First Steps In Design

This post plans to help the "New" designer or those with little experience.

I am planning to address some basic helpful hints that I hope will make subtle improvements to your design process. To begin, let's ask the question, "How can I make the most of my design"? When you receive a design or logo concept from a client or whomever..."What do you do?" Sit at the computer and stare until an idea pops in your head? Maybe the first idea you have, you decide to go with -- then make revisions based on client feedback. However, most of the time that may work, but you could be cheating yourself from better design, as well as greater potential growth. One suggestion is that you take your first design and set it aside. Now think of another way this design could work out. So, now you have two pretty decent designs. Set those aside and begin again. Though this may seem trivial, you are forcing your mind to stretch and really think outside the box. The box your mind is clinging too, that has those other designs as your main focus. Now, with your third or fourth or more design you have taken that basic thought and expanded it into areas beyond the scope of just one or two basic ideas. Many times I find myself stuck with creative block. This is normal, but you don't want your thinking process to be normal. Change of scenery is the key. This could be physical location or try finding a variety of new magazines or books that can inspire you for that next great idea. Another easy way to seek inspiration is where you are right now--the computer (Internet really). Search for cool new design sites or portfolios of unfamiliar artist designs. Of course, don't steal--just look for new ways others have solved your problem. A great way to do that is to search out key phrases or terms of the idea. I like to keep in mind the three "R's". No, I am not talking about grammar school, but:

1) Research - Search the web, Search engines like Google, yahoo, etc., Google images or similar (Please do not copy, try to only take suggestive ideas from others images), other artist sites that inspire you, reference books you might have, or any resource available. Try not to limit your resources, it only limits your ideas. Bookmark these pages and return to them every so often to refresh your mind.

2) Read - Read over the assigned material again and think about who your target audience is, what they want, and would it grab their attention.

3) Rework -Once you have an idea work over it again and again and again. Push your thinking process to the limits. Sometimes it helps to start with step one again; to refresh your mind or see something you possible didn't recognize before. Get all the ideas from your head onto paper, then rework those written ideas into new ones. I always think it's helpful to put those first ideas you think of onto paper. If they are still in your head - you keep wanting to use them in each design. getting them onto paper relinquishes them to the paper and gets them out of your head. Now you can focus on expounding new ideas from the ones you have written down or drawn out. Now that you can put some thinking behind your skills you need to develop into a one man showcase for the web. Today's online designers have to really become more of a multi-skilled business person. Taking on more than just the artist role. The designer must also become a copywriter, manager, director, programmer and go ahead and add a few more in there -- depending on your skill set.

Getting the most out of yourself in the early stages will help you ease into understanding what your clients needs and wants are. Gathering the most from your business and yourself is the best way to learn a few more skill sets that you may not be comfortable with, however, If you can offer what larger corporations pay individuals to do as -- effective or better, you can increase your business worth. Taking on new skills you are not accustomed to, may seem daunting. However, isn't a significant increase in profit worth it?

A Model Design

One of the most important parts of a business, even a design business, is a company's business model. A business model lays out the plans on how it will compete with the competition, utilize it's resources, interact with clients, and form it's structure to make a profit. With all businesses you need to re-evaluate this and modify it over time to reflect the current economy and competition.

The importance of the business model serves as a way to continually "keep in check" your business, function and flow of your business, and keeps all those people involved in your business with a keen understanding of the core foundation.Business models ultimately need to serve as a way to keep you asking questions. If you don't keep asking "Does this business make sense?" then you can lose focus of competition arising and or your core customers.

The first step to establish your business model is develop a strategy. Your strategy should inforce the ideals of the business model definition.

• Learn about your competition
• Understand your resources
• Develop a core network of peers
• Know your customers (What they want)

Using these points to develop your strategy can help to establish your company's purpose and direction. If your mainly working online you may have a large base of completion, but a good strategy is always worth the time.