The Five Stages of Grief, I mean DESIGNING.

I’ve touched on these stages on my Facebook page, but thought I’d elaborate on what happens and why they exist. I work on any number of covers at one time, and sometimes inspiration determines the direction I take. For instance, I have covers due next month, but over the weekend I finished covers needed next year. It’s inspirations fault, really. You can’t force a design to be designer, you just have to go with the wind. But, true to process, each of the five stages are almost always dealt with for every cover project.

Stage One // “I HAVE AN AWESOME IDEA.”

I start every cover project with enthusiasm because I won’t take on a client unless I’m excited about the project and think I can make something out of their ideas and story. I usually have at least one or two concepts to explore, and of course they’re both awesome ideas.

Stage Two // “That execution won’t work—back to the drawing board.”

Unfortunately, as with any creative venture, things don’t always go according to plan. There are a lot of different factors involved in designing—inspiration and stock images to name a few.

Stage Three //  “I have no ideas. I’m not going to get this done in time. I’m a complete failure.”

At one point in every design project I start to question why I think I can do this as a career.

State Four // “Screw it, I’m just going to mess around, see what happens.”

This stage is going to be addressed more in a future blog post, but it basically amounts to tinkering, experimenting and trying the most out-of-the-box techniques with a project, and hoping for the best. Some things don’t work out (read: a lot of things don’t work out), and some seem like a stroke of genius, but just the act of messing around can spark inspiration and new directions.

State Five // “Wait—the author loves it? Awesome! Done. Boom.”

Self-explanatory. Always an awesome feeling, and even better that the author is proud of their new cover