I am going to be a pharmacist for a living, but one of my side jobs is designing art for people with photoshop. One of my annual projects is for a summer camp run by my church. One of the problems I run into is the client not being able to see inside my head.

I usually never try to begin a design project by describing what I want to make for the client. This doesn’t really help either of us I think. Instead I try to make a quick, fast, (even hideous) draft to convey two basic things: the idea and composition. That’s it.

This method also has a draw back though in that the draft I make is usually horrible in quality. Even though it is not supposed to indicate the actual final product, most people take it like that and the result is confusion and concern that my product won’t be good.

Take this for example:

This first image was my composition and idea for having a dramatic shot of moses parting the red sea. It’s terrible in quality, but that isn’t my intent. I want the client to be able to say no to the idea without me having to throw hours of work into the toilet.

Now compare the draft to the final product (click to enlarge):

What do you think?

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