THE 10 COMMANDMENTS FOR BEGINNING GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
This blog will teach you the essentials you need to know about the field of graphic design with an emphasis on screen printing, which is a form of print making- I will go into the details later. But for now I want to start with the basics, with the morals, rules and the mind set one needs to have in order to be not only successful, but happy in the field of graphic design.
These are the rules and morals that every young graphic designer needs to follow if he or she wants to be successful in the field of graphic design. I have taken many courses about layout design, color theory, typography as well as printing. This knowledge has thought me the skills I need, but no class that I have taken has thought me the morals one needs to posses when you get into the field. These are based on my experience as a senior in college graphic designer can only be learned once you put everything you know into practice:
There is a reason why some graphic designers are famous and some are not, find out why!. Find your style and find someone who represents that similar style and look up to them. They know more about the industry than you do and can give you tips on how to find the best solution to a problem. Try to find a role model that represents who you are. They will become influential and will help you a lot in the long run. The reason is simple. If you feel down or seem to question why you are in the field or need inspiration, having someone to look up to for comfort or motivation can help a lot!
You don’t need to be prolific at drawing to benefit from keeping a small book in your bag or back pocket. Ideas tend to arrive at the strangest times, and being able to record them on the spot will help you remember them later. When you fill a book, date, number and shelve it. Soon your bookcase will be a library of your best thoughts and ideas!
Speculative work, or spec work, is a request by a potential client for uncompensated creative and design work at the inception of a project. Avoid this like the plague—it’s a devaluation of the entire design process and marginalizes our efforts as a whole. The AIGA- the professional association for design has great resources for dealing with spec work, including a sample letter that you can personalize and send to clients explaining why their request is unappreciated. Go to AIGA.org to learn more.
Whether you are a newbie, a student or just in need of a refresher you should always try to stay up with new terms and old ones. Graphic design, like any profession, is littered with jargon and terms you may not be familiar with. I will make separate blog post dedicated to the most used terms in the industry. Knowing the terms will make it easier for you to communicate with clients but most importantly with other graphic designers and print shops. If you are a graphic designer you are pretty much the guy in the middle, the one that has to explain the customer why certain things can’t be done and you need to be able to communicate that in a way that is easy for the client to understand. You also need to be able to communicate with and understand print terms so that everything prints out how it looks on screen so that there are no surprises once the entire project is done.
Your work will be criticized, if you can’t handle criticism you will have a hard time in this field. Sometimes you need to listen, and sometimes you need to defend your work. The best way to defend your work when being criticized is to explain your actions. Sometimes a client doesn’t understand why certain things are placed the way they are. You need to be able to explain why you chose certain colors or a certain layout. If you can’t do that then you have no reason to argue with your client. At the end, you know you have done the work and taken the classes needed to be where you are today. Sometimes you need to stand up for yourself, and that’s ok, as long as you also listen and not just talk. Remember, you are being paid to do your job, so you need to do it to the fullest and be confident with your work.
Picasso had his Blue and Rose Periods, Georgia O’Keeffe obsessed over flowers and animal bones. The difference between them and you? They were artists solving their own personal communication problems. We are designers, primarily tasked with solving the communication problems of others. Using one singular style or direction for multiple clients or projects will rarely be successful and, in retrospect, will look one-dimensional. You’ll never know as much about your clients’ businesses as they do, but part of our job as designers is to try. Learn as much as you possibly can at the inception of a project about your client’s business space, their goals, their competition and their history. Dedicate a half- or full-day download session, ask a lot of questions, and then shut up and listen. Besides, they are the ones who will pay you
Backing up your files is something you need to get into a habit of doing. I always recommend creating folders by naming them correctly and dating them to keep everything organized. Once you have organized your files, save them somewhere else. Use two flash drives instead of one, that way if you lose one you still have another one somewhere, but make sure you save your work on both flash drives so that both have your latest projects. I strongly recommend using some type of cloud drive, like Google drive or iCloud. These drives can be accessed anywhere there is internet connection so you don’t have to worry about brining your flash drive to class or work.
If you are looking for ideas, it’s ok to look at other people’s work, in fact, I encourage you do. However you shouldn’t copy someone else’s work. You need to find your own solution to your own client’s problem. Not every solution will be able to solve the same problem.
In order to get better in the field it helps to look at other people’s work with an analytical eye. This will help you understand why certain things work and why certain things don’t. One way to do this is by engaging yourself in helpful criticism. I think of helpful criticism as a helpful evaluation. When you evaluate someone’s work you need to describe what elements in the piece help communicate the message, as well as elements that are not so well implemented or distract rather than help convey the message. You should give tips on what the designer could do to make the message more clear or make the piece pull the reader’s attention.
Are you the sort of person who likes to push themselves?, improve your skills and produce the best work you can? Design as a discipline never stands still and as a designer you will be constantly developing. There are always new trends, new tools, new technologies, new theories, new sources of inspiration – a creative mind never stops learning. Graphic design also encompasses a variety of specialism too, so whether you want to tighten up your digital skills, master the art of print production, become perfect at packaging or tackle typography head on, there is always a new direction to pursue.
