This image here was an initial test shot that led onto a swift 180 in terms of a final result. The concept was to blend graphics and portrait into one. The stripe behind the model here is actually just one of many stripes that ultimately never got used. The stripe was initially painting in real life by myself using acrylic paint onto white card. Once dry, that series of painted stripes was then scanned into a computer and then finally projected onto the background behind the subject using a digital projector.

In fact, these initial shots of the painted stripes were so quickly disregarded and deemed 'not working', that none of them ever got retouched. I'm only showing you this now as I've recently had time to play with some discarded ideas.

This may seem like a huge waste of time, but this is what creativity is. It's a process, and remember that every mistake is the seed of creativity. You have to start somewhere and failing is just as important as succeeding in the creative process.

But back to this shot; From this 'failure', we quickly looked at what we didn't like and iterated on the basic principle of the idea.
From here, you've seen the results and it's the bold red shapes behind the subject instead of this black stripe.
If you missed them then I'll include an example of one of the shots in the comments below.

Here you go, this is what the 'failed' shot above quickly evolved into... Theres a bunch of these shots, but they all have these very bold red shapes behind the model. There's no doubt that these are far better than the original idea, but we had to … — Here you go, this is what the 'failed' shot above quickly evolved into...
Theres a bunch of these shots, but they all have these very bold red shapes behind the model. There's no doubt that these are far better than the original idea, but we had to fail first to get here.

My point?
First and foremost, never forget that you mostly only ever see the success stories shared online. Nobody shares their failed projects, but remember that nobody gets to those successes without falling down a few times first.
Never be afraid to fall down when coming up with new ideas as they are NEVER a waste of time.

Anybody else got any examples of 'failed' ideas that spurned another great idea?

Model: Valencia Germain