In the next installment of what I learned at Steve Cordony’s Coco Republic Design School talk, I’m going to share his tips on editing. When I say editing I don’t mean like magazine editing, I mean deciding what makes the final cut (and and this could apply to a magazine shoot or a room in your home) from the many beautiful things you think you want. As Steve says, you have to be cruel to be kind!
He told us before starting any new trend or feature, he’ll always start with a mood board. “It’s the first visual layout to give an idea of the overall look and feel. It doesn’t have to be perfect!”
He suggests laying out all the images of products you’re interested in on a board or in a Word document and playing around with them. Move them around, add and subtract. “Don’t get hung up on products,” he says. “Pull away and remember you can always add something back in later.”
Steve might return from two days of sourcing for a feature with more than 700 images. He’ll draw sketches too. Here you can see how Steve’s sketch eventually became a page in belle:
