The Crave

Ever sat in the dark, losing a staring contest to an empty canvas on Illustrator? Had long, passionate fights with Photoshop? Gone through notebooks and ballpoint pens trying to draft a shape, figure, idea, anything with no luck, whatsoever? Because boy oh boy, have I. In content marketing, we use a lot of visuals because they have the power to stop people from scrolling, arouse interest, and direct them to the desired path. Moreover, images and videos can tell a story in seconds and imprint it in our minds for days — almost intrusively. So naturally, we marketing people love visuals. Fun to use, not always easy to create. Coming up with stunning visuals requires time and effort. Even the “most simple” images can take days and tons of brainpower. And it doesn’t help that designers are often detail-loving perfectionists. It makes sense, though, because no matter how small, it’s your artwork you’re putting out into the world. So what happens when you get stuck? The thing is, when your words are feeling lazy, you can put them in sneakers, drive them to the track and force them to run — by just starting to write. But creating visuals is different. See, text is constructed of small pieces of content that all mean something. We call them “words.” You can write what pops to mind and somehow find your way to the desired destination. Or somewhere completely different and surprising. But if your task is to create visual content from scratch, where do you start? Reflecting on my own tricks and techniques, I gathered a first aid kit for when the desperation of an empty artboard strikes. Let me share it with you.