Word + Image: A moment with Brian Fies

Several days ago in my design class, I had the honor of meeting Brian Fies, the author and illustrator of Mom's Cancer.  During that class period, he spoke of the reasons for which he had written and illustrated his first book, as well as giving us tips about the design process. He showed us several slides of preliminary work, as well as the many different variations of the cover design.  Although he did not show us all of the designs for the book cover, I was struck by the number of designs he was showing us while simultaneously telling us that these were not even the sum of them. I came to understand the immense amount of work put forth in that one image that was necessary to attain the best option.  The first sketch is almost never the best sketch, but training oneself to search above and beyond for the best can be a tedious process.  Oftentimes, it is easy to come up with an idea, and be thoroughly entrenched in that one idea that a designer fails to see that what he has envisioned may not be as well suited as the designer wishes.

Seeing Fies' slide of his book cover designs helped to give clear definition to Karl Aspelunds' Design Process.  After getting inspired, identifying what it is the designer wishes to do, and coming up with a concept, his fourth step is Exploration and Refinement.  For a while, I could never fully understand what a designer would need to explore, but after seeing the many renditions of Fies' book cover, I was able to see that one thought, one single image could be changed in an infinite amount of ways and still be able to be edited.  It is through these edits and changes that a designer can come across his best works.  The design process is still new to me, but thanks to Brian, I am one step closer to learning the basic skills I will need to survive as a designer in society.