Ever wondered what will make you a great designer? Try these things.
Video Editing
We live in an age where still images are just not enough to communicate a brand’s ideas and position. A picture says a thousand words but a gif says more.
Why not try your hands on making simple animated gifs with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Grab a DSLR camera and record a video or use Premier Pro and After Effects to make your own edited videos to post online alongside cinemographs and platographs to wow the audience.
The crucial part about this is having patience and the will to try.
Pencil and Paper/Planning
Miss drawing as a kid? Guess what! Sketching your ideas on a piece of paper before executing on the computer is an ideal practice. Applications on the computers really do limit you on how much you can explore a creative thought.
You don’t need to have the best hand of all time or share your sketches with anyone. They simply serve as a path to your final product.
Have an idea on how a scene in a video should go and words are not your friend? Start a story board with stick figures even and capture camera angles.
This will help the team and the client get the big picture.
Curate, Gather and Stay Abreast
Whatever your chosen area of interest, you need to know and understand it thoroughly. To incorporate certain styles of typography, color schemes and themes you should have a full understanding of their origin and meanings.
Curating or documenting is a fascinating way to draw upon your inspirations. The best recommendation for lining up and saving images to your boards on Pinterest and bookmarks on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. To later create a future mood board for project.
Side Hustle/Play More
Experiment, experiment and then experiment some more! Exploring requires a sense of openness to questioning yourself and the space you find yourself in. If you are stuck in an office chair facing a PC all day or working on brands which restrict your creativity to a certain point then you definitely need the occasional breather to get your juices flowing.
Try some side gigs which will offer you the opportunity to test new waters and get paid doing it (did somebody say win-win?!). You can also have your own side project which enables you to be authentic and original while breaking new boundaries.
Be Inspired By The Arts
All the amazing creatives we know enjoyed a childhood of cartoons, iconic movies, and comic strips which eventually fed into their fantasies, from the Power Rangers to Marvel Comics and many more.
Never throw these away; they are the foundation of everything new you will make. Music and inspiring people are also good starting points.
Know Thy Basics
If you walk away with anything from this blog post, let it be this: always remember to follow best practices like avoiding clutter, understanding color schemes, aligning objects, using and the like. For online content be mindful of dimensions, video duration limits, and be sure to stay on brand.
Be sure to take advantage of the vast amount of information and inspiration out there. It is important to learn new tips and tricks to keep you fresh at your craft. These are a few from us to help you stay on top of your game as a graphic designer in the digital landscape. We showed you ours, now show us yours!
Kuuku believes that less is always more and this translates into his minimalist design approach. Although he has been a creative since childhood, it was after his degree in Business Administration, Marketing that he professionally pursued graphic design.