Starting a Design Project

Thumbnail Sketches


1. Initial sketches referred to as thumbnail sketches or simply as thumbnail, are first step in any design project.
2. Thumbnails allow you to explore ideas visually
3. Always explore a variety of ideas for every project
4. Always explore a variety of ideas for every project
5. The creation of thumbnails can start at any time – even at the first meeting with the client but primarily are done during and after the research phase
6. Remember that you are generating ideas and approaches to solving the problem, not just looking at the “answer”
7. Therefore thumbnail sketches are often small, lack specific detail and are quickly executed
8. Thumbnails helps the designer to think visually about the problem at hand and are the first step to a creative solution
9. The purpose of thumbnails is to create a wide variety of simple ideas.

Preliminary Comps


1. Taking one or more of the thumbnail ideas, a designer develops preliminary composite or rough comp
2. This is first used to see how a thumbnail idea will work at actual size and more detailed than thumbnail sketch
3. Type is rendered more accurately, color is introduced and decision about photography or illustrations are implied in the preliminary comps
4. These comps may be created on a computer or by hand
5. It is important to present the preliminary comps to the clients should be encouraged to suggest changes as needed

Comprehensive Sketches


1. Final Comps or comprehensive sketches are the closest example of how the final job will look
2. These are most often done with the use of computer, using the actual type face and colors of the final design with all the required elements in place
3. Final comps of several of the best concepts are prepared for the presentation to the client
4. Ideas created at the thumbnail stage are evaluated, refined and develop into final comps, with many changes along the way

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