Design despair - again!

This morning I was "on a roll" -- I had great ideas for my design projects and had sketched the layouts. I even had an idea for my own set of words -- beginning/end -- one entering a maze, and the other seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. So I set to work with my black paper and Xacto knife. ... Stop! Nothing looked right, the proportions were wrong, and objects that were recognizable in my rough sketches had no meaning as black cutouts.

I packed everything away and read my novel instead.

Reflection. I'm still trying to be too representational -- I want to show objects, whereas all I need to do is use shapes. The shapes don't have details, whereas my "reality" needs nuances and shading. And I wanted to see the finished product too quickly -- I didn't have patience for trying the white-on-black prototypes to gauge proportions and scale.

Tomorrow I'm resolved to take a "small steps" approach. Slowly, without details. Demonstrate the concept, don't try to be witty in the process. (I wonder if I will succeed.)