Think to make, make to think
I spent last night designing the third iteration of Smithery business cards. (Moo has 30% off at the moment, so my inbuilt Scottishness accelerated the process).
Each batch contains seven different designs. Whenever possible, rather than just give people a card, I like to ask them to choose between ones. It helps me test what works and what doesn’t, and so I can refine them over time.
For previous batches, I just did them in Photoshop and sent them to Moo. Digital-to-Physical.
This time, I wanted to skip around the line between physical and digital a little more.
So I used an ink stamp of the logo to print up various cards. The way that the imperfections of each stamp create a unique logo iteration is something I liked.
Then I scanned them in, which as an image began to feel a little factory-ish, which was interesting…. a production line of logos…
…and then a little jiggery-pokery in Photoshop again began to give some of the logos more of an organic, or perhaps metallic, feel…
I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out.
I find though whenever I am doing things like this, the more strategic, thinky stuff I’m working on continues to tick away in the back of my head.
Trying to think through difficult problems is somehow made easier by not thinking about them, not directly at any rate.
Today, when I got up and started working again on those problems, they’d become easier to solve.
It’s good to let the brain off the hook, every so often, and let the hands do the running.
That’s an awful mixed metaphor, but maybe you get the idea.