Where do I start

I have to start this blog with an apology… Yep, I messed up. I’ll make it short, because I’ve already spent hours researching for this blog…

It all started last week, when I was thinking “What can I blog about ?”… umm, Eurovision… Boris Johnson…. something more interesting I think. I know ” Is Creative Software Killing Creativity ? “

I hatched a plan

Convinced I had a good idea. And it all started with Adobe’s 3d gizmo. We often see new tools on Adobe, that appear to be the next cool thing, like 3d in Adobe Photoshop… I remember seeing clips of lettering being transformed into a 3d looking extrusion with shadows and other filters added to bring it to life… I thought ” Manipulating a pixel image with what looked like vectors… Why not just make it in Adobe illustrator in the first place? “

It all looked quite formulaic but quite efficient at the same time… and if I remember correctly, there was a surge in 3d lettering on nearly everything for a few months. Then nada. So many designers used it, it became a cliché. But please don’t think this is all about Adobe, there’s other software out there that’s in my firing line. So I investigated more and more…

Not what I expected

Perfect I thought, I can blog about all the added extras that I don’t use. Mostly because I’m a control freak and hate the idea of restrictive creativity… This was the start of my mistake. You see, I thought that after a hour or two. Researching to back up my very worthy account of how the software developers were creating all these clever add-ons. And how they cheat at skilful techniques by using formulas to generically make a standardised graphic, I’ll be loaded with interesting info… It turns out that many “gizmos” are quite good, and effective tools. I can only say this about Adobe from my own opinion, but other posts on-line kinda point the same way.

So I was mistaken, wrongly assumed, and other things that slowly dawned on me as I read. Oh we laughed… well my wife did!

Conclusion

I guess 3 hours looking, I mean learning about the 3d tool in Photoshop. Which I think Adobe are removing now, typical. And all the sites I visited was a waste of time, but then I wouldn’t have this blog if I was right ?

Take away

I’ll pat myself on the back for taking something away from this educational 3 hours. I learnt that sometimes blog ideas go in a different direction than expected, and that those “gizmos” are handy if not for me, but creatives that need a quick fix.

So next time you realise you’ve gone down the wrong path, remember the educational journey.

Words and pictures by Adrian Cartwright freelance illustrator

Visit my blog page to read more, or take a look at my folio.