Applying McCloud’s 6 Steps of Design

In Understanding Comics, author Scott McCloud presents six steps that are involved in the design process:
1. Idea/Purpose
2. Form
3. Idiom
4. Structure
5. Craft
6. Surface
It is easiest to understand these six steps by using an example, for instance, a glass vase.

First, the designer’s idea to make a vase derives from a purpose, say, needing a place to put flowers. Once the purpose has been established, one can move to the second step of form. The designer then makes the decision of what materials to use, in this case that material is glass. Third is idiom, or the genre; will this glass vase be modern or baroque? Once the style is decided, the designer begins the process of “mark making”, or designing the glass vase. The shape of the vase will be determined by the idiom, as well as the first and second steps of the idea and form. Next is crafting, blowing the glass to its designated shape, color, form and texture (all which were thought out in pervious steps). Lastly, the surface; the finished product, the glass vase itself.

While reviewing the steps of the design process, one can say that the individual decisions within each step pave the path for the next step. It is not possible for a designer to skip steps within the process of design. An excluded step can and will result in an unfinished product. This does not mean that designers do not rearrange certain steps or come back to previous steps if necessary. The flow of the design process is up to the individual designer, ultimately doing whatever he or she feels is natural in order to be successful in the journey of design.