In the previous post, I discussed designs made by one of the artists who inspire me the most – Mike Campau. I decided to message him and ask what he thinks about the concept of a Hip-Hop magazine with 3D models, simple animations and all presented on an interactive Adobe Muse website. I felt it’s important to contact a creative advertising guru and find out wether I’m on the right path with my project idea. This is his e-mail:

“Antoni

Sounds like a big project, and quite a broad range of skillsets. I don’t think the subject matter will make any difference. Whether it’s hip hop, food, or sports, as long as it’s something you are passionate about, it will show in the work.

One thing I would be concerned about is trying to cover too many skill sets at once. The problem with trying to show you can do everything, is that you won’t be really good at any one of them. The saying is very true, “Jack of all trades, master of none”. I tried to do this very early in my career as well, and one day realized that I didn’t love to do anything as much as I loved to make images (photography, photoshop, and CGI). I was doing it because I felt like I was supposed to. So I made it a point to stop doing any of the other “graphic design” type projects and strictly focused on making images. I would recommend the same here. Find the part that interests you the most (imagery, graphics, animation, web design, typography, etc.) and focus on getting even better at that… you can use the other tools as a way to present your work, but shouldn’t be the focus of the project.

If this was me doing this project, I would focus on the images, and find a style and topic that best demonstrated my feelings about hip hop. Build a series (more than 4 images) and then present them in a simple way to let the images speak for themselves. Could be in a campaign form – print, digital, and social. But the basis of the campaign would be on the images, not the vehicle in which they are displayed. For you, this might not be the best solution… but that all depends on what you want to focus on.

Hope that helps and good luck!”

I think it would be wrong not to follow his feedback. After this e-mail, I decided to narrow my focus to the images themselves and present them in a simple way so they can speak for themselves. If it turns out that I have more time left than expected, I will also work on a more advanced presentation form, but it won’t be my priority in this case.