and a problem that needs a visual solution. Right next to me are the notes detailing the client’s goals, challenges and ideas.
Before diving in, I like to give my brain a small break to let everything settle. Since there is rarely time for a long pause, I jump right into digital marketing research, looking closely at the client’s local competitors. I love analyzing how they represent themselves visually. When I analyze competitors, I am looking for what they are doing right, but more importantly, what they are missing. If every local competitor is using the same safe colors and generic layouts, I see an opportunity to position my client differently. This research ensures the final design isn’t just pretty, but strategically positioned to win.
There is a common myth that great design starts with a sudden, magical spark of inspiration. In reality, designing from scratch looks a lot less like art and a lot more like puzzle pieces out of the box. If you have ever wondered how a major design project actually gets off the ground, the answer might surprise you: it does not start with a sketch. It starts with a question.
As ideas begin to flood my mind, I pour them directly onto the white pages of my notepad. Those first few pages are rarely beautiful. They are a chaotic mix of quick layouts, rough shapes, and circled keywords. I believe in getting every bad idea out of my head as quickly as possible to make room for the great ones. It is a process of elimination on paper before I ever touch a computer.
The next step is organizing the chaos. If the project is challenging, I like to bounce these concepts off my team for feedback. Once our ideas are structured and aligned, the fun part starts; the digital process. I select the strongest sketches from my notepad and recreate them digitally, experimenting with typography, color, and precise spacing among all the graphic elements. We bring the concepts to life on the screen, and after final polishing, we send the digital proof over to the client.
Every polished design you see out in the world started as an empty page and a mountain of questions. It is a journey from total chaos to absolute clarity, and it is a process I fall in love with every single time.
If you are planning a new project or rebranding your business, how do you prefer to start? Do you prefer sketching on paper or jumping straight into digital?
Let’s turn your questions into absolute clarity.
