The best part of being a designer and having entrepreneurial friends is helping them define and achieve their own dreams and goals. My friend approached me and has many needs for my skills now. He needs a logo designed, a website designed as well as a menu designed. It’s a bit intimidating to tackle all of these while I attend university studies as well as working full time, I guess my late night video game habits will have to go on hold for a while. (My wife will be stoked)

The Design Brief

The name of his restaurant is Three Forks and they will be in the Jewish Community Center near downtown Salt Lake. The name originates from a river that has 3 forks in it. They will start as a cafe with some side catering for events held at the center, but wish to grow into multiple restaurants throughout the Sale Lake valley.

Three forks needs a logo that is modern and fresh. They are looking for a true identity design that defines them. That is where we will continue with Part 2 of the Go Fork Yourself series. I am going to send them a design questionnaire and start researching some of the competitors as well as quick sketches of any ideas that may pop into my head.

Three Forks’ Competition

First thing is first, run a google search for Cafe’s in SLC. As you can see, the competition is STACKED.

I’ll leave you folks here and continue with Part 2, where we will dive into the logo and the design process of the logo, but I leave you with a question that will help me with the design process.

What are the first symbols, words or ideas that come to your mind when you hear the 3 Forks Cafe? Do you like the number 3 forks or the word Three Forks?

Project Sketch 1

This first one was just something I cam up with not looking at competitors or trying to use specific design elements like the golden mean or rule of thirds. I was thinking a slider/rotator image on the main page that would let you select the 3 product this site will offer.

Project Sketch 2

On this design I was going with a ‘golden mean’ design. I am not sure I am liking how sidebars work out with the dimensions of the golden mean, but with some tweaking I could see it working well.

Project 3 Sketches

On this particular design I was looking at a site that caught my eye from Designbombs.com. I took it in a slightly different direction.

Most designers have a storm of ideas floating around their creative brains. Recently my freelance work has slowed down so it has given me the opportunity to work on a few personal projects that’s having been on the back burners for a while, stewing in my creative juices.

One of those personal projects just got pumped to the front of the range and it’s a photography website, based around a photoblog. There are a few reasons I wanted to start a new photoblog (had an old one, but the backend was crap) and I plan on turning this into more than just a photoblog, but a resource that fellow photography enthusiasts can come to learn as well as share some experiences. I have a few other creative minds that are going to be collaborating on this (including a few professional photographers), but I will inform you more on my idea behind this new website at a later date when it’s more matured.

(sorry for the terrible pictures, my SLR was stolen and my new 7D hasn’t shown up yet, so I resorted to the old point and shoot.)

Get your rough ideas down on paper!

So we have this idea in the old mind crockpot, first thing I like to do in my design process grab a pencil, pen or that half broken crayon that I never seem to throw away and start throwing down ideas. These ideas can be words, symbols, small sketches; really there are no rules here. Just let those creative ideas flow through your brain, down your hand and onto the paper, total this took me around 10 minutes.
In my case I wanted a clean and simple design that worked around one single large image. For instance one of my words that trickled down from the brain was B&W (black & white). I wanted to keep it B&W so the focus would remain on the single picture element. If you have studied design at all you realize that color draws the eye and in this case the only color I would ever want is in the photo being displayed.

I then started sketched a handful of quick thumbnails with elements I knew I wanted in my design. In this case I needed the main photo, very simple navigation, title of the picture, a link to view comments and photo exif data and finally the date of post.

Narrow that shit down!

After I had a handful of ideas lined up next to each other, I went through and circled elements I liked and crossed off elements I didn’t find appealing. I took those elements, drew bigger comps and now we are getting somewhere!

Finally I drew a large rough that had all my core ideas in it. As you can see these are not the god damn Mona Lisa of drawings. They are quick and to the point, they are only there for your brain to reference when you are taking your design into the computer.

Have you heard of the 960 grid system?

Now a quick few notes before I open Photoshop. There is a new “unspoken rule” in web design called the 960 grid system, brought to you by 960.gs. I won’t get into all the details about what 960 grid system is, you can read that here, but I will tell you that the 960 grid system is what I now base all of my web design from. It’s the unspoken standard for clean design, not to mention they have a shit load of templates that make the design process a whole lot easier. No more guessing about how wide to make a column or any of that shit.

I used the Photoshop template file I downloaded from their website to start from, so that’s why you will see all these columns and guide lines in my PSD. Here’s a screenshot of a blank template using the 12 column 960 grid.

Photoshop time!

I open up my 960.gs template and go to work. I drop one of my photos in the document and drag it to the appropriate size on the grid. Can you imagine how long I would have tweaked the image before the 960 grid system before I was happy? That’s where this grid saves your ass time; you can thank me later or at the bottom of the page.

From here it’s pretty straight forward, I work from my sketches and bring those elements into my Photoshop mockup; tweaking where I feel necessary until I am happy with my design. Since this design is based around simplicity I am keeping the amount of elements to a minimum and since most of my work was done on paper I am able to get my design done in no time!

Finally, here is my almost-complete Photoshop mockup: (critique me in the comments; I am always down for some other’s ideas on my designs, good or bad)

As you can tell if you really scrutinize it’s not 100% complete, I need to finalize the identity design of this new website, but I will be posting more on this soon enough.

Remember stoners…

• Your brain is your best tool, not Photoshop.
• Get your ideas to paper quickly (it’s not the god damn Mona Lisa).
• Decide what you like, what you do not.
• Do you have a system? (960.gs)
• Reference your sketches to quickly produce in digital format.

Like the design, don’t like it? What are your thoughts on the 960 grid system? Leave comments and critiques below!

I can’t really recall what I knew how to do first. Design or snowboard. I got on my first snowboard when I was probably 11 years old, but I had my first set of crayons around the age of 3 or 4. Both of these components have played key roles in my life, and have helped me become who I am today. From climbing my first hill to learn to carve, to my first actual design class where I learned about texture, value, and color.

Learning can be painful

I remember my first snowboard scorpion like I remember my first design. Downright painful. For those who don’t know a snowboard scorpion is where you tumble forward face first, your feet go up over your back and the momentum either ragdolls you forward if your lucky or the snowboard slaps you in the back of the head, OUCH! My first design was an eye soar that could have made a baby cry.

In both cases I lacked the foundation I needed in order to achieve what I wanted. I needed to study some of the basic principles that could help me grasp the larger picture. In snowboarding I needed to learn the idea of balance with motion, edge control, and the ability to stop. With design I needed to study principles of depth, line, color, texture, value. In both cases when you grasp the smaller ideas you can put them together and form a masterpiece.

Finding Your Unique Style

After spending a few(12) years of putting that rusty peice of metal to my feet I found I was capable of getting around the mountain at will, but after time I had defined my own unique style of snowboarding. I would be charging down the lifts under the chair in my incognito black gear and people would shout at me because they could tell who I was from the way I charged the powder and sent rooster tails shooting up behind me. I was almost branding myself just for being me, and that is exactly what to do with your designs.

If you look at all the big names in art and design, most have formed a unique style that let them stand out of the crowd. I believe that everyone has their own style and it comes out naturally as long as you let it. Both snowboarding and design have a flow involved, this flow may be your process of design but it will help define your own unique style. When your style is recognized you can use it to your advantage by setting yourself out from the crowd.

Don’t Hate, Be Inspired

One problem I see in both design and snowboarding is a small jealousy built towards others when they experience success or get acknowledged for doing something great. We all work hard (at least most of us) to try and be successful and when you see others succeeding where you are trying so hard it is easy to feel resentment towards their triumph. You have to take this negative and turn it to a positive. Look at how that person was successful and maybe ask them what steps they took to achieve that success. Try to determine why their unique style was successful and how you could incorporate that yourself.

With so many styles around you there should never be a lack of inspiration. In snowboarding watching others do something impressive encourages me to get out of the norm and think out of the box, do the same with design. Look at others design with hopes of learning something you can use in your own design, not with an eye of jealousy.

Progression Never Ends

The beauty of both snowboarding and design is that progression never ends. You can continue to push the envelop. The only person that is going to stop you from learning new things, tackling new challenges and expanding your ability is yourself. Good for self-motivators, bad for lazy bung-holes.

The hard part is staying focused and maintaining your skills. I noticed when I was out shredding everyday it was easy to learn more, but after the extended break between winters it would take me a little time to get back to where I left off. I see the same for design, if you don’t keep your skills sharp you may waste time relearning ability.

What I Have Learned:

So the years of both snowboarding and design have taught me a handful of valuable lessons. Here is a quick rundown:

• No pain, no gain: Learn the basics to build a foundation of skills to create a masterpiece.
• Be Unique: Everyone has a style, find yours and use it to stand out.
• Inspire and be Inspired: Look for inspiration wherver it may be hiding, and don’t be jealous of others success, learn from it.
• Stay Sharp: Don’t let your progression decay, keep your skills sharp even between projects.

What in your life has taught you about design? Where do you find inspiration? Share your thoughts below in the comments.

Like what you read? Get updates.