Visual Library

Visual Library is an art term for having a mental library of shapes and forms connecting to real life experiences. For example.. If a child observed his own hands and the hands of his parents thoroughly everyday for 5 minutes, in theory this child would have a very strong mental image of hands...and suddenly he wants to become an artist....He is going to be very good at drawing hands!

When it comes to designing a concept image it is very useful to expand your visual library because simply using fundementals and basics will not give you the desired outcome.  Here are a few things on how to develop and maintain a strong visual library:

1. Books
- Gives a sense of adventure in most cases.
- As you are reading a book it is literally forcing visuals into your brain
- Story telling
2. Nature
          - Everything relates to nature.
          - In nature you will find existing designs & functionality, look for example at an elephants trunk.
          - Forms (trees, rock faces, buildings, animals.)
3.Travelling
-Experience
- Scale
 -Smell & sound
4. Museums- Understanding.
                  - Scale
                  -Time travel( through history, and maybe even into the future!)
5.Video games & Film - Technology
                                   -Existing designs
                                   -Industry trends.

Things to avoid:

- Playing video games ( this is actually a great waste of time if you are a student of design, only play more video games when you turn "pro")
 -Fan art- much better to draw real life things.
- Copying- No usual depth
- Crap TV- waste of time!