10 tips for new designers

As promised... i will start by sharing 10 little tips for all new designers.

Recently i finally finished my design studies and being much older then my other schoolmates and the only one with some professional experience i saw a lot of them doing the same mistakes as me in the beginning. And since i always love to help and share knowledge i gave advice regularly but no matter how many times i gave it some of them would still get ignored usually until learned the hard way. They will probably go in vain here as well but you know how they say in the movies... if i save one soul my work is complete. And you reading this is already a promising start.

So here are my 10 tips for young designers:

1. MAKE BACKUP

Makes complete sense and hard disks have become so cheap these days but still so many folks put all their work on the line on daily bases. So yeah... be safe, make backup!

2. NAMING CONVENTION

I really don't get why so many people have problems with the final_uberfinal_versions when coming up with your own naming convention is really simple and makes your life so much easier. Here is how i do it, but you should do it so it makes sense to you. I always use a name like projectName_01_01. Every time i feel like i have made significant progress on the project i will increment the last number. So next would be projectName_01_02. If i decide i want to start over and begin from start i will increment the first number, so that would make it projectName_02_01, and so on. Once i feel i am finished i save the last increment, lets say projectName_02_xx and then save that same file under projectName_final. If the project then needs more work done i just open projetName_02_xx, do my work here, since it is the same as final project. If there is a lot of work i will continue to increment the last number as i go, and once i am finished i make again two copies, one as projectName_02_xx, and the second one i overwrite projectName_final. This way i still have all the previous versions in the incremented saves, but i always have only one final project. It is a bit tricky to write about it and can change with different needs that is why i encourage you to think what would work for you. But it is going to be so much easier coming back to projects if you know where you will find things.

3. PREPARE BEFORE YOU START WORKING

We all love to just start brainstorming, doodling and looking for ideas when we get a new exciting project, but really a little preparation will save you so much potential headache in the long run. Set your project folder, get all your project settings right, color mode, dimensions, bleeds, margins anything that you need within a project file to finish good. Then prepare your color palette, font styles, grids, photos, textures, reference etc. I know it is a pain and those fingers are itching, but all these things are related to the project, they will make you think about your project in different ways and will make the end result better, more consistent and your life much easier.

4. USE GRIDS

I know it kind of falls under the previous point, but it is such a big one, and so often ignored that i had to make it its own point. I see so many young designers not use them even where they are absolutely essential, like publishing. Personally, i believe that they are useful everywhere form logo design, to illustration, basically anywhere where u make use of composition. Those renaissance painters didn't use them just to be cool.

5. GET ORGANIZED

Start organizing your hard disk, build your own collections of fonts, photos, textures, make your own presets. This will help you build your own style and will speed up your work in the long term. Because this tends to be tedious task, very different from creative process it makes sense to separate those two. Choose a day, just like for house cleaning for organizing your work and preparing things so when u need them in your creative process you don't brake it.

6. PRACTICE DRAWING

So many designers, and i used to be one of them, believe that you don't need drawing in design, and while that is correct to some extent, a little bit of drawing skills can go a long way in the concept stage. And really, no one is saying you should paint like Rembrandt, just so you can doodle concepts. And better doodles usually make for better design. So just practice, get a notebook. a pencil and sketch.

7. DON'T OVER/UNDER BUY

This is a tough one, specially because we as designers need good tools to do our job, but like always, good comes with a price. So we sometimes buy cheap gear and then see it's not good enough for professional use, it breaks too fast or is hard to use. And on the other hand it is easy to get sucked into an expensive buy thinking it will make our work better only to see the product is useless to us, either too big, too complicated or just doesn't fit our needs. So all i am saying here is a little research goes a long way. Read some reviews, if possible go and test the product, try to get some first hand opinions.

8. HAVE REASON FOR EVERY DESIGN DECISION

So often i will talk to young designers about their work and ask them about some decisions they made and the only reason they give me is, because they thought it looks cool. Design is great, you can do whatever you want, but you have to be aware that with every decision you are communicating something... so you better know what you are saying or no one will.

9. LEARN THE RULES SO YOU CAN BREAK THEM

This one also falls under the previous point but again i see it so often. Young designers doing things, thinking they are rebels when really they are just making a mess. Design is communication and you have to know the rules so you can break them and send a clear rebellious FU.

10. PLAY SMART ON THE INTERNET

Internet is such a big part of our lives today, yet so many people ignore it or use it like it is their private journal. Plan your online appearance, present yourself correctly and professionally. Potential customers will check your online profiles. Also carefully select social networks where you want to be present and be active there. No one will follow a non active account.

That would be my 5 cents, hopefully they will be worth more in your pocket. But i would also love to hear from you. What do you think? Did i miss some real important advice? Maybe some of them don't make sense to you; let me know.

Thank you and see you soon.