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Most designers ask me what they should do to produce the best out of their skills they have? Well, the simple answer is - “read a lot” (refer some good books). Apart from this, there are few things you as a designer must keep in mind:

1. Dream the achievable - Perhaps the simplest thing to do, yet difficult to practice. First and foremost rule is where you want to go and how you planned for it? Do you have a working plan ready?
2. Choose the fields you are strong at  - This took me about an year to discover that I am strong at communication designs. The exploration could be initiated with the basics of graphic design. But you need to choose the fields in which you think you could do the best. Never hold everything; - that might spoil your time, efforts and your genuinity.
3. Expand and nurture your imagination - All splendid work is evolved from a great imagining mind. If one doesn’t have time to think on something he perceived; imagination doesn’t come naturally to him. So find some time to think. Make it a habit of thinking something for an hour each day. Remember to have your sketchbook and pencil with you while you start thinking on something - and who knows some great ideas may just fly-in!!
4. Open your mind to accept constructive criticism - Perhaps, this is the best method you could try to improve your thought process and creativity. The more you resistant to it the more you lose. For example, if there is no one to criticize or find faults in your work, then you may not try the other way around. Keep some place open for improvement that would force you to bring the best out of your skills.
5. Choose a mentor - No one ever excelled without getting proper mentoring. A mentor could tell you how you should go ahead and for that what tools you must exercise? So having a mentor is important. It is not the case that you must have the right mentoring from a mentor physically; instead you can follow someone (creative or peer) whose work you like the most. Observe, how and which way he executes his ideas in his works. Follow him and try to learn from him, ask him when you find yourself stuck to something. I am sure, in the age of social media, no one is un-reachable and no one would deny helping you out!

My sincere thanks to Andrej Matic for drafting me on Dribbble. It’s been half a year since I have been waiting for this opportunity and since I wrote this article (with frustration may be…LOL!). Wish to have cool dribbbling |:o   !!

For the budding designers, I feel design contests offer a good starting point (launch-pad), i.e., providing opportunities to continually improve their skill-sets by getting updated with the latest trends of design while participating and/or watching the design competitions and competitors’ works.

One always wants to get clicked there. This means, every time a sword is hanging on the top of his head to remind him that he has to win the contest by kicking-out other skilled designers. One can get ample opportunity to have that exposure to improve his skill-sets  by trying different fair winning methods like studying hard, doing sketches, managing time, being ethical while dealing and learning communication skills etc. And yes, it is purely subjective to his know-how on business, graphic design & design industry, community knowledge (social) and design skills.

Communication always plays a crucial role when it comes to design business. A designer must be a good communicator - whether it is verbal/oral or non-verbal.

In social media, non-verbal communication is much trickier and sometimes harder than it seems. Because you are open to a certain group or community of people where your communication actually projects your image not only to like-minded people but also to people who still want to understand you. Their views can differ and you may be accepted by your peers or restrained by observers!!

I was working on a design project that was getting quite a good feedback at my client’s Facebook and actually unknown to me. Days after completing the project I discovered that the initial drafts were appreciated by number of people (my client’s peers). And amongst them, only one comment drew me to write a thank you note on my client’s Facebook wall. I did so by thanking and emphasizing with much appreciating that one comment showing my interest. There I did the mistake - “I must have thanked everyone equally who really liked my works, whereas, I confined myself”. I realized it later but it was too late. I think, I failed to create an impression there !!

Nevertheless, mistakes happen and that can be lessened if you can open yourself to answer the following:

1. the Audience: Whom you are communicating?
2. the Theme/Gist: What you are communicating?
3. the Place: Where you are communicating? and
4. the Process: How you are communicating?

CASE

Now the print job is over; but my first impression after seeing the prints was not satisfactory. I realized that I have invested $250 to get 1000 pieces of junk that I can not even approve for my studio promotion! Because I didn’t find the same what I expected. Here I have two options and one obvious action-

1. blame the printer or
2. get a lesson to be learned - “the opportunity to improvise my knowledge to work with offset printers in future” and
3. Action: re-print the brochure in another printer after implementing the must improvements (from lessons learned)

CMYK plates

Following is the brochure properties/preferences (set when sent to the printer):

• layout - 20.5”x17.5” (print area) with 0.5” bleed (in Adobe Photoshop CS3)
• mode - CMYK color, 16-bits/channel (printer acceptance level - 8-bits/channel)
• proof setup - working CMYK
• color profile - ICCProfile: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
• file - multi-layered (printer accepts PDF or TIFF files only)
• paper - matte, 170gsm

@ Printer: One of the best printers in our city

• preferences - unknown to the any of the personnel who handles the printer. Also it is not documented anywhere!
• paper - feed size 21”x19” (coated/uncoated OR glossy/matte). Not sure about high-quality paper available in the market.
• color - 4 color process (offset printing)
• appointed designers: work with more than 4-5 editing softwares and highly complex print machines hardly know what happens when/if fonts get rasterized OR the difference between 8 and 16-bits/channel mode!!
• final check - no personnel appointed
• printer age: 20+ years

Let me analyze the whole process and find out - what went wrong and why I faced the following issues with the final printouts:

1. color - no true colors, inflated and cyan overly exposed in places
2. paper - broke where creased spoiling the back poster
3. design - minute lines/patterns blurred

contd…

In these days, I was not so active in social media because to be very frank, I think I am not quite there where I should be! I am not feeling positive to handle different projects till I learn how I should convey the right message and in which way? Not that I am feeling incapable or overly biased by something - rather I have become more receptive and open to make my skills more stronger. So may be the reason why I decided to hibernate from social media for some time.

I am learning and gaining experience to get to know how design communicates visually and that to effectively? It all started with my design studio branding about six months ago and I am still in the middle of that project!! Initially, I was quite unsure - what should I do? and where should I start? And at the same time, I thought that I should continue with logo and brochure design. Despite of the hurdles like budget constraints and less-experienced printers in my town - I decided to have my brochure printed, at first.

Huum, this is not it - I had to go with several iterations and modules to get the final design -that of course, forced me to read a lot and sit with my clients to understand what would influence them and how they want me to approach them or vise-verse?

Nevertheless, I have sent my design to the printer and waiting for the prints. But my experience with the printer is still obscure! Why? What am I afraid of?

Just like this, there are many questions in mind- still the answer is same, i.e., go-get the knowledge :) It is always a designer should seek is what he learned today! And that makes him confluent with the ever changing standards of design. Well, design is science and few theories are constant but still few are new and unknown to most who struggle to know how design influences and communicates with prospects mind?

contd…

I really enjoyed reading “Brands as Patterns” by Marc Shillum. He describes how smaller ideas can be executed as patterns to make a brand speaks. After all, a brand is what you perceive and find concurrently affecting your level of emotion, which is of course - “what you see is what you get” and that continues with your experience to get more and more out of it, where brands preferring more agility to stand-out.

In respect to that, branding is not anymore considered static because it is not anymore confined to a specific sphere to speak that agility and dynamism. Rather it has gone beyond. Specifically, versatility is considered more while making the logo or the identity that goes under stellar process, in fact! Designers spend much hours to get the exact inspiration for their ideas on products, services, graphics, colours, textures, patterns and above all, types!

I have observed that most need their brands to talk with people and about their culture and languages! Thus, they prefer their brands to associate with consumers daily-life. For that they have embraced the ever changing fashion to tingle with their brands [example: Google (more of Google) ].

I feel this is good because designers get the liberty to explore the infinite possibilities to get the ideas and have the horizon in front of them to develop effective brands!!

1. How many designers and design agencies you can recall by their name and logo?
2. How many of them have actually branded? - No, I am not only talking about their logo, business-card or letterhead designs but also I am curious to know how many of them successfully positioned themselves in their target market !
3. How many of them use a single name in social media like Facebook,Twitter and so on?
4. How many have uniquely identified themselves?
5. How many have a tagline? In other words, how many have their mission statement in a written form?
6. How many have their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) listed?