What it is! Lynda Barry (pg 15)

In the beginning of her graphic novel, Linda Barry starts out by talking about the notion of time. It seems as though; she sees time as something we can travel to back and forth. This notion is carried throughout the story. As conflicting as it may sound, she’s right. In the process of creating or designing something new, beyond pure convenience. Formstorming is a tool used to unlock greater solutions. It is, a necessary component to think outside the box. As a designer, it is very easy to get up with an idea based on what we think we know. Linda Barry in her novel talks about her mind being a landlord that doesn’t know its tenant. The idea is that our mind often finds a solution and it locks itself to just one idea. What Linda Barry is saying is that, time is irrelevant and we should let our mind roam free, pulling inspiration from past, present and possible future experiences. Sort of like the basic idea behind formstorming, which is to utilize exercises such as 100 iterations, templates, design investigation, dailies and other examples talked about in the Graphic Design book. Although Barry’s novel is not a draft we can observe various examples of the concepts talked about in the Graphic Design book. Some examples that stood out to me are found on page 15, here she uses some process verbs that also create an alterego. To her the words look, read and see might set a parameter for her to work in. This list might also have been used to create a set of actions in her chosen design. As for the alterego, it seems as though she might be putting herself in the shoes of the reader in order to help rediscover what it is that will make her design successful. She also does this by using the words look, read and see as a set of instructions to guide her readers through the chosen page layout.