Designing for Dummies–Part I

It’s all about Design. Now this is my favorite subject so obviously I’m going to be sharing a lot of my views on the subject in my forthcoming posts. To begin with I would like share a few things that one must know as a designer.

The Muse
Say you have chosen the right career by hopping on the creative bandwagon, you will be having your share of high tides and low tides. (And a low tide does not mean you’ve chosen the wrong career.) It’s just the way it is. Part of any creative job. But I do believe that every creative person has an inner muse within. All one needs to do is tap into it.

There is this three‘I’  rule I feel a designer should always follow: Imagination, Inspiration and Improvisation

Imagine
Einstein himself once said that Imagination is more important than knowledge. What it basically means is that you can embrace the entire world just with the power of imagination. There are no limits or boundaries to what you can do. Don’t restrain yourself when you design. Just let go and you will be amazed with the results you see.

Get Inspired
You can just stare out of the window or surf the web or do whatever it is that can get you going. The internet for example has like a zillion things that you can actually get inspired by if you are a little observant. It can be an interesting layout or a cool application or just the simplicity in which something is communicated. Figure out why you find something interesting or inspiring and make a note if it. But one thing that you need to remember is that plagiarism and inspiration are not the same. Do not copy ever. It’s a thumb rule. It’s equals to insulting what you do and what you are passionate about.

Improvise
There is never an end to the learning curve and nobody is perfect. There is scope to improvise always. You might come across a lot of criticism in this field. Something that comes alongwith any creative job. People may not think like you to understand your work. Your design should speak for itself. Most importantly learn to take criticism well. Design for yourself and make sure that with every new design you outbeat yourself to the previous one. That’s Improvising.

Sweat it out
Designing is not as easy as it may seem and as many ignorantly assume so. It involves a lot of work. Now the thing with designing is that there is no physics to it and no fixed mechanics to go about it. Yes there is logical reasoning behind how you pace out your layout, the selection of images, colors and typo, but no designer can say that I always have 5 tabs on the top 1 on the left and 1 on the right. It just does not work like that. Now if you are the kind of designer who can just stare at that blank screen at your workstation and come up with a kickass layout. Go for it! But if you do not belong to that clan (and its not a crime if you don’t) then do your groundwork. You cannot create anything out of thin air. There needs to be a thought process to everything. So before you take up any task, think about what you need to do, how you plan to go about it and do some research. Designing is not just about splashing a few colors on the screen. You have to look out for layout, colors, communication, usability, accessibility, and the over all feel. So if you thought that designing was for dummies, think again!
 

~ by blaisy on October 27, 2007.