A 30 Minute Drawing Each Day, Recorded & Condensed. Videos » Illustrations »

I set about to do a quick illustration, in 30 minutes, each day. I gave this exercise to myself to get in the habit of producing work in larger quantities. One day I decided to record the drawings. I took the screen-capture video and condensed it into a 90-second video. What I found was that the process of illustrating, as captured in the video, became as much an object as the finished illustration itself.

Inspiration for this exercise came from my participation last year in the Cut&Paste design tournament. Cut&Paste puts designers on stage in front of a live audience, where they compete in 15 minute rounds. In this format, the designer’s process becomes the focus, as their designing becomes a performance for the crowd. This got me thinking that the process of designing could be used in ways that add to the finished design. Or, to taking it further, what if the process became the primary object and the finished design was the addition? These illustrations mark the beginning of my interest in this idea that I will continue to explore.

In relation to the project OverPowered, these videos begin to explore the idea of harnessing creative energy and wielding it on a level approaching that of destruction. This is because destructive actions create incredible amplifications, like the flick of a finger tumbling a house of cards. The epitome of destructive action is the imploding of a building, with one push of a detonator, an entire building collapses in seconds. This same building took years to build. But know, we can watch it built in a matter of minutes through time-lapsed video. Watching a building assembled before your eyes is quite an impressive sight. Miraculously, something has been created where there was once nothing. This awe-inspiring effect is a reverse of the awe of destruction. I believe this is one of the main appeals of time-lapse video.

As new technologies continue to enable awe-inspiring acts of creation, in what new ways will we use them not just for effect, but for production? How will designers utilize them?

See all of the videos and illustrations:

Process as Drawing Video Gallery »

Process as Drawing Illustration Gallery »