Creating apps for kids: Part 1

I thought I would write a little about how I go about creating apps. I named this post “Part 1”, as I guess some sequels are needed.

First of all, I’m 100% self-learned. I have drawn all my life but I have no official education in graphic design. I’ve spent my career both in big corporations and advertising agencies and I still do freelance work within branding (this is what pays my salary, not the apps). And when it comes to coding and programming, I knew absolutely nothing when I started in 2014 and don’t know much more now. Thankfully I have a great development partner who does know, because programming is the only part of Nampa that I do not do myself.

As I have just launched Nampa Town, I’m back to square one again. Although the work certainly doesn’t end when the app has been launched as you still need to try and find ways to let people know that the app exists (absolutely and by far the most difficult part of the whole process), my brain often starts crafting ideas for the next app as soon as the previous app is out in the world.

I love drawing ideas by hand first before producing the actual graphics with my Mac. But before I can even start sketching, I feel that I need to “see the app” first, and I mean seeing it in my head, otherwise the creative process gets painful.

And when I’ve “seen” the app, I sketch it on the paper, super small (I have always drawn super small).

Here is the first sketch of Nampa Farm main menu:

And this is the final graphic:

There were months of work in between these two images as I need to create every single static and moving graphic in the app – but the initial vision rarely changes.

So here I am now, with the white paper and black pen ready. I have some thoughts in my head of what the next Nampa app could be but I have not “seen it” yet. I will keep you updated on the progress.