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Glad to be featured in “365 Awesome Designers” site project - by Matthias Mentasti

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!

Just received a copy of Logonest 01 book. It’s an awesome hardcover, very well printed book. My first impression was ‘wow’! I browsed the whole book in a single shot.

Solid hardcover with a electric-orange color wrapper makes the book quite lucrative and attractive. A reader will love to browse to discover what’s in it.

The book contains few featured articles (7 articles) and cases (3 case studies) of popular designers and 112 pages of featured logos (448 logos of 130 designers all over the world) designed in the year 2010. This is quite there.

I feel only few things could have been taken care of while making this book:

1. Numbering the pages where logos are featured
2. 6 logos per page instead of 4 logos to reduce unwanted and unused white spaces to avoid distraction while browsing.
   
3. Logo browsing and info (below each page) arrangement seems vertical and horizontal respectively that makes reading difficult.