Daily Design #365. I did it!

Daily Design #365! Well here it is, the last day and last design of my challenge. Today I finish where I started a year ago, with an illustration of cherry blossoms, this time they are created on a Wacom digital tablet. I thought it was appropriate to end with an illustration. This one was created more manually than the one that kicked off this challenge last April 1st. I encourage you to read my first post as well as read my comments below to learn a little more on what I’m taking from this experience. I want to thank all of you again. Visitors, subscribers, Facebook fans and Tweeters, thank you so much for sharing this journey with me.

Of the many things I’ve learned about my design sensibilities this year the thing that stands out the most is my natural gravitation toward illustration. It is sadly a lost art for me. I started my artistic life, as a young child, as a “draw-er”. I was a crude illustrator who quickly gained the notoriety of the grown ups in my life. For my age, I had considerable talent and I got better in time. I continued, loosely, on the artist path throughout my growing and adult years, but always putting the artist thing in the back seat rather than making it a primary force in my life. Even in my career as a graphic designer, I have minimized the importance of my natural abilities as an illustrator. Always focusing on gaining a better understanding of things like color and typography. Never allowing myself to paint a picture with… well, pictures. Even with the Circadian Creative project I tried to retreat from illustration. After October’s Wacom Tablet theme, I quickly retired my digital tablet to my office drafting table where it sat until today, collecting dust. But despite my resistance you will notice that even on the simplest of levels I often fell back on basic illustrations in my designs.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love, and strive to improve in the areas of typography, and color, and balance, and all aspects of design and visual communication. I also value how the Daily Design challenge has changed and improved my outlook and experience with these things. I will always be a typophile, drooling over retro and vintage typefaces, or exploring the intricacies of typographic character forms. I will continue to enjoy my struggle with color theory and color schemes and the challenges of directing the behavior of the readers eye. However, what I will take with me into 2011 and beyond is a renewed respect for illustration. I will think about how to integrate these items into design with all the other ingredients.

It’s been a fascinating journey. There are some images here that I am really proud of. And, there are some that I could do over if given the chance, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I will revisit all of these images for years to come to serve as both a reminder of the great things I can do, as well as the things I can do better. The overall collection of images will remind me of the virtues of perseverance and dedication. There were days when I was excited and inspired and I could not wait to start and finish a design. Some days I felt like skipping a day. There were still other days when I was very concerned that I would have to skip, whether I wanted to or not. But here, at the end of the line… I did it. I did it!

~Sean

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