Tag: design help

Sensitive Designers

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As a designer we can become so attached to a project that we are working we do not seek any criticism in fear of being hurt. While I will admit I’m guilty of doing. When we become attached to a project our vision becomes clouded. The project may be the funnest one you’ve ever done but don’t limit your creative ability to just one thing.

So back to dealing with sensitive designers If you’ve ever experienced one you’d know they have never been critiqued honestly before. During the Critique they’ll have many excuses for everything and answers about why they did such and such. ( I used to be one of these people).

I learned that you can explain your whole process about why you did this and that but people will only see it from their point of view and not yours.

Remember this

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. – Albert Einstein

Getting critiqued is the only way your work will get better if you want to become a better designer.

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Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off

 

When I first learned about Stefan Sagmeister in School I had no idea who he was. Then I came across this video of him talking about taking a whole year off from work. There have been times when I felt overworked and exhausted creatively but I kept going. When I first experienced that I did not have an idea of what to do about it. So learning how valuable it is to take time off and to not experience a burnout was a great learning experience for me.

 

How to Believe in and appreciate your design work

When I first started learning about design I honestly had no clue what I was doing. I knew the technical side of things but I did not understand the thinking. Which started to frustrate me day after day. Attending art school you can start to become jealous of others who get praise for their work when you’ve spent hours upon hours on your work and receive little or no praise.

I learned from Debbie Millman to be prepared for what could happen if a client or someone does not like any of  the work you’d do for them. Also to just shut up and listen to what they have to say regardless if you agree with them or not. Because people who hire us to do design they do not understand design. So always try to remember what it was like before you learned what you know about design.

This video will symbolize what every creative person will go through in their career. I went through a period of doing crappy work and I am still working to get better. I am working every single day to get better as a designer. I learned awhile ago of the formula “work 10,000 hours to become an expert”. So if you do a little designing everyday just think of how much better you’d be. It does not mean that you will have to sit at a computer screen it can be photography,sketching,video just something creative. But none of this will matter unless you want to become better then you are currently. So in order to appreciate your work remember that everyone starts out doing crappy work and they work everyday to get better. One thing I will continue to do is to keep my old design work to look back on and reflect to see how much I have improved.