My heart sank at the question… because I already knew the answer.
About a year or so ago, I started to move more seriously toward finishing Your Body! The Fuel Factory. I had already graduated with my MFA, and the book was more or less in a sate of limbo with only a few spreads completed and a dummy concept in hand. I could finish it… or be done with it. It had fulfilled its purpose for all intents and purposes.
But, I also felt strongly that I wanted each one of my thesis initiatives to have a life beyond the classroom. This is deeply rooted in my teaching posture for our capstone illustrators: that the work they are creating has the potential to live beyond the setting of the classroom. This is an essential step in transitioning from academic life into a professional setting.
So, after revisiting the story and having a number of breakthroughs in terms of voice and story (see previous posts), I was making real progress toward a marketable product and feeling excited about it.
At a coffee meetup, I shared my progress with artist peers Jingo de la Rosa and Jacob Bliss (links). I could speak at length about how special these two artists are to me, both their evident and incredible talents, but more so their true depth of character and deep relationship with the Lord.
If you are a creative, and you don’t have a peer group that can be real with you, let me encourage you to get one. No different than our need for friends we can be accountable to - honest and ugly. They help us see areas in ourselves where we are missing the mark or provide perspective outside of our vision.
But in the same vein, when you are sharing with real ones, in this case, real practitioners, it means you had better be ready for honest feedback when it comes.
So, after reviewing the spreads at this gathering of friends, Jingo fired off a question...
“What do you think of the character design?”
I know this move, Jingo. This is a teacher move asking a question. But I’m a teacher too…
What do YOU think of the character design? I retorted. But I already knew his answer.
“They kinda look like minions,” he stated
Oof.
Character design is an essential component of any visual design process. One of the issues in the earliest days with this title was the character designs. They were too similar to another character design from a (highly) successful film series, with numerous sequels and spinoffs.
There were obvious narrative overlaps with the character’s functional roles as ‘workers.’ Making them look different was a conscious effort. I don’t want to be a copy. Influence is one thing, but you are trying to create something with a new flavor. I thought I had solved it at Hartford… but I really hadn’t.
What followed from this conversation unlocked new ideas that couldn't have happened without that meeting. I began to explore what cells looked like. What unique shapes and colors are there, and how are they different from each other?
For example, nerve cells have branch-like appendages (called dendrites) that receive signals from nearby nerve cells. Those shapes are purposefully designed for the function of the cell - and they look really cool! The form is intentionally designed and makes for a great silhouette shape. Leaning into these kinds of ideas allowed me to pump more variety into the designs.
In the end, the product is in a much better place because of the rework, and a further byproduct is the additional narrative connections that it opened up for future children's books about the body that we hope to create.
Legendary illustrator C.F. Payne and coordinator for the Hartford MFA program once spoke on the topic of pushing your concepts. His goal was this: don't settle too early. I recall his comment:
“It’s like a dare. Can you outdo this idea? Can you make it better?”
If you choose to take the dare, to accept the feedback, you'll have to give something up—time, energy, and comfort in the process. You have to go back and revisit work that, in your mind, was 'done.'
But sometimes, just sometimes, 'better' is on the other side of 'done.'
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