Quick Ideas, sharp knives

Okay, it's late, I admit it. I was having a lot of trouble coming up with a picture I was happy with tonight. I did a lot of thumbnails and finally came around to something that I like. I think it needs a little more action, a little more danger. They're two naked men holding knives for Pete's sake! I shudder at the thought. You will probably see a more finished drawing of them in the next few weeks.


I love thumbnails. Thumbnails are the most fun I ever have when I'm drawing. They're fast and loose. You can explore different themes very quickly. You put down a huge number of thoughts without worrying about whether they are good or not. You just draw. There's a purity to them and I find it to be cathartic to let my mind wander freely around the edges of a thought, drawing, project or situation and see what crazy fun I can have. I think it leads me to better problem solving.

I had gotten out of the habit of doing thumbnails. For a while there never seemed to be enough time to do thumbnails before someone came knocking at the door wanting to see the solution.

I was in a meeting a few years ago where I was asked to take a tagline for a new business pitch and create some kind of memorable design to be applied to all the materials and leave behind pieces. The conversation went exactly like this and I am not joking:

Boss: "Mike, we want a logo for the tagline on this pitch. The line is 'Blah, blah, blah blah.'"
Me: "Ok"
Insert pause no longer than 4 seconds.
Boss: "What do you got?"
Me; " What do you mean?"
Boss: "For a design? What do you got?"
Me: "You just told me the line, like, a second ago."
Boss (completely serious): "Do you really need a lot of time?"

I am not kidding. Of course, I created an interesting design before the end of the day (approx. 4-5 hours) because that's my job, but the conversation cracks me up every time I think about it. He didn't feel he had the time to find the right solution, he just needed the solution right then and there.

I think a lot of us have become used to the instant solution. Just react quickly and get the problem out of the house. The solution just needs to work, it doesn't need to be all that inventive. I think we have been looking so intently at the center of our problems for so long that that our focus has begun to blur and we really don't spend enough time exploring the edges of our minds to find creative solutions anymore.

Kurt Vonnegut once said, "Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center."

Sounds like a man who did a lot of thumbnails.

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