Designing Like a Pirate Part 1: Passion, Immersion, Rapport, and Capture Ideas

The lives of pirates have been romanticized for years. Who wouldn’t want to be completely free from daily toils of work, making payments, and such. It seems Stede Bonnet (known as the Gentleman Pirate) felt he would rather be a pirate than run his family’s plantation and so he set sail. I actually learned about Stede Bonnet through an irreverent TV show, Our Flag Means Death. I do enjoy a good pirate show/movie: The Pirates of Penzance, all of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Captain Blood, Seahawk (great music, BTW), etc and I picked up a book a few years ago, Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess. Got me thinking…..How could these pirate concepts apply to visual design?

PASSION:

Chances are, if you don’t believe in something, you won’t spend time doing it. If you hate writing drill for your marching group, you will either dread it as you trudge through or you’ll hire someone like me who actually digs this stuff. I hear from lots of people, “I hate writing drill for my band.” and I ask them, “How often do you actually think about drill?” Usually the reply is something like, “Only when I have to write my show in July.” That probably feeds your dislike for writing drill. If you only spend time with it once a year when you are under stress from a tight deadline, you probably won’t enjoy the process.

The same goes for Pyware. People tell me, “I hate using Pyware! I just don’t understand it!” Then I ask, “How often do you use Pyware?” Them: “Once a year when I have to write my show in July.” So I then encourage them to sign up for my Pyware Tutorial or otherwise counsel them to spend time with the software just playing and not trying to “crank out” a show right before band camp.

This is not to say that everyone needs to be as passionate about visual design as I or a full-time designer would be. But I am saying the process of even writing just 1 show a year will be much more tolerable if someone is at least interested enough to spend a little more time with it. And yes, loving it helps TREMENDOUSLY.

IMMERSION:

The ability to totally give oneself over during the moment. To be completely in the process. While working on any creative endeavor, one needs to engage their whole self. Even someone who is a July Only Designer. At whatever level their design chops may be, the design will be more effective, better organized, and more logical if there are no distractions or mental wandering.

Immerse yourself into the design process even if it is only for a few days. Give it your best concentrated self. Look at others’ work, review what you’ve done in the past, seek new inspiration, etc. You will get out what you put in.

RAPPORT:

Build rapport with other designers. Again, it doesn’t matter whether you are an absolute beginner or a more “seasoned” pro, we all need to be part of a community. It can be difficult to socialize and/or design while part of a group. I remember an instance very early in my career, in fact it was one the first band directors I ever designed for. I had driven 2 hours one way to meet and discuss the show with the client. We met for a bit and then he said, “Well get out your drill paper (this was before computer-aided design") and write part of the opener now.” I was in shock. My understanding was I would drive back home and begin work on my own in solitude. NOPE. He wanted to see what I could do right then at that moment. I did have my tools and paper with me, so I took those to his kitchen table and I think I was able to eek out 2-3 sets with him watching. It. Was. Awful. There is nothing harder than on-demand creativity. But building rapport with others who can look at your work, provide feedback (when asked), suggest ideas, share their creative process, etc. is a good thing! Be a part of a visual designer community. If you are on Facebook, check out the Drill and Visual Design HQ group. Participating in workshops is another great way to network and meet other designers. I always try to network with 2 things in mind. 1. I look for someone who is more developed as a designer than me so I can learn from them. 2. I look for someone who isn’t as developed as me so I can help them learn.

CAPTURE IDEAS:

Pirates sail the open seas looking for the next opportunity. Sometimes that opportunity may just show up in the form of a vessel of which they had no prior knowledge. In order to take advantage, the pirate ship may need to to change course or delay its plans.

Ideas will come to us at inopportune times. Are we willing to stop what we are doing or change course so we can benefit from the idea? Do we have an easy way to keep record of the idea so we can come back to it later?

Since visual design/drill is a visual art form, I use YouTube quite extensively. I keep a playlist of visual ideas. So when I see something of interest, I can quickly save it to that playlist. This is just one example. Others may be a notebook, an open document on your computer, a sketch book, etc. Make it easy. The easier it is to record/access your ideas, the more you will use it effectively. Capture those ideas and place them in your idea treasure chest!

I love to hear from readers like you, please leave a comment or share this blog with a friend.—DB