Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Repurposing in graphic design

"Bailey" ( see all 6 proofs)
"Harrelson Kitties" ( see all 6 proofs)
"Bliss" ( see all 6 proofs)
Repurposing is a word I heard for the first time a few years back at a Photoshop seminar. I had been "repurposing" for years, and never had a fancy name for it. Here at Art Paw we repurpose or "recycle" our backgrounds and often try them on new portraits. We can change the layout or colors on the ground to achieve new results. The whole concept with "repurposing" is to create a library for yourself of original images or graphic elements that you can revisit later with new projects. All of our backgrounds are original creations and not "off the shelf" clip art solutions.

As you can see from the 3 images above one background can look entirely different on 3 different portrait projects. Instead of just plopping the ground behind our pet subjects, we always try to readjust the layout or slightly tweak the colors as needed. In the 1st sample above you see a lot of periwinkle, then the kitties have a little peach in their ground while Bliss had a wee bit of pink thrown in. One thing to keep in mind with repurposing: never allow it to make you lazy, you have to continually come up with fresh stuff and new ideas for your library of tools.

In what areas of your job can you repurpose files, tasks or other elements to help your work flow? Do you find yourself reinventing the wheel with each new creative project or do you have an arsenal of past work and inspiration to draw from?

4 comments:

Archie and Melissa said...

Hi Rebecca!
What a great post! Your work is always original, fresh and smart. Your methodology of approching each piece with your artistic eye, knowledge and library of what works shows through on every piece.
wonderful!
melissa

artpaw said...

Melissa ...wow! Thanks for such a sweet comment.

Tatyana said...

wow i would never have realized it was the same bg if you didn't point it out. point well made!

Also, I adore the IG portrait :) I've got two myself, so i'm a little partial.

artpaw said...

Tatyana- Thanks for dropping by my blog, I hope you visit again.