A designer speaks: Messy beginnings, purity at the end

By

Website and graphic designer Cristina King:

For a project I gather all my inspiration and ideas and photos and dump them in Photoshop.  

The process is all about building a structure. As I build the structure I eliminate the clutter.  

I end up with a clean slate. I end up with simplicity. 

The simplest concepts are the purest.

She free associates until she finds what is essential to the project.

I think of Hemingway (again). In an interview with writer Ernest Hemingway an interviewer was surprised to find a mess of papers stacked in Hemingway’s writing room. (“But I know where everything is.”)

Evidently he too began with a jumble of ideas and then simplified. Hemingway said he wrote and then eliminated all that was unnecessary. In his case the result was taut muscular prose.

Do not be afraid of messy beginnings, only inelegant endings.

Note: This is part of the What creators do series, where I look to people who are creating something meaningful in the world for inspiration and tips — and pass them along to you.

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