- All the information we've gathered
from discovery and research,
is now going to inform us as we move into thumbnail drawing.
This is a critical stage of the creative process.
You don't want to skip it,
you want to do it well to produce your best design.
I'm using simple tools;
a pencil, a pen, paper, tracing paper, a mechanical pencil
and eventually a light pad.
This is best showing then explain, so let's dive into it.
As you approach thumbnail sketching,
as you initially start drawing,
I would avoid using a pencil, I would use a pen instead,
and the whole purpose of using a pen
is it's very unforgiving.
It's not going to allow you to edit your idea,
you can't erase it,
and you don't need to be refining things at this stage.
It's all about mining,
it's all about getting ideas out of your head and onto paper
and doing it quickly.
They don't have to be precise drawings.
One aspect that I do at this stage of the creative process
is if I'm approaching a specific theme, in this case,
we're working on the Cascade Lakes logo concepts,
you can see I've actually written out key words
associated with that region, Cascade Lakes.
And these are the ideas are going to help me move forward
and sketch out potential design directions we can take.
Now this logo mark unlike the other logo mark
that I'm working on simultaneously in this course,
this is a very literal type of theme.
We're dealing with mountain ranges and trees and lakes
and we're going to iconify that through our drawings.
You can see here, I'm experimenting
with different types of ways I can handle the tree.
Do I want it just as simple triangle or cut in to the side,
that type of thing?
My first thumbnail sketch was deciding,
I'm going to go ahead and use a tree
like this one showing here,
and I created this thumbnail sketch.
So we got one there.
Now thumbnail sketching goes pretty quick.
So I want to show you how you can think and approach this
so you don't get bogged down in the details.
That's what you want to avoid.
So we're going to work out another idea.
Once again, the concept here is a region
specifically here in Oregon, called Cascade Lakes.
It's the Cascade Mountains, 12 lakes,
and so we want to create some design motifs
utilizing those themes.
So we're going to just go ahead
and draw out a thumbnail sketch.
Once again, it doesn't need to be perfect.
And this one, these will be trees, we'll go like this.
On this one, we would have one side of it,
kind of shaded, kind of like that.
I want to have some element that reflects water
so we'll probably handle that kind of like that.
Maybe we put in a sun there.
Now the type, you can go ahead and just Greek it out.
So if I was to create a layout using this,
it might look something like this
where the type arches on the top, arches on the bottom,
and this is what I'm talking about
in terms of the thumbnail sketch.
This isn't precise,
it's not going to inform us on the exact proportions.
It's just to encapsulate and capture the essence of an idea.
Now in all actuality, if I draw it out like that
and I don't think it reflects what I see in my mind,
I might draw it again and maybe draw it smaller.
That way I can kind of see the big picture easy.
And in this respect, I might make it like this.
So I could draw a circle around it,
knowing that ultimately when I do this one,
this is going to be a smaller context than what I have here.
This almost looks like an oval
but I definitely want it to be a circle.
So those are the kinds of things you can work out
and it's also, you don't forget that idea
that came to mind as you start drawing.
We're going to do another one here.
And I also, this we'll use the same theme,
obviously mountains,
and so we want to work it all into a diamond shape.
So I'm going to go here
and I'm going to create the mountains kind of like this,
we'll have one side of the mountain range,
this kind of shaded.
Maybe the elements by lines that represent the sky,
that sort of thing.
We can work in trees here.
This is all going to be iconified.
So it's taking a pretty complex theme,
which is lakes and mountains, a scene,
and kind of simplifying it
and deducing it down into simple shapes.
So this would reflect maybe the top half of this diamond,
reflects that kind of scenery
to reflect the name Cascade Lakes,
and then all we're going to do is we can go ahead
and just write out how the type will interact with this.
So maybe the primary name is here
and then the secondary part of their name is soda
and maybe we handle company kind of like that.
It's all about drawing quickly,
not worrying about final form.
I'd certainly go in as I refine this idea
and perfect how the relationship is
with all the various shapes
that make up the mountain, the trees, et cetera.
Now, the whole reason I draw in a notepad like this
is so I can take it off,
And then I'll put this in my project folder.
A lot of people have asked me
why I draw on a smaller piece of the paper,
and it's for that very reason.
So let's go ahead and look at a few more things.
So I'm going to bring these thumbnail sketches over here.
And as I was working on this idea, once again,
and thinking about the name Cascade Lakes,
I wanted to do a line-based logo, strokes only.
So here's one drawing
that's just a simple three triangles of sorts.
Probably the easiest thing you could create in Illustrator.
This is going to be a semi thick stroke.
I make notes like this as I go along
to tell myself that when I get to that,
I don't want these peaks to come to a sharp point.
We're going to round those off
using the Rounding Tools in Illustrator.
This also reflects a secondary aspect to this concept
is that there's a specific range of mountains
within the Cascade Mountain range called Three Sisters.
And this company is located very close
to that area of Oregon.
That's why a three little mountain shapes
will nest it within a circular motif or type.
Now the reflection down below will be I drew it wiggly
because I want it to reflect,
be representative of reflecting off a lake.
So that's one concept we've worked out here.
I re-approach that diamond concept again
and you can tell this time,
I've actually drawn all these with the pencil
because it's not like I sit down
and draw everything all at the same time on one single day.
Usually as I take in all the information
from the discovery period and the strateging period
or the creative process, my mind starts percolating ideas.
And when those come to the surface,
I pull whatever's around me.
In this case, I had a pencil
and I just sketched out three ideas using what came to mind.
Now when I did that, I drew this bottom one here
which is pretty sketchy and loose,
but you can see how I'm reflecting details in the sky
to represent the sky.
The defined edge is going to represent the clouds
and then you have reflection in the Lake.
I really like this and as soon as I drew this,
I knew this was going to simplify down into a nice iconic form
when I move forward,
but it also inspired me to keep going down this method
and see what else I can explore.
And that's when I went back to a pen.
So once again, I wouldn't get bogged down in all the details
and I just quickly sketch this
and I'm trying to create a motif
that frames the visual narrative here.
So this one I'm thinking maybe it'll be in a circular motif.
I kept sketching even more.
Once again, looking at the trees, thinking of other flora.
I really liked this one
but I thought it got a little too busy,
I tried to showcase more than one lake
and that just gets really busy and over complicated I think.
So this one I'm not going to use,
experimented with maybe having it
in a kind of a lop-sized oval-type shape, a seal of sorts,
but seals are cool
but they're kind of limited in terms of their use.
So I want something more modular.
So I went back to that idea
of framing a nice visual narrative, and I really like this.
And I think this is going to be able to be refined
and move forward with that type of image.
So thumbnail drawing's all about exploring the potential
of what you can create.
And in this case, for a logo project,
what direction you can take.
Here's one other sketch I did,
again, I did this with my pencil, but as I drew this out
and I was thinking in simple, iconic shapes,
you can see I drew just the interior graphics here.
These are about as easy as it gets to build an illustrator.
So this build would go really quick
once we moved to the vector-building stage.
But as I was drawing this out,
I even kind of did a little thumbnail
of how it could potentially work on one of their products
on the side of the can.
It could go right here and maybe we pull an element
that's a little more illustrative
or it could even be a photo-based element
and that becomes part of the background.
So as you're working, as you're creating, as you're drawing,
it's going to inspire other ideas
as you work through and problem-solve.
And that's the beauty of taking the time
not to skip this stage,
but to use thumbnailing as not only a way
to work out the specific motifs,
it's also going to allude and kind of lend light to other ideas
for other purposes within the project you're working on.
Here, I'm trying to create a ligature, a monogram that is,
using L and a C, so I'm exploring up here.
I kind of like it being a little more beefy
so I'll probably go in that direction.
So let's go ahead and do another thumbnail sketch.
This one, yes, it's a very literal concept in name,
Cascade Lakes, but that said, the more I thought about it,
I initially did this really crude sketch here
because an idea popped into my head.
And as soon as I got home, I was driving at the time,
I ran into my studio and just sketch this out
just so I wouldn't lose it
because if I don't put it down on paper
or capture it in some way, I tend to forget.
So this was the initial sketch I did, really crude.
I initially thought maybe the type
could go within the character,
and this is supposed to be a bear.
This doesn't look like a bear,
it looks like a hippo with a mountain range on his back.
But I'm thinking, what if we focused on the animal
and in that area of Oregon, there's a lot of bears.
So I'm thinking a bear,
we have a mountain range on the back.
That's all I had thought about,
that it intrigued me so I captured it.
I re-approach it a little later, drew it out a little more
and I go, okay, maybe it is a bear
but it kind of showcases a scene graphically
and iconically within it.
And that's good
but that's not completely what my original idea was.
I kind of liked the mountain range on the back.
So that's where I would go back
and I'd go ahead and do another sketch.
Once again, we're not refining here.
I just want to give more information on my original idea.
And if it helps you to use a reference to do that,
then by all means get reference.
In this case, we're going to make a bear
that's kind of walking and profiles.
So you see his legs.
And if you look at a real photo of the bear,
its legs get pretty, they kind of taper
from really fat at the body down to a pretty narrow feet.
And we're going to kind of take some creative liberty here
because I'm going to make the base of this bear really beefy
like this and strong, not so petite,
well, I wouldn't call bears feet petite
but they're definitely narrow than what's showing here.
So all we're going to do
is just quickly kind of capture the idea,
we'll have his other leg pop out here at the back.
We'll give him an eye,
maybe the back part of his head, kind of like this.
And then the mountain range itself,
instead of being an interior,
we'll want to keep the idea in mind of these angles.
And then if we put in like shading on one side,
work that in, put a sun here.
Once again, we're taking almost a mystical-type approach
to this concept.
Because it's water area, we'll put reference to water here.
We'll add some hills here.
It's all about making some nice patterns.
Maybe even putting a few birds in here,
I'll put stars up here,
that will make it look a little mystical.
And we're going to use linear lines eventually I'm thinking.
So we'll put that in here that will create that shading.
We'll do the same thing on the back legs.
Once again, doesn't have to be perfect
but this definitely encapsulates the kind of flare
and vibe I was initially going for.
And I think this is going to work well.
Let's shift over to Elevating Culture
and let me walk through
some of the thumbnail sketching for that.
In this case I wanted to have a good reference for panthers.
Now, one thing you might not be aware of
is black panther is part of the Panthera family,
which leopards are also a part of.
And the reason why a black pan-, I almost said panda,
the reason why a black panther is black
is because they ever recessive gene.
And if both parents let's say it's two leopards,
have that same gene,
they could have cubs that are black panther cubs.
So kind of cool, I never knew that.
It's the type of thing when you work on design projects
and you dive into a concept
and you dive into some of the information
you need to take into account
as you're creating something in this case a panther,
you're going to learn new things.
I didn't know that until this project happened.
So as I was thinking panthers and looking at my reference,
this was the first kind of thumbnail drawing I was doing.
And I created this panther here which I really liked,
but obviously needs more refinement as we move forward.
But it gave me an idea for having something beefy,
strong, courageous, moving forward
is kind of the brand aesthetic I want to create.
And all of that was informed in the discovery and research,
talking with the client.
And as I drew this out, you can see I got off topic,
did a couple doodles, that's normal.
If you look through all my projects,
you're going to see that kind of stuff.
But as I drew this panther in this chunky style,
I drew this hippo in a chunky style,
once again, doesn't have anything to do with this project
but I'll definitely do something with that moving forward.
That's the fun part about working,
doing thumbnail sketches and exploring
'cause you'll run into other ideas
that may not apply to what you're doing
but could work really well in another context.
So don't throw those away, save those.
So here's some initial thumbnail drawings I was doing
based off of looking at reference.
This, I really liked, I liked the perspective,
I like that a black panther is like a silhouette really,
and so this is going to relay that concept really well.
Kind of figuring out how it could associate with type
is showing down to here, but a good start.
I think that's going to really help us to develop our ideas.
Now, as I was drawing these out,
I was thinking about the name "elevated",
elevated is like to rise.
And that made me think of, wow, what if we add wings to it?
So really cool pose, but push that concept even further,
almost create a mythology
or lower with the brand mark itself.
So that really intrigued me
so I sketched these out smaller once again,
not everything needs to be drawn out big,
you can see I drew these pretty tiny.
But once again, I'm using that same smaller format.
That's why the name is called thumbnail sketching.
It's supposed to relate small, really rough drawings.
So like your thumbnail not big in size.
But this is really getting me excited at this point
and so I'm going to keep moving forward
and I'm always looking at my reference.
Even if I'm deducing down into a simple shape,
looking at reference are going to give you those cues
to okay, how do I stylize this pose?
Is going to help your drawing efforts.
You look at the photo, think in shapes
and just relate the essence of those shapes
and that's going to help you draw it out.
Here, I'm trying this really beefy style
as my first initial thumbnail sketch was,
but the more I kind of push it in this direction,
I didn't really like this one at all.
This one's pretty good
but I don't think it's appropriate for this project.
My daughter looked at this one and thought, wow,
what if those were like tire treads for like a tire company?
That's kind of cool so I'm going to hold onto that, who knows?
Something might come down the road, we can use that.
But I'm trying to do a couple different motifs.
This one's more flat, almost Egyptian in its aesthetic.
I like the shield approach.
I might do something with that.
Here's another one we're focusing on the body itself
and just capturing the essence, trying to simplify it.
These legs don't look exactly like panther legs,
we've simplified it, deduced it.
Didn't like my original head,
tried another, didn't really like this,
tried this one, like kind of like this one more.
So we'll keep developing that idea going forward.
Now, as you saw in a previous movie,
I had my client pull together images
and create what's called a mood board.
And a mood board serves the purpose
of informing me, the designer,
what's the mood of this brand, what's the aesthetic,
what characteristics I should keep in mind.
So a lot of this has to do with color,
some of it has to do with visual information.
He really liked this style with the thick lines here
that he pulled into this, and it's funny
because I was initially thinking of a thicker line style
as you saw in my initial sketch, until I looked at this,
and then this sent me down a whole other road
after looking at his mood board.
Now this is going to help inform us on color
later on in the course,
but this really helped to do some exploration.
So here's some exploration where I approached that same pose
I drawn in a silhouette form before,
and I just did a really crude thicker line one,
and I love this, I think this is going to look really cool.
I'd worked on a project a few years ago for a tour company
that does African-American a history tours, really cool.
We use some symbolism based off of African culture
and I think putting this little mark above them up here
in that same style would work really well in this context.
Now some of the other sketches we did,
keep in that line weight in mind,
this is where we did some pencil sketching,
my daughter did a few of these,
but these represent just contour lines
to kind of encapsulate the contour of the character.
So you can see how we approach these.
Not all of them work that great,
I think this one has potential, I really like this one,
and then when I was looking at the next phase
that she drew out, I thought this pose was good,
we might do something with this.
This has good motion, but when I saw this I'm going okay,
I want to see this drawn a little bigger
because I think that one has potential.
I like the pose, it's looking back
yet moving forward into the future,
is almost kind of the way I took it.
My daughter does all her drawing on an iPad Pro.
So this is a print out of the TIF image she gave me
that she drew in and I love this.
These are okay
but these two look more like house cats to me.
I don't really like the head on this one,
but this one here with it looking back,
I love how she handled the head.
It swings into the shape of the body.
Now, she doesn't get as rough as I do
in the thumbnail stage,
and in all honesty I have to say,
she's a better core drawer than I am.
So it doesn't surprise me when she does this.
It just makes my job easier.
So we're going to take this
and definitely move forward with it.
So let's get back to,
how do you think when you approach a project like this?
Now you might really struggle with drawing and that's okay,
that's actually normal,
but here we have a reference on the head.
And this is a photograph,
how would you deduce this down into an iconic form?
Well, if you think in shapes, it's going to help you.
If we have an ear it's like a wedge shape kind of like this,
once again, we don't have to be precise,
we're doing a thumbnail sketch here.
So like that.
Even though if we turn this,
you can see the top of his head goes here,
has a couple little wrinkles.
Well, those are the things you simplify.
It's all about what not to include,
not so much what to include.
So if we just make one line,
it's going to accomplish that readability
of the top of his head.
Here, it's going to cut into the eyes.
So maybe it has a little line like this,
his nose isn't perfectly straight
so we'll give a subtle arch, cut in from his nose.
This is like a circular shape here.
Then this is where we'll take a little artistic license,
we'll go like that.
And then the last curve,
this is just going to be one continuous curve like this.
Maybe we do that.
So you can see how nice of a contour we've created there,
I think that's going to work great.
And then his eye once again, we can simplify it.
We want it strong and bold and not overly aggressive.
That's why I'm not drawing anything with teeth in it.
This is a lifestyle brand, we want it more sophisticated.
It's not a sports mascot for example
which would be appropriate to do that kind of approach.
So if this helps you to work out your drawing,
then find really good reference.
And sometimes finding good reference
can kind of be difficult at times.
So I'm going to show you kind of a cheat
that a former creative director I used to work with
kind of showed me what to do.
And that is, in this case, stock imagery.
I found one of a black leopard and his back hind quarters,
the legs and the shapes all work great so I retain that.
But his tail was fused to the back of his leg.
So in Photoshop, I just selected that tail
and used Puppet Warp just to move it away.
So it created this nice negative shape
between the tail and his back leg.
Then the front of the original photograph that came from,
I didn't like the legs.
So I took another stock photograph that had good front legs
and just Frankensteined them onto this one.
Didn't like the head, so I took another head
that was more idealistically panther and put that on.
That's the way you can compile your own reference.
And then you can do the exact same drawing
I showed you on the head
where you just simplify those contours, ignore detail.
Drawing like this,
this is a little tighter than most thumbnail drawings.
This could even be tight enough to build from.
So if you struggle with drawing or find it intimidating,
this is a great way to improve your skills
and approach this kind of project.
I also wanted you to take an approach
that played off just the head of the Panther, not the body.
We have the body covered, I wanted to create a few motifs.
So once again, we get good reference
that's going to inform us on those shapes
within the panther's head that really read as panther.
Now, my initial drawing was this one shown at the bottom
and it's a little too novel, it's a little juvenile,
it doesn't look sophisticated,
but I like the styling in terms of having thick lines.
And I drew it again.
Once again, this is a symmetric drawing
and I tried to simplify form and shapes.
So it would read as a panther
but it would be very graphic and iconic.
And I really liked this but because I drew it with a pen,
I didn't want to go in and draw on top of this.
So I drew it again in pencil
because I wanted to clarify specific forms in here
such as the curves and the head, and I really like this.
Now, my first attempt at doing that was the one on the left
and I kind of abandoned that because the more I went,
it was starting to feel like the Transformers logo
and I didn't want that.
That's not sophisticated for a lifestyle brand,
I thought this one would work much better
and we're definitely going to move forward with this.
Now, as I was looking at it, it hit me,
hey, I can still work in a wing idea
to reflect that the name of the brand, Elevated Culture,
And so I just crudely put this together,
and as soon as I did this, I knew we had a winner.
So I also worked out a little thumbnail sketch
of how the composition would go.
And we're definitely going to move forward with this
to the next phase and refine it
and eventually build out the comp
that we present to the client.
So thumbnailing is a great way to explore ideas.
It's a great way to look at what the possibility is
on what you could do for your given project
based off of whatever theme you're working with.
In this case, we're doing two simultaneous projects;
we're doing the Cascade Lakes
and we're doing Elevated Culture.
Whatever you work on,
make sure to take the time to do a little discovery upfront
in terms of finding good reference
that's going to help you to execute these ideas
when you go to thumbnail drawing.
Drawing isn't just for illustrators,
whether you prefer analog or digital,
drawing will improve your ideas.
It'll help you discover clever motifs
and ultimately create great design.
It's a vital step in your creative process so don't skip it.