The original blog post was rather confusing. Had to rewrite it.
Digital technologies have made omnipresent imagery a part of our lives. What was once the domain of artists is now ubiquitous. It may have become commoditized, but that's beside the point. I honestly and sincerely envy those who can create astounding visuals. While I believe I have a keen eye for good design, no matter how hard I try, it seems nearly impossible for me to create anything remotely similar. The closest I come to translating my imagination into visual form is through photography, yet even there, I struggle to achieve the effects I see in some photos.
The insult to injury is that I can't produce anything close using the medium I work with every day: computers. Imagine my frustration, fresh off a gruelling session trying to design a landing webpage. Determining the layout, design, and then the actual front-end work is like solving a Rubik's cube in the dark. No matter what I attempt, the outcome is consistently disastrous.
Creating presentations is the same struggle. My vision is worlds apart from what ends up on the screen. It's a recurring theme: whenever I venture into the realm of visual creation, frustration is a guaranteed companion, leaving me in awe while watching others effortlessly transform their concepts into visual marvels.
Over time, I've found several ways to cope with this. The first came in the form of tablets. Using a digital pen or pencil has become my tool of choice in the battle against other input methods. It offers a more natural and intuitive way to sketch. At the very least, I can draw a simple technical diagram. But the victory is only partial—the tablet's capabilities stretch only so far.
When it comes to design, I must rely on super-simple, functional, and minimalistic styles, preferably utilising predefined frameworks. While I can tweak the basics, I find myself at a loss again with tasks as simple as selecting a colour theme. However, in this case, I have an excuse: I am a Protan, a red-green colour-blind male, which adds a layer of complexity to my colour choices.
Another ally comes in the shape of generative text-to-image models. They offer an easy shortcut to creating stunning visuals, but the pitfall is their lack of consistent style and limited context.
The trouble is, despite knowing that the best solution is to stick with functional and minimalistic designs, I long for something better... which starts the vicious cycle anew.