5 problems for designers

Thinking off the top of the head

Just about everybody does this from time to time, but when it goes into action, this is possibly the worst decision that you can make when it comes to doing this kind of work. Thinking off the top of your head and not getting enough content, ideas, and inspiration can be stressful for both graphic designers and the people that they work with. Sure people get away with it from time to time, but just to be real, that is only for experienced advanced designers that have been doing this kind of work for years and have already gathered enough resources in the past to do so and even then, they don't like doing that unless there is a deadline that they have to commit to.  If you aren't sure of how to do a certain project, then either ask someone or look online and search that project and see all of the other designers out there who have done it because it has more than likely been done. It's your job to put your own creative twist to it.

You see within these logos, the designers already had a foundation to work with and used certain elements from the previous ones in the new ones as well. They didn't just slap something together and give it to the company. In my opinion, they all wanted the new logos one in a way that people could still recognize the company.

Lack of creativity

A lot of people dwell on this problem. Many times people say, "I just need to get inspired." The thing about graphic design is that they have so many online references to go to for that. Google is like the number place of inspiration for anybody if you ask me but for graphic designers I want you to look at these links below and you shouldn't have a problem getting inspired again.

Graphic Design Inspiration Sites

Know your process

Whatever you do, please know what you did . Don't just throw something out there to clients if you don't know or can't remember. Write it down, take a picture, record it, keep a file or at least keep some sticky notes somewhere. If you don't, then you can guarantee you will be thinking off the top of your head on the rest of it unless you have a great memory. I'll admit to doing this repeatedly when I was starting out, until I was working in a design firm and they kept records of everything. It may be a slow process, but hey you can always go back and show people the process if you need to.

Consistency

Unless clients are just looking for various work, consistency is the key to everything. People always need to be able to recognize the company or business that you are working with, with no problem at all. If they don't then 9 times out of 10, they are just going to talk about you. People know bad design from good design and when it doesn't flow well, everyone else will know. When I started, I didn't really understand it until my Senior Year when I was forced to re brand and redesign a company. Now re branding in itself can look different from how the company was portrayed at first, but it still needs to remain consistent. Business cards, flyers, posters, books, brochures, websites, everything has to have a constant flow.

Now at the bottom, was a project I did for Consolidated Cloud Solutions through my company Rlee2 and you can find more of my work at rlee2.com. As you can see, I put the logo used the color blue just about everywhere and tried not to make too many changes at all on the design for each part. Less is more in the design industry, remember that.

Proofreading

Check your work and then after that, always use a spell checker! I still have problems remembering this from time to time. If you know someone that is pretty reliable then let them proofread it for you.
Recap

1. Stop thinking off the top of your head
2. Get creative and inspired
3. Know your process
4. Stay consistent
5. Proofread

If you take this advice and apply it, then you are ready to start designing. Peace.

Graphic Design Tools of the trade

The bare necessities of life for a graphic designer

One thing that's clear about graphic design is that you do need a decent computer that has a good hard drive, processor, and memory. Nowadays, most people get either a Macbook or an iMac. I myself use an ASUS laptop and have had this thing for a few years now. Honestly, it all comes down to preference and what you are looking for in your computer. If you don't really know, then you can always either ask people or look it up on Google and search something like, "what's a decent computer for graphic design," or something like that. Just remember to get something within your budget because a computer is only a third of what you will need to do your design work.

Programs

Just right above is the company that offers the best programs for graphic design, Adobe. If you are trying to get into this field you need to know about Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver. Primarily, I will be giving tips on Adobe programs in this blog. Here's a good tip before investing in a computer, find out how much Adobe Programs cost first before you purchase a computer because they are expensive and may even cost more then the computer itself overall. Love them or hate them, nobody else is on the same level as Adobe. They have expanded so much that I couldn't even see anyone else topping them and it has been that way for years. What McDonald's is to the fast food industry is how Adobe is to design firms all over the world. Go ahead and try some of their free 30 day trials now and see for yourself.

Freewares

One thing about freewares is that they are free. These are good to practice with and for doing freelance work with from time to time when you are working with small business owners and such. However, they simply aren't as polished as Adobe programs and don't contain half the amount of features or capabilities that Adobe already has been doing for years.

At mashable.com they have a list of free graphic design programs to download and use. Right below are some of the ones that I have personally used and were familiar with.








Pixlr - now this one is a new one and I actually like it. What is different about this one from the others is that you do not have to download anything to use it. Its online and you can even use it on your mobile device! Now that's pretty cool!

Memory Storage Device

Now some people will tell you to get jump drives, sd cards, or even CD's to back up your files and store them, but in my opinion, external hard drives are the way to go. Having more memory is crucial period, and the capacity that an external hard drive has is just unbelievable. If you want a decent one, it will probably run you no less than forty or fifty dollars though.

Recap

So just remember, before you do anything else get these essentials first.

• Computer (desktop or laptop)
• Graphic Design Software
• Memory Storage Device

Goal No.1 What is Graphic Design?(cont.)

What is Graphic Design?(cont.)

Alright I know it's been a while, but I'm back again! And just like I said, one step at a time...one day at a time. Now that I gave you my own meaning of what the word means, which was a visual-virtual method of getting someone's ideas across. Just to give some of you people some insight on that, I figured it would be about as good of a time as ever to show you 3(actually 4 and I will explain that later) different kinds of graphic design work. Now, the first one right here on the left, is something that a lot of people are familiar with when it comes to graphic design and that is, a business card...plain, simple, but hey the logo looks cool, sleek, and shines pretty nicely. For a lot of people, they all want a cool looking business card that can represent them or their company or both. If you ever want a cool looking business card, just get a graphic designer (aka ME) to do this for you.

Now in this picture, it looks like a row of magazines/ newsletters, but the main focus of this image is that orange car magazine in the bottom right corner. Honestly, I like car magazines but that's besides the point. The point is, as a graphic designer or a person that can do graphic design work, we actually have to create all the design work for the front, spine( that small, narrow side of a book or magazine with the title and author/publisher on it), and back cover with all the pages in between. There are billions of these things and even though a person that buys one can read one in a day or two, it can take weeks to prepare one( I'll discuss that process later in a different topic). So yeah whenever you pick up or download a magazine, just think of us (the designers) whenever you look at it. 

Now what you see before you is some raisins and nuts. Ironically, for those of you who know me, I love food and talk about it all the time, but this time I'm talking about what's around the food and with that said, I mean the bag, can, the packaging, etc. Guess who came up with the logo design for emerald glazed pecan pie flavored pecans with the cool green background or the one of the girl with the red hat(the sun maid) with the raisins at the bottom of the jar? Yep we do that too! Every time you go to a grocery store to pick up a can of green beans or tuna fish..somebody had to actually design the label that goes on everything in those stores. Shoot even if you go to a farmers market they even got signs written in sharpie saying something like "fruit 0.25 each" or something like that and that my friends...is still design. 

The 4th

Like I said, there is actually 4 different kinds of design work and they are all found in each of the 3 images. The one thing that separates a business card from another business card, a car magazine from another, etc...is the logo itself. Logos represent everything about a company and just think if that business card at the top was blank, then there would definitely be a lack of interest because a lot of people love things that are unique or custom. Now check this out, if people start to like a product under a company, and the demand increases so high that people all over the world want it, then that company has to have some kind of way to be recognized or identified from the rest of the companies, so that the people will know what the product is. That is why logos are the key and this is why we have name brands, like McDonald's, Nike, Apple, Windows, and so on. To me, the 4th one is actually the most important one. Sure it may look small on a package, but it means everything if you are trying to start a business or if you are a graphic designer, like myself.

Recap

Basically, the things I showed you (business card, magazines, newsletters, food packaging) , we create the designs for them. As far as the words and images that go on them, that will more then likely come from the people/businesses we work with but as far as the overall design, logo and layout(I'll go into detail later on) we do that part. 

To be Continued...