Step 3: Developing the main characters
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2025 10:02 am
According to the original idea, illustrations are needed so that the marketing department and editorial staff can assemble images without the participation of a designer. This means that some kind of constructor is needed that will be easy to use independently and supplement with new elements.
I set standards in proportions and arrangement of elements of the whole, so that later it would be easier to draw new and new elements. This is how the manager, customer, and developer appeared.
When all the characters from the "necessary list" I had come up with were drawn, it was necessary to make some more elements, but... But which ones?
The problem was that without clearly defined tasks for specific situations, the illustrations came to a standstill. The work stalled for several days.
I decided to go the opposite way: not to draw elements from which I could assemble a whole illustration, but to draw illustrations from which I could isolate parts and add them to the constructor.
Step 4. I ground the task in specific cases
Since the illustrations will be used in our blog, I went there for specific situations of use.
I asked the editor for an article for the blog and drew illustrations for it. When I had the text in front of me that would need pictures, the process moved forward.
After this stage, in addition to ig database characters, objects such as interfaces and office items appeared. As well as examples of using the elements.
I arranged all the elements by category and duplicated them in mirror image so that they could be used for different compositions.
Already at this stage, the marketing department was able to independently use the illustration designer to design articles and posts.
But some problems emerged:
Collecting illustrations by hand was still time-consuming and difficult.
There weren't enough elements, and very quickly the finished illustrations began to look alike. More variety was desired.
Adding new elements still required the involvement of designers.
It seemed like we were going in circles.
I set standards in proportions and arrangement of elements of the whole, so that later it would be easier to draw new and new elements. This is how the manager, customer, and developer appeared.
When all the characters from the "necessary list" I had come up with were drawn, it was necessary to make some more elements, but... But which ones?
The problem was that without clearly defined tasks for specific situations, the illustrations came to a standstill. The work stalled for several days.
I decided to go the opposite way: not to draw elements from which I could assemble a whole illustration, but to draw illustrations from which I could isolate parts and add them to the constructor.
Step 4. I ground the task in specific cases
Since the illustrations will be used in our blog, I went there for specific situations of use.
I asked the editor for an article for the blog and drew illustrations for it. When I had the text in front of me that would need pictures, the process moved forward.
After this stage, in addition to ig database characters, objects such as interfaces and office items appeared. As well as examples of using the elements.
I arranged all the elements by category and duplicated them in mirror image so that they could be used for different compositions.
Already at this stage, the marketing department was able to independently use the illustration designer to design articles and posts.
But some problems emerged:
Collecting illustrations by hand was still time-consuming and difficult.
There weren't enough elements, and very quickly the finished illustrations began to look alike. More variety was desired.
Adding new elements still required the involvement of designers.
It seemed like we were going in circles.