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What should Graphic Designers do – Follow Trends or their Own Style?

Charlie B. Johnson — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:04:32 +0000

One question which every graphic designer confronts in his graphic design career is…should he follow the design trends or make his own? This is because when we create designs, we have several alternatives to explore from. We can either use our own expert design aesthetics to conjure up a design or incorporate a currently existing design trend into our work.

But what difference does it make between using design trends and following our expert design sense? This is the crux of today’s post where I try to differentiate between the various effects of graphic designing style. At the end, you can decide which style you fancy using as graphic designers.

Following Design Trends:

Following are some aspects of following Design Trends:

1. Reflects Consumer Preferences:

Design trends are a prevailing preference in the marketplace that reflects the taste and liking of the consumers. By following design trends, you are sticking to the designs that are popular at the current point in time. But this is where one problem arrives…a certain trend may be in style at a particular instance, but may lose its acceptance in the future.

2. Misses out Innovation:

Although you may find trends to be popular, they are likely to cause trouble for graphic designers in the long run. Since many designers follow trends, there are high chances that your created design could fall under the plagiarism flag. Trends come in handy only in projects where the client specifies you to use a certain trend. But then again, chances are that you will end up making a design that isn’t unique and exclusive.

3. Time Saving:

As graphic designers, we would disagree with this, but it is true fact that some designers employ design trends just to save themselves time on the project. This specially happens when the designer is cramped for time and is desperate to complete his assignment within the stipulated deadline. For example, some designers pass their work as minimalist design to get it off their shoulders. But then again…haste makes waste doesn’t it?

Expert Designer Approach:

Now let’s find out the effects of using your personal design aesthetics:

1. Unique and Distinct:

When a graphic designer creates a design using his own set of skills and aesthetics, he is certain to make a unique and exclusive design. One that is free from plagiarism or similarities with other prevalent designs. When you use your creativity and talent, the designs you make will stand out from the rest of the designs.

2. Creates a new trend:

Ever wondered how a certain trend was born? Being every great design trend is a great designer who created the unique style that went on to become a popular trend. For example, Carolyn Davidson did not follow any particular design trends before making up the Nike swoosh. On the contrary, it was her unique style that went on to become one of the most popular logo design trends in the world.

3. Everlasting design:

As I mentioned earlier, design trends are momentary. They may be popular in a certain era but will are sure to pass away with the passage of time. But a design that is made with your own creativity and skills can never become obsolete. It will remain as it is regardless of what trends come and go.

So what is your style of graphic designing? Do you opt to follow prevailing design trends? Or do you fancy employing your expert design skills instead?

Top 5 Web Design Awards – And the Winner is…!!

Charlie B. Johnson — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:47:40 +0000

Becoming a graphic or web designer fulfils 3 major purposes…money, honor and satisfaction. Some aim at making big bucks, while others are motivated by recognition and pride. Ignoring the designer salary and payment issue aside, let’s talk about the recognition and accolade a web designer or graphic designer can earn in this field.

Just like Hollywood stars vie for The Oscars and Academy Awards, web designers also desire similar red carpet moments. Following the trend of awards, the design community has also developed a vast system of appraising web and graphic design talent.

Several web design award commissions have developed over the past decade that recognize and appraise the best designs in the web industry. Criteria of selection for “Best Web Design” generally include design, layout, simplicity, user-friendliness and interactivity of the website. However, this trend of awards have become so common that you will witness many online awards but following are the top 5 authentic web design awards which countless web designers seek to achieve in their professional lives:

1. Webby Awards

• Founded in: 1996

• Founded/Run by: International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
• No of Submissions every Year: 10,000 entries

• Famous Judges: Arianna Huffington (Columnist), Matt Groening ("The Simpsons" creator), Richard Branson (Virgin Atlantic Founder)

• Notable Sponsors: Microsoft, YouTube, AOL, Pepsi, Yahoo!

2. Favourite Website Awards (The FWA)

• Founded in: 2000

• Based In: England

• No of Submissions every Year: N/A

• Famous Judges: Lars Bastholm (Ogilvy), Clemens Dopjans (adidas AG), Diana Helander (Adobe)

• Notable Sponsors: N/A

3. WebAward

• Founded in: 1997

• Founded/Run by: Web Marketing Association

• No of Submissions: N/A

• Famous Judges: Lars Bastholm (Ogilvy), Clemens Dopjans (adidas AG), Diana Helander (Adobe)

• Notable Sponsors: Burst Media, Website Services and Mycroburst

4. Interactive Media Awards

• Founded in: 2005

• Founded/Run by: Interactive Media Council, Inc. (IMC)

• No of submissions: N/A

• Famous judges: Derek F. Martin (American Express), Aaron Gallagher (CNNmoney.com), Nicholas Carlos (Time Warner Inc.)

• Notable sponsors: Interactive Media Council, Inc. (IMC)

5. GDUSA American Web Design Awards

• Founded in: 1963

• Founded/Run by: GDUSA

• No of submissions: N/A

• Famous judges: N/A

• Notable sponsors: The Creative Group

What Makes a Blog Successful – Cast Your Votes!!

Charlie B. Johnson — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:00:46 +0000

“What makes a blog successful?” If you are a blog owner, then I’m sure this question haunts your mind all the time. Being the owner of a blog myself for quite some time now, I have also been trying so many ways to make Graphic Design Blog successful in the blogosphere. Now, without boasting, I would say I succeeded to some extent but still don’t know which thing works the most to make a blog “HIT”.

Some say that content is the heart and soul of a blog while others give complete credit to powerful social media and SEO. Some even assert that appearance of a blog is the prime factor of its success and many think attractive picture collections play an important role. Hence, today I decided to launch a poll on “what makes a blog successful” to help myself and others find the key element of a blogs success.

However, I have managed to identify and list five core reasons that boost a blog. So guys, take a deep breath, think for a minute and drop your VOTE below.

[poll id="1"]

I would also like you to read and understand the significance of all these above mentioned factors to know the correct answer.

1. Content:

• Many people believe “Content is king”.

• Interesting blog posts attract visitors

• Unique content makes your blog standout from competitiors.

• It builds credibility of your blog and positions you as a trusted guide.

• Your readers keep coming back to get genuine and useful information.

2. Social Media:

• Social Media introduces your blog on various social networking sites.

• It provides your blog with quality audience reach and traffic.

• It builds a platform for your readers to communicate and interact with you.

• The more prominent you are, the more famous your blog gets.

• It gets your blog strong web presence.

3. SEO:

• Search Engine Optimization is an old yet effective trick in the book of online media.

• Your blog gains search prominence on famous search engines.

• Readers prefer clicking on your blog because of your blog’s ranking.

• Search Engine Optimization yields increased traffic to your blog.

4. Attractive Pictures:

• It makes the website visually attractive and interesting.

• A picture is worth a thousand words.

• Through attractive pictures, even a common reader enjoys your blog.

• Catchy pictures help you convey a message easily to readers.

• It’s quick and easy for the visitors to view your blog.

5. Blog Appearance:

• Your first impression is the last impression.

• Good appearance attracts more readers and visitors to your blog.

• User-friendly appearance of the blog helps generate more traffic.

• A clean and accessible theme will enable more users to stay on your blog.

8 Valuable Career Advices for Graphic Design Students – Graduation Day!

Charlie B. Johnson — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:24:26 +0000

Graduation day is a very crucial day for every graphic design student. It is the point in life where you make the all-important decision regarding you graphic designing careers. Believe me if you’re still about to graduate school, now is the ideal position to start thinking about your future and career prospects.
Having spent nearly a decade in the field of graphic design, I believe it is my duty to impart knowledge and guidance about the practical world to the young and aspiring graphic designers. So today, I would like to give a few career advices for graphic design students that you will want to remember your entire life.

1. Continue the Learning Process:

Just because you’ve graduated from graphic design school, it doesn’t mean that you should stop learning further. Learning is a continuous process that should be pursued by every human being from cradle to grave. Don’t let your skills stagnate by saying no to further learning. Don’t limit yourself to one specific skill set, be a jack of all trades. The more multi-talented you will be, the more openings you will get of acquiring a job. Constantly update yourself with the latest tricks and techniques in graphic designing so that you don’t lag behind.

2. Theory is easy, Practice is NOT:

The first thing that I learnt from my experience as a graphic designer is that whatever you learn in textbooks don’t always apply in real life. This is because talent is more essential than degree in graphic designing. When stepping out from the school life to the practical life, you must learn to differentiate between theory and practice. Now I don’t mean to discourage the concept of reading textbooks and course material. You may learn the essence of graphic designing from school but when you enter the practical field among creative veterans, the whole scenario changes.

3. Don’t stop Socializing:

Many students who are graduating from design school hold a perception that after stepping into the professional world, they will not be able to hang out with their friend circle. Well…they couldn’t have been more wrong. This is because networking and social media for graphic designers is extremely imperative. Maintain your contacts with colleagues, seniors and teachers all along your professional life. Frequently visit graphic design related seminars and build contacts with creative veterans over there.

4. Build a Graphic Design Portfolio:

A pre-requisite for becoming a graphic designer is to assemble and build your personal graphic design portfolio. It serves as your identity and displays your creative potential to the world. Now of course you must be thinking…being a graphic design student with no work experience, what will I show in my portfolio. No worries, you can start off by displaying your assignments and class projects in your portfolio. With the progress of time, you can update some real work as well.

5. Polish your Core Skills:

Although I just mentioned that one should be the jack of all trades, but I personally believe in being “Jack of all trades and master of one.” While acquiring the know-how about several aspects of graphic designing, remember to polish your core skills in order to make them prominent. For example, if you have a desire for becoming a web designer, cultivate your CSS, HTML and other web developing skills.

6. Gain Experience as an Internee:

While this piece of advice isn’t compulsory in becoming graphic designers, it certainly helps boost your credentials for future career. Interning at a design related firm is a pre-requisite at every graphic design school so that shouldn’t be a problem for most students. But for students who think that evading the internship program is better…think again. Internship gives you a great chance to experience the ‘real’ world and learn from the adept and experienced people in the professional field.

7. Never Lose Faith in your Abilities:

Take it as an advice or simply motivational words, but never lose faith in what your abilities as a graphic designer. You will encounter scores of people who criticize just for the sake of it. When you enter into the professional world, you are surrounded by people who are more experienced than you. Don’t get discouraged that you don’t know much and be confident in whatever you know. Satisfaction for graphic designers is the key to success.

8. Make your Personality Attractive:

Rugged jeans, a pimped shirt and fuzzy hair, probably coupled with a pierced ear…this is the general perception of a graphic designer’s appearance. However, my advice isn’t for graphic design students to be like that. I believe that appearances are only skin deep, your real personality is deep within. Develop your personality into an interesting and appealing one, the kind that people will find hard to resist. Update yourself with the latest news and trends on things besides graphic designing as well. This way when you converse with people, they won’t take you for a design geek.

I hope these pieces of advice will help graphic design students in strengthening their career prospects and flourish as graphic designers.

Freedom or Limitation in Graphic Design – Too much is too bad!

Charlie B. Johnson — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:35:56 +0000

Graphic design is a vast field and its bounds are nearly limitless. Similarly, there are no limits to the degree of creativity of a graphic designer. Most designers believe in freedom in design, while at the far end, some follow design limitations. But…anything done in excess is bad.

The followers of design limitations hold firmly to the set rules and principles as laid out by the book. While at the other extreme, supporters of design freedom advocate that it gives them the opportunity to explore their creative instincts and come up with better designs. While both aspects are significant in their respective domains, excess of both freedom and limitation can spoil the design.

Drawbacks of freedom in Graphic Design:

Let us first analyze the freedom aspect of designing. How is excessive and uncontrolled freedom in graphic designing a bane?

Time consuming:

Having said that freedom in graphic designing gives you the liberty to explore new and unique trends, it also can be a time waster. Lack of restrictions enables a graphic designer to think of more and more concepts. The more the concepts you think of, the more the choices you will have at hand. The more choice you have to select among, the more time is exhausted on the project. Sometimes freedom in graphic designing becomes detrimental when you have to meet project deadlines.

Wandering away from the subject:

Graphic designing is such a diverse field that excessive contemplating the design concepts can result in deviating from the project itself. Without any bounds, when a graphic designer starts conceptualizing the design, one idea is superseded by another. In this way, he deviates from the main subject and gets lost in the thought processes.

Confused concepts:

It is an accepted fact that freedom in designing broadens our horizons and gives us the opportunity to think out of the box. But too much thinking leads to confusion. Sometimes when you get involved in excessive freedom, you come up with various choices to choose from. This can be quite confusing for graphic designers to choose the best alternative out of superfluous options.

Leads to regret:

The worst part about being liberal in graphic design is that there are more chances for cognitive dissonance to arrive. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling that arises after taking a certain decision. Sometimes after selecting one design, graphic designers lament…“If only I had chosen the other design”. When there are more choice to select from, the grief of not selecting the other designs is more.

Drawbacks of Limitation in Graphic Design:

After having discussed the drawbacks of freedom in graphic design, let us now analyze the other extreme. How does design limitation cause problems for graphic designers?

It bounds creativity:

While design limitations are good to the extent that they save valuable time, excessive design restraints bound the creativity of graphic designers. It undermines the ability of graphic designers to fully utilize their creative talent and try out innovative ideas and styles. Graphic designers can come up with creative ways only when there is a certain degree of liberty for new ideas and concepts.

Inflexibility creates boredom:

A designer bound by design limitations is like a lion trapped inside a cage. Excessively working in limited domains creates boredom and dullness to the job. Graphic design is in no way a dull and boring field and hence working within design limitations can be quite frustrating for graphic designers. When you work within specified constraints, it becomes a monotonous and tedious endeavor.

You don’t make a distinction:

Imagine if all graphic designers work on the same design principles and are bound by the same design limitations, then there would be no difference between any of them. Although personality types of graphic designers are different, they are distinguished by their style of work. Operating under design constraints disables the designer to exploit his unique skills and limits him to the fundamentals. Hence nothing innovative is to offer to the customers can distinguish them from their competitors.

Don’t think out of the box:

The best part of graphic design is that it lets you experiment with new trends and techniques. With design limitations and strict regulations, you don’t think out of the box. To get noticed, one has to come up with innovative and revolutionary ideas. But with excessive limitations around a graphic designer, this task is quite hard to accomplish.

Hinders progress and development:

One of the major setbacks of design limitations is that it creates hurdles in the way of progress and growth as a graphic designer. Since you stick to the fundamentals of the design and don’t explore new trends and practices of the industry, you are likely to lag behind as a graphic designer.

Which adversely affects you more…the FREEDOM or the LIMITATION in graphic designing?

What makes a successful Graphic Designer – Natural Talent or Design Degrees??

Charlie B. Johnson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:05:17 +0000

Last weekend my niece was too insistent, asking me to accompany her to an exhibition at her Design School. She believed that I will be taken aback by the remarkable design projects of fresh grads and trust me I did not regret my approval. However, looking at the creative artpieces of those young chaps made a question tick in my mind, which we all don’t think of answering seriously.

Why was it that all the students from the same college, same badge with the same graphic design lessons did not come up with equally remarkable work? Today I want you all to help me clear this confusion… when so many people are going through the same educational process but why only few succeed to come up with extraordinary creations?

In my opinion it’s the gifted spark which is possessed by few people. I’ve heard the argument so many times that art can be learned, but I think people with the natural right artistic sense can only succeed. The vast information available on net has made it easy for people (without any sense of design and aesthetics) to claim themselves as graphic designers. A non artistic person can be taught about designing but I don’t honestly think they can truly create a good design.

I strongly believe that design lessons and degrees can "one" one’s skills to a certain level of perfection but if someone lacks the imaginative talent, he can’t be a successful designer. There are so many people who have successfully obtained their designer degrees from top universities who can become “good” designers, but will never be “great”. If there’s not at least some of that innate thing we call “talent” though, there is no way to get it.

However, many people strongly believe that an individual can be whatever he wants to be, no matter if he is not bestowed with any god-given talent, just practise and determination can fill in the space.

How many of you agree that hard work, determination and motivation are such crucial requirements to achieve success, which talent cannot do? Well, my vote goes for “Talent”…let’s see how you guys have valid points to prove your opinion.