Have you noticed that while doing what you love, you don’t feel time passing? Everything works out by itself, insights and insights suddenly arise - and people usually call this state inspiration. Over the years of practice, probably any professional develops his own techniques and methods of managing it. The curator of the School of Interior Design at the National Research University Higher School of Economics shared his advice.
Nothing comes from the void
It is important to look as much as possible: visit exhibitions, bookmark the sites you like.
Therefore, it is important to look as much as possible: visit exhibitions, bookmark the sites you like. The most convenient way to do this is using the Pinterest resource: here you can create thematic boards. Perhaps the idea you like is not useful now, but in the future it can play a key role in the formation of the concept.
What to focus on?
On the best. It so happens that most of the leading designers work abroad, and the Internet allows you to follow their projects almost at lightning speed. Print media regularly publish interiors that are worthy of your attention.
Each major publication also has an online version and editions in other countries, for example, France, Germany, Spain, Italy - be sure to study them too. The editorial staff of the same magazine can differ radically depending on the country and mentality, and it can be very interesting to notice these differences.
Everything should be conducive to work
Create for yourself an environment in which you are as comfortable as possible to work. Inspiration can be very capricious: sometimes even a minor irritating factor can frighten it away. Therefore, the number of such factors needs to be minimized: regularly tidy up your workplace, and keep all the necessary items at hand.
Create for yourself an environment in which you are as comfortable as possible to work.
The time you choose to work is also important: if possible, it is better to choose a time when few people can disturb you, for example, in the evening.
Don't forget to switch
It happens that you run into an invisible wall that does not allow you to move on. Thoughts are not put together, and solutions to problems are not found, and besides, you are constantly distracted by social networks. All this speaks of banal fatigue.
According to psychologists, this can be prevented if you switch to 15 minutes every hour and a half. Get up from your chair, make yourself some tea, pour some water, or simply distract your attention. Try to abstract yourself from work as much as possible and not think about the tasks you solved before.
Reboot on the weekend. If you sit in front of a computer all day, the best option there will be a walk in the park; If you are engaged in mental activity, sign up for a gym.
Has everything already been invented?
Study history: read the works of architects, look at the biographies of designers. This will allow you to look at modern tendencies on a historical scale, to see the big picture, understanding the nature of the mechanisms that set our sphere in motion.
Hello friends, I’m in touch again, Maria Elutina. In the last article you found out what he does.
Today we will talk about how to become a graphic designer without special education and work experience, what training platforms will help with this, and I will also give some advice to beginning designers.
- possibility of earning money remotely (freelancing);
- constant development;
- the opportunity to master it from scratch;
- demand.
How to start a career as a graphic designer?
At the initial stage, it is important to understand in which area of graphic design you want to develop and earn money. As you understood from the last article, there are many of them, and each deserves special attention.
Having made your choice, you will be able to understand which of the possible tools you need and which one you need to improve. For example, to design a web environment it is enough to know Adobe Photoshop, to create logos or icons - Adobe Illustrator. If you are not going to limit yourself to developing design for the Internet space, then you will find it useful Adobe program InDesign for printing layout.
There is an opinion that a web designer needs knowledge of a programming language (HTML/CSS). Personally, I am convinced that it is not necessary to know website layout programs. For this purpose there are specially trained people who understand the codes. If I need technical advice, I turn to this person. On my team, this role is played by a girl. Still, it doesn’t hurt to know the basics of what is feasible and what is not.
Is special education necessary or not?
I hope you understand that you cannot do without learning the basics of design. Now I’m not talking about higher education, but about special education. Nowadays, there are many special offline and online design courses.
Firstly, in the courses you will get acquainted with the basics of graphic design, its features, learn to think like a designer, and study professional programs in depth.
Secondly, you will begin to communicate with like-minded people, exchange knowledge and experience, and receive constructive comments and recommendations.
Third, you will get real orders, because often the mentors of such courses recommend their best students to customers.
That's what happened to me. I was taking a course in web design, and then I received orders from my mentor. On my list of reliable courses is Web Design School. Its convenience and advantage is that it takes place online and is adapted for freelancing. This means that you will not only learn the basics of design, but also be able to search for orders on well-known freelance exchanges. At school there is a whole lesson dedicated to this.
Now I want to give some tips that will help you avoid the well-known mistakes made at the initial stage.
1. Read specialized literature. Studying books on graphic design on your own will greatly expand your horizons.
2. Start drawing. Remember, I wrote whether a designer should be able to draw, and that I don’t know how to do it. I've been learning to draw for two months now. Believe me, it greatly simplified my understanding of graphic design. Well, it added a price to me, which is important.
If you don't know how to draw, there's nothing wrong with that. The main thing is to start doing this and you will notice changes.
3. Study the work of professionals. On my way, I often meet talented people who create incredibly beautiful and at the same time functional websites, illustrations, logos, etc. These are the ones I bookmark, subscribe to their pages in behance.net.
For those who don’t know, Behance is a platform for showcasing the work of illustrators, designers, and photographers. Are you not there yet? Register quickly and fill it with your works, as well as be inspired by others.
In my “piggy bank” there are photos of packaging, labels, posters. I, like Plyushkin, collect everything and store it carefully. This helps me develop my creativity and see the world more broadly.
4. Study fonts. Do you pay attention to fonts? I do. Moreover, it is very important for a layout designer when a layout with the “correct” text comes into his work. This means that line spacing, spaces, size, etc. are taken into account.
Looking back, I remember my layouts with a smile. Just a year ago, my main critic, my husband, did not approve of my “impulses.” Now everything is different, I have learned to use fonts, and each of my work is assessed positively. This is great!
5. Save your work. Any person, and we especially, must know our growth points. That's why I store all my sources in a special folder. I advise you to get one too. Perhaps you will return there and bring some work to perfection.
6. Develop your own unique style. Have you ever had this happen: you saw some work and wanted to make it better, adding your own vision? This happens to me often. I take someone else's idea and refine it. It's funny and interesting at the same time. Try it, it will help you develop your style.
7. Create your portfolio. Friends, it is important for us to present ourselves in such a way that you would want to contact us with an order. Therefore, the portfolio is our face. In the next article I will tell you how to create it and give recommendations for its design.
Conclusion
Having walked a certain path, I realized one thing: you won’t be nice to everyone. There is no single design style. Therefore, our work is based on the needs of the specific audience for whom we are creating the product.
But this does not mean that you need to forget about your uniqueness. Inspire your ideas into an existing model, expand the boundaries of your capabilities. Look for customers with whom you will be comfortable.
When I started, I had neither experience nor portfolio, but thanks remote work courses, I knew how to look for the employers I needed, manage my social networks. networks and knew the basics of negotiations with customers. “Training” on . I've already talked about her.
Remember, only you know which customer you like to work with. The Internet is a platform where everyone can find their employer. My advice and your perseverance will help you become in demand and increase the value of your hour. Don't stop there, go towards your goal, improve your professionalism.
If you have any questions or need advice, write in the comments.
Let's talk about how to become a clothing designer, where to start. The profession of a designer has always been considered fashionable, and its relevance has not been lost at the present time. Specialized educational institutions that train fashion designers have real “live queues” of applicants. Not everyone understands how difficult and thorny the path from an ordinary school student to a famous fashion designer is. Let's talk about how to become a clothing designer. Some have been trying to master a profession since school, while others only develop a career at an advanced age.
Specifics of the profession
First you need to understand the content of the profession, only then can you get an idea of what it takes to become a fashion designer. What do such specialists do?
Don't know how to become a famous fashion designer, but really want to? A professional clothing designer creates and presents his sketches to the fashion world. He must take into account the latest trends in the fashion world, otherwise his products will not arouse interest and will not become in demand.
- creates clothing designs;
- draws up technical specifications for the design of clothing items;
- uses information technology in design;
- organizes the full-fledged work of performers;
- exercises control over the production of clothing;
- prepares applications for samples for certification;
- develops patterns
What a future designer should know
If you don’t know how to become a designer from scratch, then first get acquainted with theoretical issues related to the worlds of fashion and design.
- Study the history of costumes.
- Learn to distinguish the main fashion trends.
- Learn the basics of clothing design and styling.
The future couturier must understand all issues related to technical equipment and methods of sewing fashionable clothes.
Where can a fashion designer work?
Schoolchildren thinking about how to become a famous designer often do not think about where a representative of this specialty can work. In addition to fashion houses, a certified designer can find a job in a light industry enterprise, in an atelier (elephant), or in a textile and haberdashery (clothing) production. In addition, when thinking about how to become a designer, where to start, we note that you can always take individual orders, developing real fashion masterpieces at home. In many large cities of our country there are experimental workshops in which professional clothing designers are in demand.
Fashion designer: area of interest
The domestic labor market is represented by both designers and fashion designers. Are you wondering how to become a fashion designer, where to start? Please note that professions complement each other. If you are sure that you know how to become a designer, where to start, you can try your hand as a fashion designer. The main directions of its activities:
- Technologist. Professional responsibilities include choosing a sewing method, creating simple clothing options, and finding effective options for processing seams.
- Constructor. This direction involves the development of high-quality drawings of clothing, customization of products to the individual characteristics of the customer’s figure.
- Artist. It is he who draws the finishing option, creates sketches, and the entire design of the future fashion accessory.
So what do you need to do to become a fashion designer? It is advisable to master several different skills at once, that is, to become a universal fashion designer.
What a true designer should be able to do
Representatives of this profession can be considered real “fashion geniuses”. It is they who must come up with the entire concept of new collections, develop individual sketches, offer new designs and original technologies. In addition, the designer himself thinks through the key points of the future fashion show scenario and takes part in advertising.
Advantages and disadvantages of the design direction
Before you think about what you need to do to become a fashion designer, weigh all the advantages and disadvantages of this profession.
Among the advantages, if all circumstances are successful, we can mention global popularity and fame. Good designer has high fees, can develop his creative potential, gain useful connections. Representatives of this profession are in demand in the modern labor market and will not be left without their favorite job.
There are also some disadvantages that are also important to mention. The work involves heavy physical labor and often requires emergency work. There are certain limits specified by the customer, beyond which you cannot go. There is serious competition in the market, it is difficult to achieve success and popularity on your own. Beginning designers have to spend time and effort searching for potential customers. There is no guarantee that the profession will immediately generate a stable and high income.
In order to take part in a fashion show, you need to prepare 50-60 full-fledged ensembles, this requires a lot of time and effort. A professional spends 4-5 months to create one suit, so only professionals and true fans of their craft “survive” in the fashion world.
We become designers without experience or education
In reality, when thinking about how to become a designer, where to start, realize that with simple enthusiasm, without any skills, experience, or connections, you will not be able to make your dream come true. Where to take the training? So, are you looking for the answer to the question of how to become a fashion designer? In this case, take a look at design schools, fashion institutes, and art schools. Among the most popular educational institutions in the fashion world, we highlight the following: MSUDT, MSTU. A.N. Kosygina, National Commercial Institute of Fashion, Institute of Costume Design (St. Petersburg), Ivanovo Textile Academy, Moscow Industrial College.
For those who are seriously thinking about becoming a fashion designer at home, distance learning is offered at the British Higher School of Design, College of Fashion and Design.
What is important to remember to realize your dreams
First, it is important to decide on your preferences. You don’t know how to become a clothing designer, but you really want it, then look for your strengths. For example, you like a business suit, study all the nuances of its creation to gain theoretical skills. Without them, you won’t be able to come up with a new business image or surprise modern fashionistas with your designs.
Are you thinking about becoming a children's clothing designer? First of all, it is important to study all the features of child physiology. Clothes for children should not only be beautiful, but also comfortable for young fashionistas and fashionistas, any professional knows this.
Are you thinking about creating a collection of comfortable clothes for yoga? Get to know your clients, find out their preferences.
Are you thinking about how to become a fashion designer yourself without wasting time on training? Subscribe to several popular fashion magazines, study biographies of world fashion designers, and carefully follow all fashion trends. It is important to develop your artistic taste, find a sense of proportion, and feel inner harmony.
If you've decided to develop your technical skills, develop three-dimensional thinking, want to learn how to combine different colors and textures, and are thinking about how to become a fashion designer, you can enroll in design courses.
In addition to courses, try to put the acquired knowledge into practice. For example, having looked into the nearest fashion boutique, analyze its assortment, select an ensemble of clothes for different occasions. Using ready-made options, try to create your own ensembles, in which you will include your own ideas and “zest”. A true design professional must be fluent in any sewing machine, hand sewing, and embroidery.
The most difficult thing is creating high-quality patterns and sketches. Try to devote as much free time as possible to developing this skill, otherwise you will not be able to make a full-fledged pattern. Don’t forget that the materials market is constantly being modernized, and new fabrics with certain characteristics are appearing.
Looking for our own style
By collecting a variety of information about popular designers, borrow the most interesting ideas and proposals from them. Follow all fashion trends, consult with experienced mentors who have practical experience"survival" in the fashion world. Try to find your own style by which clients will recognize you. It is individuality that is primarily valued in the world of fashion and beauty.
Creating a portfolio
Take care of developing your own complete portfolio. These days, this detail is a vital necessity. Without demonstrating your achievements, it is difficult to prove to a potential employer that you are a true professional in your field. In addition to a paper portfolio with certificates and diplomas, it is advisable to acquire photographs from fashion shows with your participation. You can supplement your portfolio with video reports, clippings from newspapers and magazines. Professional designers have their own logos to help clients recognize their work. You, too, can think about developing such an “insignia” for your collections, and to protect it from attacks by competitors, carry out its official registration with Rospatent.
Learn to do business
You need to learn how to make money, create not only beautiful, but also popular things. Need to learn the basics modern marketing, look for opportunities to sell your models. For example, you can organize exhibitions of finished models in cinemas, shops, and exhibitions. Don’t stop there; you’ll have to start as an apprentice to gain professional skills. A designer who wears his own clothes inspires confidence in his clients.
Conclusion
If you don't know how to become a fashion designer, but really want it, you will succeed. Believe in yourself, in your strengths, try to be in nature as much as possible to get new ideas for creativity. The main criterion that opens the path to success for a future designer is his personal talent, sense of style and taste. Such abilities do not arise spontaneously; they appear already in early childhood. In many cases, before graduating from school, a young man understands that his destiny is to create unique clothing collections.
If you are good at drawing, have beautiful handwriting, are proficient in graphic design, and love photomontage, then this direction as design is suitable for you. Don't forget that in addition to the creative component, fashion design also involves technical skills. To create full-fledged patterns for future products, you need to be able to create impeccable drawings.
The creator of dresses and suits must “throw” his ideas onto paper in a matter of minutes, getting beautiful sketches. Designer is a profession that requires a certain perseverance. Sometimes it takes 5-6 months from the moment the idea appears to the receipt of the finished product. You need to be prepared not only for high fees and victories in competitions, but also for defeats and disappointments. Not all invented projects have a happy future, because the path to real success is thorny and long. Have you made a choice in favor of becoming a designer? In this case, decide on your specialty: fashion designer-designer or fashion designer-cutter. The specialization "designer" will require creative ideas, and for a "cutter" it is first of all important to have a good technical base. Higher educational institutions offer comprehensive training, graduating from their walls real universal specialists. In addition to such prerequisites as talent and diligence, punctuality and tolerance are important. Answering the question about how to become a clothing designer from scratch, let us remind you that it is important to be a good psychologist and help your clients find their own style.
Recently, at one of my talks, I was asked: “Where can young industrial designers get inspiration?” “Probably in some other profession,” I answered. If a young designer has problems with inspiration and ideas, then most likely he got into this field by mistake. The problem with modern design is that being a designer has become fashionable. It sounds beautiful and fills personal social networks with a special creative meaning. Almost everyone wants to do design, even those who have never held a single book about design in their hands. International career, contracts, royalties, exhibitions, countless interviews, showroom displays. This is prestigious! You can order beautiful business cards, get a minimalist tattoo and register a domain with your name. However, behind all this, most often, almost nothing happens - a wall suddenly appears, against which many young designers rest their heads, sincerely not understanding what went wrong.
Designer Dima Loginov. Winner of the iF Product Design Award, Red Dot Product Design Award, ELLE DECORATION Best of Year Award, International Design Award and others.I have a master class “Main mistakes of a beginning designer,” which I have been speaking to different audiences in different cities for many years. I highlight several obvious mistakes that hinder the development of not only the career, but the creative personality of the designer itself, which, of course, is much more important. When I conceived this topic, I was sure that I would present it only a few times, because designers learn quickly, including from the examples of others, and quickly overcome the problems they encounter. Everything turned out wrong. Every time, whether it’s judging competition entries, my performances with master classes, or direct communication with young designers, I see the same mistakes. Let's look at some of them, although, of course, there are many more.
I've already seen everything
Curiosity and a feeling of constant hunger for information are a clear sign that a designer has every chance to grow into something worthwhile. The phrase “I’ve already seen everything, you won’t surprise me, everything has already been invented before us,” on the contrary, means that the designer will not bring anything interesting to this world. For me these are clear markers. If you don’t start your day by studying the “design worldview”, if you “already know everything,” then something is wrong with you, especially if you are aspiring to a serious career as a designer. The more you study, the better your tool for analyzing what's happening in the industry. And with analytical skills comes another necessary skill: a sound assessment of one’s capabilities and prospects - a very important thing in the highly competitive environment of global design.
Provincialism
It is still a huge mystery to me how young designers can consciously limit the range of their professional interests with the amount of available information that the technologies of our time give them. Of course, from a global point of view, the Russian interior market is a provincial market that does not set any tone in the development of the industry. We are a market, whether we like it or not. However, designers who dream of building a serious international career should hardly worry about this. In the modern world, an artist, designer, creative person can live and work anywhere, even in the thicket of a forest. With the internet and some important professional skills, you can design for any company in the world, no matter where you are. One of these qualities is an understanding of trends, an awareness of the processes occurring in the global industry. Not what is happening in your city, region or country, not just what is written in the local interior press, but the best what is happening in the world. Only those who study best examples, have a chance to develop necessary qualities and clearly declare yourself, I am convinced of this.
There is one sad moment for me in my master class: I show a slide with a small list of the world's main design blogs and resources in the hope that this slide will be useless. After all, I demonstrate the basics with which every curious designer begins his research journey. To my chagrin, almost the entire audience always stands up and takes a photo of the screen with this list on their phones, hearing about it for the first time.
Laziness
It would seem that everything is obvious. Design is not only about aesthetics, a sense of taste and the ability to do right choice. Design is technology. Mastery of tools, computer modeling and visualization skills are the most important tools in creating design. Think about it: most designers perceive modeling and visualization only as the final reflection of their design, as what they will ultimately show to the client, and not as a creative search process. This is why so many designers (especially interior designers) do not own these tools themselves, but outsource this part. And that is why the result of their work often looks so ridiculous. If designers knew how to model their projects themselves, the process of creating a project, searching for and sifting out ideas at the modeling stage would look completely different, and the result in terms of the quality of the idea would be an order of magnitude higher. What can we say about product design, where searching for an idea in a 3D environment is the most important part of a designer’s work. I attribute my lack of knowledge of basic computer tools to simple laziness. But ambition combined with laziness always looks comical and produces zero results.
False motives
There is an opinion that being a product designer is very cool. I come up with some thing, it sells for years, and interest from sales drips into your account. Plus an important bonus - worldwide fame! This is all true, of course, if your items sell well. And even better if they sell well all over the world. However, in the oversaturated world of beautiful things, it is quite naive to believe that everyone will choose yours. Most likely they won't choose. This means you will have to say goodbye to illusions about the career of a great industrial designer. And you need to be seriously prepared for this. That is, the chance that you will not earn anything from product design is many times greater than the chance that you will earn at least a few thousand euros from it. I am convinced that there is no point in doing product design for people looking for recognition, fame and money, at least easy ones. Most likely, such designers will be disappointed. Conversely, people motivated by a love of design (rather than their place in it) and an internal need to constantly create objects regardless of commercial outcome have a chance to achieve greater heights. Why do I think this? Designers driven by true motivation are highly resistant to setbacks and challenges in their careers. After all, regardless of commercial failures, they do what they have a passion for - create design. Long and hard. (This is a good time to cite the example of Zaha Hadid in architecture.) This means that such work can develop serious qualities that are rarely seen in designers motivated solely by creating a big name (for no objective reason).
A few years ago, the British publication The Guardian published an interesting article about the difficulties faced by product designers, most of whom earn only a few hundred euros a year from royalties. And, of course, they have to earn a living from some other work. It seems that no one noticed our article then, and I advise everyone interested to find and read it. This is a tough, incredibly competitive, often zero-return business for the designer, which is worth going into only for those creative people that they cannot imagine themselves outside of this design work. Such people will definitely not be bored! Whether they make money or not depends on your luck.
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