Note: This is a re-post. At the the article was originally posted Designfeedr wasn’t getting a lot of visitors and I feel that the great information in this piece has gone to waste. Instead of losing sleep over this I decided to re-post, so enjoy!
Success in the design industry relies on many different factors. There’s much more to it than just being able to make a pretty visual. Communication, self-promotion, technique and execution of the actual creative process are just a few of the many factors that come into play.
With success depending on so many elements it’s easy to lose track of the big picture. To keep you on top of your game we asked four established designers and illustrators to share their most valuable advice.
Angel D’Amico is a Chicago based Freelance Illustrator and Designer who’s loving life and living her dream. She Combines her fine art skills with her digital artwork, to create beautiful, unique, and exotic environments of work.
1. Start making work for yourself.
When i got out of college I realized that all my creative work was done mostly for my classes and clients. I thought to myself “If i had the chance what would I create for myself?�. I combined my best aspects of my art and design and came up with my own style.
2. Make a website!
Don’t just talk about it for years, DO it. Make it simple and clean. These days to be competitive you need a website. Clients don’t want to have to download your portfolio in pdf format or view images in emails. They want instant access.
I myself took a web class for a half of semester in college to learn the basics. If I can do it so can you.
3. When you make that site, make sure it loads fast.
I’m the owner of Carpal tunnel Magazine, an online webzine where I interview artists. When I get send a link to check out and it’s a flash site that takes too long to load I usually don’t wait(there are exceptions). Simple sites are very effective.
4. Sign up for all the free listing and posting places you can.
Research and find art and design sites that let you post for free. Get your name out there, meet and chat with people. It’s great to have support and to give some in return.
5. Do your research.
I research new and old artists, designers, sites, magazines, books etc.
Keep up with design, learn the history, it will give you greater visual knowledge and more ideas.
6. Stay open minded.
Be unique, and open to new ideas. Don’t get stuck in your habits and comfort zone.
7. Be confident, humble, and respectful
Not only to clients but also to fellow artists, people asking for advice and everyone else in general :)
Radim Malinic prides himself on his artistic sensibility, passion for details, innovative resutls, pushing the boundaries. His work has been described as imaginative, sophisticated, sensual and sexy.
1. Know what you want to do.
Decide where to start. Do you want to do Illustration, graphic design, motion, web design or be the kettle operator?
2. Know the basics.
You just got out of the university and want to work for the big agencies, doing Nike and Coca Cola tomorrow. Well, it might not just happen yet. Agency working environment is probably only three words written down for you. Get any design job you can. Get some experience. have a look around and then make up your mind about where to go next.
3. Know your software.
You might know a shortcut or two, time to take it a bit further. Knowing your software inside out will save you a lot of time. Don’t waste time learning any software that’s not relevant to your craft though.
4. Know your audience.
If you illustrate tanks and cranes, the idea of doing editorial illustrations for Fashion magazines isn’t the best. Spend as much time as needed resourcing on the net.
5. Know your style.
Some people like to create a different style all the time, some like to stick with the tried and tested. A signature style helps a lot in attracting new clientele. Make sure you know your ground and evolve from there.
6. Know your enemy and make friends.
Keep an eye on the current design scene. Shutting yourself off too much could leave you miles behind. Do not borrow from anyone’s style but make sure your work looks always fresh.
7. Know your price.
Make sure you know your price. You can be greatest of the great and work around the clock, it does very little good if you’re still penniless at the end of it. No one will tell you how much they charge, but it isn’t rocket science to figure out the financial value of your work.
Netherlands based Paco Raphael works as freelancer for several agencies and companies. Before that he worked as senior graphic, interactive and webdesigner for MTV and RedUrban interactive advertising agency.
1. Constantly watch.
For upcoming artist is it important that they obtain their skills by constantly looking forward. Look at other designers, read art-books, check out architecture and watch movies.
2. Tutorials & techniques.
It is important to do a lot of tutorials, make different things and see different styles. This helps you find and maintain your skills and techniques.
3. Read books.
Buy books! I have books about design from the early twenties up till now, from Baroque, Retro and Pop art. This will give you a good view of the strengths and weaknesses in design and art of certain years. Books like this will also inspire you to view design in a different way and perhaps some elements from the past might find their way into your designs.
4. Show yourself!
Make yourself known in the industry by discussing in forums, having your own website and by sending artwork to agencies. You’ll see that you get a lot of feedback which will be helpfull.
5. Keep your own style.
In my opinion I think every designer must have his own unique style. I see a lot of wannabe designers, copying the works of others. Don’t copy, try to keep and refresh your own style!
6. Ask for critique
Ask opinions and critique from other designers. You can learn a lot from the opinions of your fellow designers and it often leads to good analysis of your work.
7. Draw!
I keep myself fresh by doing a lot of hand-drawing. A lot of good illustrations and logo designs start on paper. After you find the perfect composition and concept you can easily import this in programs such as Illustrator and Photoshop to finalize the piece.
Scott Pollard is a multi-talented designer and illustrator that has recently put a halt to his freelancing career to join Oneighty creative in their mission to conquer the United kingdom.
1. Don’t over depend on tutorials.
Do tutorials to stay on top of your game and learn new techniques but don’t rely solely on them. Doing so will make it hard for you define your style.
2. Stay fresh - literally!
Life as a designer doesn’t mean you can sacrifice hygiene. So before sit down and boot your computer up get a shower and put on some clean clothes.
3. Use save as instead of save.
When working in Photoshop use save as more than save because once a file is closed it’s history is gone.
4. Be wary of filters.
If you going to use the filters menu make sure you make a dam good job to disguise it because everyone (and I’m not just talking designers) has seen and played with these effects before.
5. Simple concepts are often best.
Don’t over think an idea to the point it becomes confusing even to yourself. Simple is often best.
6. Social networking sites.
Social networking sites are great, but can also steal a lot of your time away. Network on the best sites only. Don’t spread yourself across them all. You won’t be able to keep contacts.
7. Laptop or desktop?
A laptop is ok to transfer your portfolio from a to b but unless you have a super expensive piece of technology, Photoshop and other memory intensive programs will just not run efficiently. If you only have the cash to buy one go for the desktop.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Really helpful points and opinions, this is a really good site for designers and artists.
October 12th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
I personally love retro anything including retro fashion. Thanks for the post.
November 15th, 2007 at 3:33 am
you are all the best! thanks for the tips..
May 27th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Thanks for the tips. the great big design world can be a little intimidating at times
May 28th, 2008 at 11:12 am
“A laptop is ok (..) but unless you have a super expensive piece of technology, Photoshop and other memory intensive programs will just not run efficiently.”
in which year has this been written? 1995?
but overall a nice list, thank you!
May 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
@Simon :
I agree with you to some extent. But you should keep in mind that some of the guys work with really large document dimensions with an insane amount of layers. Your basic 2 gigs of ram won’t cut it then(And when running Vista you’d be really screwed;)
August 27th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I have noticed classic garments always stay in style. Fashion brings out whatever emotion you are feeling inside. Whatever you are feeling, have fun with it and remember not to take yourself so serious. Don’t let someone predict who you are!
September 21st, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I think you are right!
Your tips are helpful and clean.
I agree with your post. Entirely! ;)
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 am
Ohh nice article, I am looking into getting into the design industry myself soon. It looks competitive and seems challenging. I’m still yet to find my own unique style =(
Cheers,
Matt
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Suppose the key part of it was ‘If you only have the cash for one’
Laptop technology is great and can run such programs however its always important to limit down time. In a design studio time is a costly factor and if your equipment isnt speedy enough then it can be a problem. I love the fact that I can depend on desktop to be cheaper, fast, easily upgradeable and easy to fix by myself.
Laptops have their use… edit images on a photoshoot, pitching and meeting to potential clients etc but I would never keep everything on mine. Theft can be a factor and damage along with the shelf life of laptop.
I agree with Youri about the size of file also… get a psd at a0 size with 400 plus layers and 3gb in size then any machine can struggle so get as much ram as you can!
Scott Pollard
http://www.designjump.co.uk
September 25th, 2008 at 4:00 am
What a good point, and also a good blog for designer to gain knowledge.
Well done designFEEDR, and thanks for Youri sharing!
September 29th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Was amazing to read all about how to be a better designer
thank you guys for sharing it with us.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:45 am
Wow those are some awesome tips, thanks for taking the time to interview the designers for your blog to help us, it’s greatly appreciated.
~Jeremy Newton
October 1st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Well how does one define her/his own style? Following a design-hype isn’t real your own style is it?
October 1st, 2008 at 6:46 pm
“Constantly watch.
For upcoming artist is it important that they obtain their skills by constantly looking forward. Look at other designers, read art-books, check out architecture and watch movies.”
wow… no wonder you can’t tell designers’ work apart.
I’m not saying that this is inciting plagiarism, but it certainly puts pressure on the designers that are actually creative. Seems like anyone that does collage with some saturated hues and swirls is considered and accomplished designer. (though swirls might be out now, I think it’s hand drawing that has the “it factor”). I think this idea of relying on someone else to come up with something new, and then squeezing it for all its worth is not doing design any favour. It does however make it easy to “design” if you don’t have much of an original idea.
Anyway, I’m not just harping on Paco Raphael, but what tends to be the trend around the internets. (like the smashing circlejerk)
I do however find that Angel D’Amico’s point resonated with me. Like, doing it for yourself, or looking backwards. Which I think will create more diversity, rather than promoting homogeneity.
~daniel
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
yeah I great and helpful post. Thank you for re-post!
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 am
@Marten: You say design hype but you probably mean illustration hype right? Well there is definitely a look that’s popular at the moment - but it’s still very possible to have your own personal style. I’d even say it’s very necessary to have your own look and feel if you want to stand out in the crowded illustration scene.
@Daniel: I think you misunderstand the “constantly watch” statement by Paco, I think Paco is one of the last people that would jump on the commercial illustration bandwagon (his illustration style is very retro and not commercial at all actually). But every designer, it doesn’t matter whether you’re into web, print or illustration, should definitely always have his eyes open and watch everything that can inspire (including the work of others) and I think that’s exactly what Paco meant.
As for anyone doing flashy illustrations being a designer nowadays I agree - in general they’re two very different things with different required skill sets and for some reason everything they’re both being labeled design all of the time.
October 4th, 2008 at 7:10 am
This has been a very informative, as well as the comments. I’ve been downloading and doing tons of tutorials to enhance my skillset so it was pretty refreshing to see that this was recommended by one of the designers. However, developing a signature style is something that I am struggling with because chances are, if you did a tutorial, 300 other people did too. I showcase my art on dA and there is no end to the “rainbow lines” wallpaper [I have this tutorial as well].
Of course, the purpose of tutorials is to teach you how to use an application so I’ll fire up Photoshop and just do things at random. Often, I find a new way of doing something that could have saved me lots of time [which is precious, as the article states]. I feel like I’m starting to ramble on here so I’ll just end with this:
Thanks for the article!
October 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am
“Daniel Says:
October 1st, 2008 at 6:46 pm
wow… no wonder you can’t tell designers’ work apart.”
Daniel, at the end of the day, we live in a postmodern society which results in us not being able to create a “new” style of artwork. We can only re-create what has already been produced. What I think Paco means is that you should definately look at other peoples work, take inspiration from this, and try to give it your own style.
Don’t get me wrong, you should always try to do things your own way, but theres no harm in looking at whats out there at the moment, and whats working. =)
Dan
October 10th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Hey! Great tips! Thank you. It’s always good to hear different stories.
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 pm
thank you for this posts!
It is very helpfull
November 4th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Its very great and helping post for me, many points of mine clear here,very good idea to make own site, i think about to making a site for self, but its not clear which topic i had make site, now its clear,
Please do post again and again this type of article.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
very nice tips.
December 15th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
I would add to Paco’s “constantly watch” to watch architecture and watch nature. That’s where a lot of inspiration breeds. I don’t think he means to copy, as others have suggested, but I think it’s okay to use certain techniques that others have used. I interpret him to mean to look at other techniques as well.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:00 am
Thank you! What an amazing knowledge-filled post. I will keep a lot of these tips for the near future as well as long-term!
Thanks again!
Lulu.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Great tips, really helpful.
February 11th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Thanks! Great Insight!
March 16th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I think finding your own style starts with being inspired by another’s. Seeing what other people are doing helps to jolt you out of your own rote and enlighten you to wonderful ideas that lie beyond your own thinking. Mozart took inspiration from Bach, but certainly does not sound like Bach. Everybody has their own lens. But first we need to find things to put through it.
March 20th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
This was a really informative article even for those of us who are doing most of this, reminders are always great. Excellent work.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:18 am
Do you guys have a recommendation section, i’d like to suggest some stuff
March 31st, 2009 at 9:23 pm
All good points, very insightful. Thanks for all the tips!
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Wow, amazing set of interviews! I must confess I only know Paco Raphael but, still, it’s a great article :)