Can you see what it is yet?

A reflection by Alan Mutter

People often say to me, “You know what…you're a really great 'drawer', I wish I could draw like that”. Which is quite a compliment, but technically flawed on a number of counts:

Firstly, everyone can draw a picture in some fashion or other, often not that 'photographically' accurate, but nevertheless drawn in their own style, be it immature, crude, childlike or just plain lacking in confidence. It is, however, a drawing. Which is what I do all day everyday (whenever I can).


Secondly, as a ‘Creative’, I suppose I do have more than my fair share of artistic skills (of which drawing is one), but really...Michelangelo was a great drawer, so were Rembrandt, Leonardo Da Vinci, Picasso and all those other guys, too many to mention. So is the autistic savant Stephen Wiltshire... and even good old Rolf Harris and Bradford’s own David Hockney if you must be 21st century! They are great drawers!

If, for a moment, I can be presumptuous enough to group myself within the aforementioned list, we can all draw, paint and produce 'images' that please the viewer in one way or another. What I do is 'bring a creative idea to life' visually in a way that really helps explain it. Something my old buddy Leonardo was fairly hot on. He was also a top 'problem solver' (and engineer, and mathematician, and scientist, and…).

I 'problem solve' all the time and, as a creative team member, what I do with my “old school” arty skill of putting pen to paper as opposed to sitting at the Mac all day, is to give a rough, but ultimately inspirational, version of what the 'creative concept' could look like eventually. The initial 'scamped' versions can often be open to any amount of interpretation by clients and other creatives, which allows everyone on the team to feel involved in the creative processes, something clients find highly desirable and very useful. It also gives the younger, edgy Mac-literate designers an opportunity to mock an old guy!
Bring it on! Magic Markers at dawn!!




They (used to) say, “a picture is worth 1000 words”, which no doubt it is still true; it definitely makes it much easier to demonstrate a strong creative solution to a particularly tricky marketing/branding problem. I like to think that, as a result of my 'artistic' input, at whatever stage, the client ultimately feels more confident and comfortable with the design process and appreciates how the result has been achieved. Often not the easiest of tasks! But it's what I do, I'm good at it and I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it.

So, to all the doubters out there, there's still life in the old pencil (and, for that matter, my felt tip) yet!

If you'd like to see more of Alan's work at Idealogy download this PDF.

Posted by Alan Mutter