[Tut] Graphic Design - How to succeed

JD RoX

Just one day spent on "boards" and already seen a lot of questions how to become a designer, where to get inspiration, how to succeed and finally - where to get the job. Here will be a short guide for most of that.

First of all ask your self - why do you want to become a designer?
For most of us it started with the awesome drawings on the wall at age of 2, which drove our parents mad, continued with loving arts classes and then the big one - love with computers.

If it's not the case, and you are doing this just because you like to sit on your ass all day, with no intentions of improving - quit now. If you can't give your best to clients, then don't do it at all.

How/Where to start?
The same place where you are - the web! There's no need of design schools or "special courses". You will be wasting time and money. Forget about the education, you're not becoming a dentist - design is all about what you can do, not about how many years you spent learning it.
Web is full with great tutorials for designers....

Tutorials and resources
There are thousands of blogs, forums and websites for designers. Here is a short list of my favorite:

Tutorials

• 1st web designer
• Designmodo
• PSD Tuts+
• Smashing magazine

Resources

• Designmoo (not to be confused with designmodo)
• Subtle Patterns (my all time favorite for patterns)
• Freebies Booth (some great psd files can be found there)
• Icon Finder (social media icons and many more)

That should do it for now...

Inspiration
This is a hard one.. We all get inspired from different stuff. For me it's music, for some it's nature, for some it's other designers work, and so on.
We'll start with the usual - other designers work.

Where to find it?
I used to love Themeforest, I still visit it when looking for some commercial websites - for content layout etc. But there are better resources. One of them is DeviantArt. Let's face it, designers love showing their work to everyone, and receiving comments about it - what can be better? That's why DeviantArt is my second favorite for inspiration.

Number 1! That must be Dribbble. So many beautiful things...You just gonna puke rainbows. For best viewing I suggest to use Dribbbleboard.

First job offer
Is it a brand new website, or are you redesigning? This is very important. If it's new, then there shouldn't be a problem, but if you're redesigning - have a honest "conversation" with your self.

Ask your self, can you do better than what's already there?
If it's one of your first designs, then, most likely, the answer is no!

For your own sake and clients - do not accept the project.
Reasons:

• They won't have anything good to say about you,
• You will be known as the guy who fu*ked up,
• You won't be able to add it to your portfolio, because, well...You fu*ked up,
• You won't be recommended (and that's in the best possible scenario)

Starting a brand new project
You are most likely working as a freelancer - there are no standards for you yet. If the company is hiring an inexperienced designer, they are saving money... If they are saving money, they can't expect much from you.

Things to remember

1. Keep the site around 1100px in width
2. Use colors to compliment the logo

If they don't have a logo, and you need to design it - DON'T. You have a lack of skills for such task; You will improve your logo skills, but the company will be branded and fu*ked for life. I will attach a great logo designers info at the bottom.

• Draw your design on paper - it's much easier to make changes that way ( I learned the hard way )
• Contact info always goes at the top (phone, email)
• Never forget about Social media (use iconfinder)

Redesigning
You turned down your first project, but after several others you are convinced now is the time!

Tips to follow:

• Keep the style - It can't look like completely different website, you have to keep the soul of the website, so existing customers wouldn't mix it up with some other website. It also shouldn't take hours for users to figure out how the new layout works. Keep the key aspects in the same place, after all, only reason for redesigning is to make it more user friendly.
  
• Cut the crap - Seriously, just do it! Most of the old sites have waaay too much useless content. Figure out what you can or can't lose.
  
• Images - Get rid of those nasty old images made with a potato. Demand clients for new, better quality images!
  
• Who are you to judge? - Finished? It looks good? No - you're not finished! It's one of your first projects, you can't possibly know if it's good or bad, and don't ask your mom also - she will support you, no matter what. Come here, ask us our honest opinion, show before and after pics.

I think I skipped something...
I have this feeling that I forgot somethi...Ohh yeah - how to get the job.
This is very hard, almost impossible.
First option - You might have some friends with their personal business.. Maybe they need a website?

Second option - They didn't need it? What a shame... We'll, there's always golden pages... Look through the book, you WILL find some potential clients there.
Find a potential target - check if they have a website, if they don't: attack!
Other great site is WhatClinic.com
Doctors.... That's where the money is - they are much smarter than most business owners, they are not afraid to spend money on something that works.
Third option - Too lazy for that? Try to apply for some design agency. It's the hardest, but not impossible - that's how I got started.

Fourth option - The lazy way: go and pray for a miracle.

There's no point of making a portfolio website and waiting for clients - it will take months for the site to rank, and that's only if you have excellent SEO skills.

When dealing with client

• Always be nice, no matter what. Even if they don't choose you - they might come back later.
• Take up front payment! If clients insist on paying after it's finished, they most likely have no intention of paying. You shouldn't take more than 50% up front. In worst case scenario, create the first page, then ask for first payment.
• Do not create the whole website. Send the pages one by one, so client can agree on them - it's their website, and you will end up rebuilding everything, if they don't like something

Always remember

• You're the "professional" - you know better. Although, this doesn't mean for you to stop listening to the client - never do that. If you know that something's not gonna work - explain why!
• You're an artist, not a slave - client needs to know that, no last minute changes (not talking about image swap or something). Once you're finished and agreed, no more changing stuff - you don't have to change the whole color scheme just because client suddenly decided that pink is g*y, and he wants green.. Unless the price is right!
• Use UI Kits - they save time, a lot of time. Plus it's much easier to build a design around it.
• Use big screen - screen shouldn't be smaller than 22"! 24-27" is perfect.
• Never take all money up front - it might seem like a good idea, but your productivity will fail to reach the maximum. You won't have a reason to work fast.

How much to charge?
It's totally up to you. I usually charge:
€40 per page, if less than 5 pages.
€30 per page, if between 5 and 10.
€20 per page, if more than 10
Remember, by page I don't mean a page that differs only by few words and images.

Conclusion
So you still want to be a designer? Fair play to you. I suggest you find some good coders, in case client doesn't have their own, and you need to develop whole website. Also, don't steal other people artwork, it's not cool! Never forget that you are an artist, and I'm always here for you:
If you ever need some help, add me on skype: armis12321
I can help you with ideas and suggestions, even maybe, if I have enough time, design some graphic elements. I don't charge money for helping, and I'm always happy to help new designers. I know how hard it is to start! Beware: I always give my honest opinion

Last words...
I'm not a professional, just a bit more advanced beginner. Created this article because I found these things to be the most helpful for me at the start, so sharing is caring!


I really hope this tutorial will help some of you guys- for more beautiful Ireland! See you around!

JB90

Great post

JD RoX

JB90 wrote: »

Great post

Thanks for taking your time and reading it!

Jennyrose

JD RoX wrote: »

Keep the site around 1100px in width

1024px for iPads (a rapidly increasing market)

JD RoX

Jennyrose wrote: »

1024px for iPads (a rapidly increasing market)

That's why coders use separate css to define style for mobile devices

Giblet

"Coders" don't.

JD RoX

Giblet wrote: »

"Coders" don't.

Then who, if not programmers?

Freddio

http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

1024 x 768 is a standard

1100 is a figure that will annoy 50% of the world

Freddio

JB90 wrote: »

Great post

You registered an account to say this?

Kavrocks

I thought the best options was 960px wide or have I been out of the game too long?

JD RoX

Freddio wrote: »

http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

1024 x 768 is a standard

1100 is a figure that will annoy 50% of the world

Yes, 1024 layouts width

I would suggest 1100px as a minimum for canvas in photoshop, in case you want to add some shadows for outer borders.

Giblet

Use them as maximum widths only, designs should at least be fluid, people use windowed browsers...

Freddio

JD RoX wrote: »

Yes, 1024 layouts width

I would suggest 1100px as a minimum for canvas in photoshop, in case you want to add some shadows for outer borders.

Please leave the internet alone

chakotha

You have to go below 1000px width to allow for the right hand vertical scroll bar should the page length demand one.

I usually use 950px but you can go up to around 980px.

JD RoX

chakotha wrote: »

You have to go below 1000px width to allow for the right hand vertical scroll bar should the page length demand one.

I usually use 950px but you can go up to around 980px.

My coders use % instead of pixels, so it doesn't really matter what sizes I use for PSD

johnfoyvision

Kavrocks wrote: »

I thought the best options was 960px wide or have I been out of the game too long?

I agree with you, the width range used for many websites generally ranges between 960px to 980px. And this is the standard format. This is the best way to fit the website in any browser in any computer screen.

Giblet

johnfoyvision wrote: »

I agree with you, the width range used for many websites generally ranges between 960px to 980px. And this is the standard format. This is the best way to fit the website in any browser in any computer screen.

Whose standard? What about phones? Tabs? New devices?

pixeldesign

I would create mobile website for mobile devices, but if you don't want to create a mobile version you should make the template fluid by using percentage instead of pixels.

JD RoX

Giblet wrote: »

Whose standard? What about phones? Tabs? New devices?

If client wants a website for mobile devices, you should create it using "responsive" style. And that's actually only way to go these days, I just hadn't time to read up about it.

tricky D

Eh, it's responsive, actually.

JD RoX

tricky D wrote: »

Eh, it's responsive, actually.

Thanks, I always get mixed up

S.M.B.

I'm currently in the middle of a large scale responsive build and I wouldn't say it's the "only" way to go.

I'd even go as far as saying a solely "responsive" solution could be an unwise decision depending on the goals of a website.

tricky D

S.M.B. wrote: »

I'm currently in the middle of a large scale responsive build and I wouldn't say it's the "only" way to go.

I'd even go as far as saying a solely "responsive" solution could be an unwise decision depending on the goals of a website.

Ah but sure, is it not an impressive new buzz word for those just recently familiar with media rules, percentages and the like. Some sort of Scalable Layouts 2.0.:pac:

JD RoX

tricky D wrote: »

Ah but sure, is it not an impressive new buzz word for those just recently familiar with media rules, percentages and the like. Some sort of Scalable Layouts 2.0.:pac:

Buzz word... right.
Maybe for now we still have a lot of options, but with new devices being released every second day, I could even bet that in near future responsive will be the first choice for most developers. Of course, we still have these super-advanced coders from PLC colleges and " 100% Legit Dreamweaver courses " who uses tables and inline css - They will be always holding back some part of community with their skepticism for all the new stuff, simply because they are not able to learn it.