IMAGE FIRST
Image as origin, not outcome
Two Ways of Creating
There are two approaches to creative work.
The first is what the world teaches: brainstorming, conceptualizing, planning. Define your message, then execute it. Think first, make second. This is the masculine approach—linear, strategic, controlled.
The second is what many visual creators intuitively know but have been trained to mistrust: discovery, emergence, shapeshifting. Make first, understand later. Let form lead. This is the feminine approach—circular, responsive, alive.
Most creative education, most branding advice, most "best practices" are built on the first model.
I work entirely in the second.
And if you've ever felt like you're doing creativity "wrong" because you can't articulate your concept before you make it...
If your best work happens when you stop trying to control it...
If the meaning only becomes clear after the image exists...
Then you're in the right place. You're wired for Image First.
The Script, Flipped
Here's what this looks like in practice:
I begin with form. With composition. With what feels right before I can name why.
Image creation isn't the outcome of my work. It’s my process mechanism. Observation, my emerging ideas, my ahas!
This isn't a technique. It's how my mind works. How my truth emerges. How I've always created—and how I've learned to trust the process completely.
How Image Comes First: My Process Revealed
The Sakki-Sakki Style: From Casually Scribbled Doodles to the Discovery of Your Own Symbols
When I created the Sakki-Sakki Tarot, I didn't sit down to "design" 78 cards with predetermined meanings.
The creative process was based on the use of "found objects"—a digital repository of my raw art. Think: eyes, hats, stars, shoes, cars…
This art retains a pure quality, bearing the inspiration and freedom with which it was created without any need to be productive or meet the requirements of a client or a specification.
Most of the images were created when I scribbled in my sketchbook while talking on the phone or listening to a lecture. Thus occupied, my mind agreed not to interfere with my doodling.
I moved the modular pieces on the screen with one guiding principle: aesthetics, not message. Until something surprised me. Until a layout clicked.
This is the secret sauce in this process. Looking out for the surprise. Only then I know I’m on to something. This is the “click”. And this surprise is always composition related. The meaning becomes visible, only after the design comes alive!
I have discovered in the cards many significant elements that I was not aware of before, or that I had added originally only for decorative purposes.
The same with the colors. I didn’t consider color symbolism. Only what looked aesthetically true.
Frivolous? Trust me—it's not.
It's the way to really connect to your body, get grounded, and let your unique take emerge.
Putting form first and concept second is what leads to those unexpected revelations.
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Divine Darlings: Building Without a Blueprint
When I make the Divine Darlings—my LEGO®-made Goddesses—I build from what I have. Whatever bricks I can find.
There's no sketch. No plan. No "final vision." Just curiosity and constraint.
The design comes first, assembled from the LEGO® pieces available to me. Only then do I see who the character is that emerged.
The same applies when I take them outdoors to photograph. I don't pose them. I collaborate—with the wind, the light, the cracks in the stone. Nature directs the angle. The environment speaks back.
What can exist physically guides what can exist symbolically.
That's why I don't use AI for image-making.
Not because I'm nostalgic. Ha!
But because in AI, the prompt comes first. In my world, the surprise comes first.
If I already knew what I wanted to make, I wouldn't need to make it.
I make to find out.
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Why Image First Matters to Creators
The world teaches creators to explain, justify, and theme.
I teach creators to witness, curate, and surprise themselves.
Image isn't secondary to message—it's what gives the message life.
Image is:
- A visual yes before a verbal one
- A witness of the moment before the mind can process it
- A composition of tensions that tell the truth before you name it
- A mirror of your values (aesthetic = ethics)
- A site of spiritual alignment before strategic alignment
Most creators are trained to start with "What do I want to say?" and then figure out how to illustrate it.
But for visual thinkers—for those of us wired this way—that's backwards.
The image is the thinking.
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The Image as Oracle
Just like a dream, the image is true before you understand it.
- I make to see
- I compose to recognize
- I create to understand
The subconscious speaks through images. Always has. Always will.
A curated visual library or bank (like The Visual Brand Bank) holds all the ideas, possibilities, and storytelling without words—not to help you build a brand, but to help you build a library of yourself.
Image allows for interpretation. This adds meaning rather than limiting it.
A collection of separate icons, a themed photo album—these form a language.
Your visual vocabulary becomes unmistakable. Becomes yours.
Your aesthetic signature is a mirror of your values. Your visual language is how your deepest truths make themselves known.
There's a feeling that comes with this—the artist on the verge of discovery. The agony and then the relief. The deep satisfaction of having a signature language.
If you can't articulate your concept before you make it...
If your best work happens when you stop trying to control it...
If the meaning only becomes clear after the image exists...
Then you're in the right place. You're wired for Image First.
And when you develop your visual language and creative signature, you become known for a perspective only you can offer.
Not because you explained it well.
But because you showed what only you could see.