I’m curious how other developers approach a new design.
One thing I’m wrestling with is that I tend to make watch faces that I like to wear on my watch. I also like a lot of complications. I also like larger, easier to read elements. Feedback from users, or potential users is often that my faces to too busy. How do I get inspired to design faces that I won’t actually want to wear on my own watch?
As I get better at graphic design, I also get inspired to use my artwork in my watch faces. I tend reuse those element in (some) other faces. I draw everything myself. I’ve used AI to get references, and then figure out how to create it myself. Is it cheating to reuse my art work in multiple faces.
I also tend to take a few weeks to a few months in the design phase, wearing the faces and seeing what I like and don’t like. I still have some incomplete designs sitting in my workspace for 3 months. I started them, and they don’t go in the direction I expect, and then have little inspiration to work on them. Should I delete those, or keep them around hoping something inspires me to finish them?
I’m really curious how other approach there new designs. One person I follow on Facer (B Sharp Watches) releases one to two faces a day. How the heck can someone create one to two faces a day and have them be releasable…and his designs are top notch. (he’s also a Jazz musician like me)
You’re doing the right thing. Make what you like and see who else likes it too. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I usually create a concept or a style or a theme and create faces based on that, space, military, video games, etc. I also usually try to implement one unique element per style/collection, sometimes just an animation, sometimes a feature, etc.
Have a look here - Design Basic Question
It might have something of use for you. The trick is to find your own style like you are obviously doing AND have fun
I usually get inspired by other creators, watches out there, or I pick a themes - pirates is still on the list…
I can spend lots of time searching for nice watches and watch faces. I am kind of picky, so most watch faces I find, I think of how I could improve them or change them to my liking.
I tried AI, but haven’t really found it useful for watch designs. I use it to generate elements or pictures to reuse.
And yes, I have plenty of elements, bezels, shadows, etc, to reuse. But some designs will need new hands or their own shadows and stuff, so I design a lot with CorelDraw.
Ben hier in gerold. De man die me hierbij geholpen heeft onrechtstreeks is Warren Silberstein waarvoor dank ! Dat ik erna zo verslaafd aan geworden ben nooit gedacht. Wat ik doe en probeer , ok neem hier en daar dingen over klopt . Soms nog iets teveel. Maar probeer wel altijd een achtergrond te nemen naar mijn idee kleur. Aangevuld soms met nieuwe instrumenten , wiskundige dingen. En nu dingen zoekend zo abstract mogelijk en combinaties samen brengen. En hier zitten een hoop kleppers waarmee ik al heel veel heb kunnen doen , en dat en sommige reacties wat je krijgt is het leuk om hiermee verder te doen.
I am not a quantity guy. I sometimes spend up to two weeks from idea to production creating all the elements for a face (mostly in Adobe illustrator/Photoshop, no AI for me), trying tings out and re-designing until I get what I am going for. I have no problem re-using elements from previous designs and who doesn’t do that? I know I am only going to be a low-yield (high quality) guy as I cannot possibly crank out the amount of stuff some designers do. Clearly there is more behind some designers than just one person. If you factor in all the time designing, building, publishing, and finally promoting…well, it’s a lot for one person to do. Yes, you can streamline things like making templates for your social media stuff, having code snippets for various features and function organized and at the ready, and maybe your own “parts store” of elements, fonts, hands, etc as well. That’s what I do anyway. But yeah, I think a lot of designers have a team, especially when they refer to themselves as “we” or “us”. But hey, depending on how things go…I might be hiring.
I’m not aware of any teams, unless that is the case with some of the newer pro users. Some people use the “we” to make it appear as if they are a “company”. (That always reminds me of a nurse telling a patient that it is time to take “our” pill.) Yes, AI has changed things to some extent. It is easy to spot those as well as the ChatGPT descriptions (ugh!). I’ve used AI images for some elements, but per Facer’s guidelines adapt it to my specifications. In many cases creating something that blends with the AI generated elements ends up taking longer than it would if I painted those elements myself. To answer your question, my inspiration sometimes comes from follower requests. If I feel that I can accommodate those requests, I do. Otherwise, the bottom line is always to create what you like. By doing that your own style can evolve.
Yes, at that time we were something like a “group” of people who tried to create something together… We had a feeling that it would be better for us… We still know each other and communicate with each other, even if the original idea has changed a bit… Nothing that I wrote there at that time was a fiction… https://www.viennastudios.com/team/
We’re a friendly bunch sharing as much as we can. There are many discussions in this community regarding getting started, motivation, tools, pros and cons of applications, etc… It’s all just normal for us. Sometimes the new members don’t realize that. You learn and you pay it forward. That’s the community way.
I don’t know where to place this question. I recently designed a planetary watch where all the planets move around the sun. I looked up each planet’s speed and had to adapt by moving the decimal point one place to the left. The watch face looks great for me, but the problem I’m having is every once in a moment the planets seem to all meet at s straight line about two o’clock and start all over again. How do I stop the loop that I did not set as a loop?.
@gwical as you are using #DWFSS# as your timer it counts 0 to 360 every minute . So at the minute it resets to zero . If you used factors of 2 3 4 6 8 which divide into 369 comfortably you will not get a jump . So we use the timer #DNOW# which is the UNIX Epoch timer and counts in milliseconds continuously till 2038 some time . Obviously any factor of that will not jump . try divide it by a large factor and see what it does . I am not familiar with the Maths of the planet rotations . But judging by the work you have done already you will crack it yourself . I guess once you have the earth running nicly you scale the rest off it .
I note with intrest that those instructions flag #DWE# as the epoch timer . That is the Facer Wake timer set to Zero at wake from sleep or AOD . Most will probably not want an actual orrary but want to see some rotation when the look at it . In some way it is more fun to see the relevant speeds than actual positions . I am sure someone can bend #DNOW# to work with that data . Thanks for Posting that @jason.clarke.uk .
