Challenge: Seek Out Ugly …

From time to time it is a good idea to challenge your artistic and creative skills.  As designers, we need to meet challenges, whether from a boss or when starting a new project.  For example, having to illustrate someone else’s idea on a deadline or having to go over another’s artwork both require skill.  A good way to sharpen these skills is the designer’s version of improv or scherzo (variation on a music theme)–i.e., the challenge.  Yesterday I went in search of a VERY ugly pattern and made it my business to make it fit my taste and style.  It was not as easy as you may think!  But there is some reward in playing with lines and colors to improve something.  I challenge all of you to find the ugliest, least appeasing design:

1 – strip it to the bone

2 – change 3 things about it

3 – make it look like something you would have designed

Feel free to comment on the experience and, most of all, sharpen those skills!