Improving yourself as a designer

I’m never happy with my current skill level, I never quite feel like I’ve reached a particular stage that I’m aiming for. Maybe it’s just me; maybe I’ll never quite be happy with myself. Maybe that’s a good thing… maybe not.

But one things for sure - I’m constantly improving and bettering myself as a designer and much more, which is a good feeling. To be able to look back over the past 6 months and observe what new skills I’ve learnt, bad habits I’ve dropped, speed, accuracy and imagination I’ve gained and generally concede that I have improved in more ways than one is pleasing.

So, I’d like to offer some tips and ideas that may help others help themselves more, hopefully provide some inspiration and educate. And I’d sure like to hear what you think, if you’ve got anything to add please comment.

When learning: Read, Meet, Talk, Listen, Teach

And further verbs. Although it sounds cliche and quite extreme, if you want to get ahead in your game (and this doesn’t particularly relate to web design), you have to eat, sleep and breath design. Make contacts wherever possible, let people know what you do - you never know when it might come around and help you.

Reading

Recommended readingResources for web designers are hardly scarce. Get subscribing to RSS feeds, get a good selection of favourite sites with regular news and tutorials and visit them regularly. I make an effort to spend a good 30-40 minutes (more if I get to the office early) every morning checking my feeds and bookmarking new sites full of inspiration.

Then don’t forget the print world, there are still a fantastic number of great quality web design, development, graphic design, copywriting and project management books popping up all the time. Hit up Amazon and see what tickles your fancy. Then don’t let them gather dust on a shelf - have them open on your desk, read on the train, in bed, wherever… you’ll be surprised how much information you can pull out a book if you take the time to actually absorb it.

Don’t forget magazines and journals, although we’re rather deprived in the UK of any decent regular publications.

A few sites I’d recommend:

And a few books to check out:

They should keep you busy for a while. And that’s before we even consider the various branches off web design itself. So get yourself an RSS reader like Bloglines and get into the routine of checking decent sites regularly and sourcing as much valuable information, resources and tools and inspiration as possible.

Meeting / making contact with people

Making contacts within the industry can only benefit you. It may lead to job opportunities and work but also creates new avenues through which to learn from others.

You can meet new people through all sorts of mediums, such as:

  • Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter (follow me!) and Digg
  • Contacting other designers through their contact pages on their sites
  • Attending web conferences and meet-ups. In Manchester 2 popular regular meet-ups at the moment are GeekUp and Northern Digitals.
  • Bringing other people in on jobs can teach you a lot - sometimes it’s better than struggling to work out how to do something when you can pay someone to teach you or help out.

I talk - you listen

I know, it sounds ridiculously obvious but get talking. To mates, to people you know in the industry, to colleagues or fellow students. Ask questions, try to help each other out and share intersting new finds with others. Share the wealth!

Teach

TeachDoesn’t agree with the idea of ‘improving yourself‘? On the contrary, teaching is one of the best forms of learning. Whether you’re teaching a friend how to use Wordpress, writing an informative blog article (as I am now), lecturing a class or giving advice in a forum; the processes you have to go through to gather the information in the first place, then absorbing the feedback and further questions that develop, creates a perfect environment to learn so much more, almost subconsciously.

Blogging

Blogging helps to improve yourself not just as a designer but in so many various ways. Redswish has forced me to learn new things to create interesting articles, my writing style has improved and my understanding of the ‘blogosphere’ and social web has improved.

What to blog about

It depends on what you wish to achieve from your blog, whether it be commercial or personal gain. If you want to make money from your blog, prepare to work hard writing regularly and building your site to pull in traffic. But if you just want to ‘express yourself’, promote yourself or just want to write and pass on knowledge to others - then do it as when you feel like it. Don’t feel pressured to blog.

Blogging isn’t for everyone. It takes a lot of time, energy, focus and dedication. Sometimes it doesn’t pay off, but it’s always worth giving a shot.

Taking criticism

This doesn’t just refer to blogging but all forms of criticism. However if you go out on a limb and broadcast your views and writing to the world - you can rest assured that some people are compelled to spite you, whether it be justified or not. Prepare for a few off-colour comments.

Criticism isn’t always constructive, but try to imagine why the comments have been made and consider how you can improve on this and try to avoid it happening again. Do not react harshly - angry retorts can drive visitors away and do nothing for your profile. Words can easily be misinterpreted on the web so be careful.

Useful input from commenters

CommentersThe main benefit of comment areas on blogs is the opportunity for readers to contribute and provide their own expertise and insight. Take full advantage of this, promote it and try to generate conversation with your commenters. Doing so will help to increase the chance of more input in future.

Pushing yourself when working

All the above are examples of ways to learn new tricks and skills, expand the imagination and develop a better understanding of the industry. However, improvement can be established constantly while working in your existing environment. A few tips:

  • Working for an agency. Working in an environment with other professionals is a perfect environment for absorbing new tricks and ideas, as well as sharing. Since I started working at Flame Digital 4 months ago I’ve progressed in leaps and bounds and can honestly say I’m loving it!
  • It’s never too late to go back to school. More and more web design and development related courses are popping up - you’re never too old to mooch along and check out the benefits.
  • Find ways to measure progress. Set targets, aim to reach them in 1 month/6 months. This will help to push you to develop, and acts as a measure to observe how much you’ve improved.
  • Money is a motivator. Let’s not lie, we can design for the love of design but if you do it for a living - money is essential. Loosely speaking, the better a designer you are - the more money you’re likely to earn. It’s not always as simple as that but money is certainly a powerful motivator - perhaps the thought of that salary raise will entice you to push that little bit harder.

Explore other avenues of creativity. Design doesn’t have to remain in Photoshop on your monitor. Grab a camera and go for a walk to capture some photography, or grab a sketch pad and relax in the garden and swap the mouse for a pencil! Try to seek creativity and inspiration in different forms.

Focusing on design

I’ll hand you over to a nice article on a new website, Web Design Ledger, written by Adelle Charles, that covers ‘10 easy steps to become a better web designer‘.

The article outlines ideas and techniques that should be considered constantly and should be second nature to designers:

  • Build a toolbox. Create a tidy catalogue/toolbox or resources, scripts, background and stock images, bookmarked sites, tutorial files, plugins, .psds etc. You never know when they might come in handy.
  • Think on paper. Always default back to paper before you start squiggling away with the mouse.
  • Keep up to date with trends. The web is like the catwalks of Milan and Paris - new fashions are revealing themselves all the time. Keep on top of what’s cool, or even get a step ahead and set the trend!
  • Know your audience.
  • Ask other’s opinions.

Read the full article here.

Self-improvement

Self-improvement‘Improving yourself as a designer’ requires a lot more than reading books, toiling through tutorials and blogging around. There are so many contributing factors that make a good designer, and these vary from person to person.

Perhaps it’s a case of building confidence, or even suppressing an ego. You can never have too much inspiration and in such a fast paced industry - there’s never any way you can know everything.

Whether you’re a student doing a part-time course, an experienced industry veteran, an up-and-coming design superstar or a jack-of-all-trades; I hope there’s something in this article that may have proved useful to you.

Never settle for second best, and never assume you’ve covered all the bases - there’s always room for improvement.

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