Perfecting Your Creative Process – How to Streamline Your Design Workflow with Beci Orpin

As designers and creatives, we often focus on our craft’s fun and glamorous aspects – playing with color palettes, adjusting the composition, and tweaking our end product. But beneath the surface, a less flashy but equally critical part of design can significantly impact your creative projects: your process and workflow.

We talked to freelance creative practitioner and world-renowned illustrator Beci Orpin about her creative process and top tips for streamlining your design workflow.

Beci Orpin’s 8-Step Creative Process

Beci Orpin is a much-loved Melbourne-based creative and internationally renowned illustrator whose work combines illustration, design, and craft. She’s best known for her unique, recognizable style – described as ‘colorful, graphic, bold, feminine and dream-like – and has collaborated with massive brands such as Disney, Google, Urban Outfitters, Frankie Magazine, and many more. 

Are you keen to get a glimpse into the creative process of a professional creative and design icon? In her own words, here’s Beci’s creative process and workflow from start to finish. 

1. Assess the Job

“First, the client will contact me directly or contact the Jackie Winter Group about a brief. In an agency context, some jobs will come in specifically for me, and others will just be looking for an illustrator. The agency puts forward three illustrators in a style aligned with what the client wants, and they’ll then contact you to gauge your interest, availability, fee, and other details. 

“It’s up to the client once you’ve accepted the job. Sometimes, the process can take two days, and sometimes it can take three weeks. I had one that took almost a year!”

2. Trust Your Gut

“While I’m a big yes person, there’s a time to say no to a job. I get excited about almost any job, but the older I get, the better I get at deciding which opportunities to pass on – especially if it’s outside my skill set.

“Budget can also come into play. If the budget doesn’t match the job, sometimes you do it anyway for the opportunity, and sometimes you don’t. You need to trust that instinct. I know it’s a cliche, but from experience, I’ve learned that trusting your gut on clients or projects is key.” 

3. Go Deep into the Brief

“Once I’ve accepted the job, I go in-depth into the brief. The brief is the most essential part of any project, so I will get as much out of the brief as I can and dilute that into writing in my sketchbook.

“My sketchbooks are important in my process – even if the job has a week’s turnaround, I’ll still write notes in my sketchbook to keep track of my ideas.” 

4. Ask for References 

“I always ask for references from a client – both external references and references of my work. One of my favorite things about working freelance is being able to work within a client’s style and adapt my style to what a client wants. If they’ve come to you for your specific style, you can imprint that through color, forms, shapes, and other design elements – this is where you can hopefully leave your mark on the design. 

“But that’s one of the reasons that I like to ask for references. I will often ask: 

• What is it about my work that you like? 
• What specific pieces of my work do you love, or which elements do you want to replicate?”

5. Research the Client

“Next, if there’s time, I’ll research the client. I’ll dig around online and learn as much about them as possible. What previous illustrations have they used? What’s their typical color palette? I try to go as in-depth as possible.”

6. Sketch Out Your Idea

“Many artists will do a rough, black-and-white sketch in pencil, but I’m not a pencils person – I go straight to the computer and directly to color. Generally, I find my ideas are better communicated in color.”

7. Create a Color Palette and Mood Board 

“Colors are critical to my work, so I often create a color palette for each job – even my exhibitions. If I need clarification with the brief, I’ll do a mood board and send it to the client to see if it’s heading in the right direction.” 

8. Send Concepts to the Client

“I’ll then create the first concepts – generally between two and five – to show the client. I’m all about presenting various options; more often than not, there’s one that stands out from the rest, but I wouldn’t get to that point without all those options. 

After the first round, hopefully, you’ve hit the mark and just keep refining the idea until it’s finished. I usually do two or three rounds, depending on the job.” 

Want to learn more about Beci’s work and discover what she had to tell us about forging a successful career and developing a distinctive design style? Read our in-depth interview with her here, or discover her Top 5 Tips for Avoiding Creative Burnout.