Star Graphic Design

I have some great advice for any Graphic Design student, or anyone coming into the industry. These are in no particular order, just things that I wanted to share that have helped me.

- Get your personal portfolio online. The sooner you buy your dot com and throw a splash page up there, the better. It helps to at least get you ranking with Google, that way when you are ready to put you final site up, you already have a base.

- Take advantage of iStockphoto’s Free Image of the Week, you can never have enough stock photos saved on file. You will have a project that will need them one day.

- Make sure you have ALL of your work you have ever done saved and backed up. Even if you only manage to save a photo of the actual piece, make sure it is at least a high res photo. Anything you might ever have, even if you think its crap, may be useful in the future. You may have had a good idea in there somewhere that can spawn a fantastic idea in the future. Even if things are never used, you at least have record of how far you have come in the progression of your work.

- File everything on your computer in an organized fashion. I cant stress that enough. If you don’t have time to file things at the moment, make a folder called “waiting to file” or “pending”, so you can do it later…. maybe one day you are talking on the phone and feeling a little unproductive, go file some stuff while you chat.

- Keep in contact with design friends. Don’t burn bridges! For many reasons; networking, jobs, input, project advice. Plus they are usually some of the funnest people to hang out with.

- Blog!

- Collect inspiration…. make a folder for web inspiration, logo inspiration….. or at the very least… a bookmarks folder in your browser.

- Buy design books!

- Design in a creative environment. I went to college for design, in a brand new, artsy building. Whenever I was stumped I could just go for a walk around and feel inspired… The same may not be the case for a cubicle, or office… but decorate with designy things! It will make you smile and keep you feeling inspired.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 5:05 pm and is filed under Graphic Design, Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.