Veryday, A Process Zine
by Corby Deford
Design and Illustration are undergoing heavy, repetitive trends thanks to media like Dribbble, Pinterest,
and other platforms that offer quick sharing of images with little explanation on method or ideas.
Veryday is here in the form of a zine to help break the repetition by both showing process,
and prompting readers to try alternate ways to approach a new project, like looking at
a tool they use every day.
The method of thinking was proposed as disassembling a commonly used household object, specifically a hairdryer and automatic coffee maker, and analyzing its components to generate ideas and sketch whatever came to mind. This allowed for many new-to-me concepts, as well as many rabbit holes of thinking.
These are some of the components used to generate artwork in the exploration phase of developing Veryday.
Veryday was intended to be an 8.5"x5.5" easy-print magazine, but due to the COVID-19 shutdowns, it did not make it to print. However, the digital spreads still effectively convey the topic, process and intent. Each piece featured was inspired by some component of the everyday machines utilized, and the sketches that prompted the final project are present leading up to the feature.
Ultimately, five pieces were completely developed from dozens of sketch concepts. Looking at and playing with pieces of everyday objects yielded two comics, a threatening poster, a type experiment trying to convey heat, and an illustration. All were pieces that would not have been created while using my go-to method of creating, which is referencing multiple photos or film stills, and taking the most interesting content of each and piecing them together.
Although not all sketches were utilized in time for this due date, they still feel interesting enough to use for later personal projects in both design and illustration.
Research and Process
Veryday was initially conceived as a concept after learning of a designer, Aaron Draplin, having a rocket design frequently copied or outright stolen, and hearing his process of finding inspiration. The more research I did, the more I found heavy repetition of content in both graphic design and illustration and how it's noticed by professionals.
Keeping in mind what I found in my research on the approach of Eastern artists and architects, I decided to try to find a way to break regurgitation. I challenged myself find ways to inform my work without looking at the artwork of others and staying off the usual places artists go to search for inspiration. I decided to purchase a coffeemaker and hairdryer from the thrift store to take apart and examine for any interesting shapes or reminders of other things like landscape or activities and began to sketch from there.
The sketch process and observation was the most effective in producing artwork. I felt the most free to think when I began to sketch, especially when I came to the conclusion that there was no right or wrong way to approach the topic I was developing. Once I came to that I wanted to be sure to convey to others both in my thesis and in any future work I approached.
When I took sketches to digital rendering in Photoshop and Illustrator, it allowed me to play around with texture, color and arrangement. No colors or textures were planned ahead of time besides the decision that they should stay fairly limited for ease of viewing.
The final pieces felt like they varied from each other in the final renditions, something that I feel would not have been possible if I had used the method I usually worked with. Working without relying on art found online opened up many new possibilities for concepts and exploration without much stress over pieces looking "correct" or if I was approaching anything the "wrong way".
My hope for Veryday is that people take this prompt and find that it helps break them from their comfort zone. Doing this, I've learned that it's beneficial to work out of what you know to develop your skills.
Sources
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