Not Getting The Job / New Collaborative Project

Yesterday I spent the day feeling sorry for myself because a big project opportunity with a celebrity client fell though (so funny because in my latest video podcast for the Deciduous tier folks I specifically mentioned not wanting to get too excited about it). The team chose to go with an illustrator whose style they felt better fit the project. Big disappointment (especially because it seemed to be going so well!), but I'm also relieved that they went another way rather than trying to get me to mold to the style they wanted me to do--quite frankly what they wanted was pretty far from my style. 

I got the news in the morning and for the rest of the day I felt off. But today is a new day! And I've spent my entire day working on a collaborative project with someone who makes me feel more creative. And it has worked like medicine to cure any of my lasting disappointment. 

We are both individually making assets for an iOS/desktop icon pack, but working together on a unifying color palette and similar theme/feeling. My assets are all flat 2d illustrations + some clay assets I've photographed and touched up digitally. My process for that is below:

We chose the color palette randomly, using Cooler to generate some palettes for us, and choosing one we both liked. 

Above is the color palette we used and I could not help including a snippet of what one of his assets looks like. (ARE YOU KIDDING ME??) He is doing his assets in 3d, and I might do some of the labels provided in the form of textures that he will apply. 

We're kind of just sending ideas and photos of our assets back and forth and saying "i hate you" due to each others' skills being maddening to one another. It's a lot of fun. It keeps me motivated. 

We communicate some fun ideas for fake products in a google doc and leave comments for each other:

It's kind of like a branding/design/mixed media/digital icon project all mixed into one. I'm hoping to release this on gumroad for a few bucks once we're all done! This is kind of a testing phase for us to possibly make something with a larger scope someday...?

I'm glad I have people in my life that can pull me out of a creative slump. :-]

-JG