What’s your dedication level?

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Are you working into the wee-hours of the morning or are you getting eight hours of sleep like we, as human beings, are supposed to? At what cost, do we sacrifice those precious hours after the 9-5 full time job.

Based off of my own experience the reward is almost always worth the reward. If I’m spending all this extra time on my clients, I’m just getting that much more practice for future ones. You will also notice your work evolve as time goes by, trust me. My basic rule for putting in extra time is to perform one last laptop charge and when my battery hits <5%, it’s time for bed. If you start losing focus, turn off Facebook & Twitter, it’s not like you didn’t get enough of that during the day.

Always remember to try and learn new things on your own time. The universe works in very mysterious ways, and sometimes new techniques I learn the night before, comes in handy with future situations I face at work.

Most employers I’ve had, admired the fact that I craft my design abilities outside of the workarea and are suprised to find out how new honed skills applied to different situations.

Don’t try and plan on making late nights a habit though, give yourself a break at least two days of the week. Go to the gym, relax, have dinner with a friend, family member or your spouse.

Goodnight all,

Sincerely

12:32 AM

When designing is a competition, and when it isn’t.

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How often do you find yourself designing a logo or a webpage and feel the pressure of a competition. But is it really a competition? Are you masking the overall goal with one so you can achieve the utmost in quality and functionality?

Granted there are a few sites that will allow you to compete for clients or other projects, but I feel that every designer is in a gray area of competition. This area consists of happy hippsters and some odd ball designer with their own unique way of expressing their creativity.

Everything you make should stand out. It’s your job and your future employers chance to see that you take the pressure of actually being challenged.

When graphic design isn’t a competition is when you feel like you can’t find the right font or find the right colors. So you turn to your handy bookmarks or open your go-to website that will help you complete your primary objective of being awesome.

Here’s something new, nothing is new.

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Everything we have ever seen or heard has been tought of, spoken, or drawn out, just maybe not in a way you have noticed before.

If you have the time to create something truly unique, go for it. There is nothing and nobody stopping you. Even if only one other person sees it, then that piece of work will be worth the effort, because you have just created the first of something that people will see.

My high school required us as seniors, to complete a ‘Senior Board’ and my project was on Industrial Design. Having graduated from a small town in 2005, technology wasn’t a staple in our community. After seeing design concepts at an Oregon based design firm named Ziba, and Nike headquarters, I decided to sketch out concepts for mobile phones. Pre-Smart phone era, my ideas ranged from flip dual touch screens to paying with a debit card via an accessory. Sound familiar? There is always apart of me that wonders if the teachers I presented my project to, think of those sketches and my Senior Board project as they see these things come about.

Since then, I’ve transferred my experience and trade into Graphic Design. Everyday there’s something new, but not new, in the field I work in.

Designing with a tight deadline? For this sole reason, I personally feel it is ok to draw inspriation (not steal) from other people’s work. If someone has taken any of my previous design elements and incorporated them into a work of their own, I would feel tremendiously honored.

Graphic Design Run and Gun

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It’s quite comical when people who aren’t graphic designers say they can do the same job as someone with years of experience or hundreds of hours spent honing their craft on a machine full of software or a notepad and inked drained pens. The real start of design begins with your mind and how to plan every move once the cursor selects your tool of choice or the ballpoint hits the paper.

From this point on, I like to call it the Graphic design Run and Gun. You are rushing through all of the 1% basics taught in school, and 99% of everything else taught in real world experiences. The most challenging aspect of creating new visual components is that sometimes you have to get it done within hours or days before your deadline.

I usually start with these basic Run and Gun principles:

  • Think of the fastest way to streamline your work. No matter how long it takes!
  • Always consider what’s best for the business and or your visual component.
  • Avoid introducing the latest and greatest design trends as those won’t probably stick with short deadlines.
  • Don’t ever expect any single element is finalized until the job is printed or published.

It will take some practice, unfortunately people will always have some type of work that needs to be done last minute. Just keep positive, and stay focused. Most if not all of these projects usually tend to be the most satisfying once completed.