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Question? We want to hear from you!

amanda — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:36:11 +0000

Lately we've been talking a lot about ways we can get closer to you, the readers and members of our community. A few weeks ago we did our very first livestream, which might have lacked a bit in organization since it was, after all, our first go at it, but hopefully you guys enjoyed it as much as we did. We hope to incorporate these streams into our regular schedule to give you guys some insight into why we do what we do and to let you get to know us a little bit more.

In efforts to further bring us closer to you, we've decided to start a weekly installment of posts in which we will answer one question you might have per post. We receive a lot of emails with your questions, and often times most are the same. By publicly posting and answering these questions directly on the blog, it helps not only you but also others seeking similar answers. Realizing that most of your questions are opinion-based, instead of offering you one straight answer, each one of us will give you an individual answer based on our own unique experiences.

So, if you have a question, we want to hear from you!

Send your questions to abduzeedo@abduzeedo.com with "Public Questions" as the subject and every Tuesday you'll get an answer.

About the author

Amanda Macedo is a designer and blogger by passion and profession. Living and working out of her backpack, she can now be found in San Francisco, CA, biking, writing, dancing, and tweeting .

Tips on How to Become a Better Designer

abduzeedo — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:19:56 +0000

I've been working and, you could say, living as a designer for over 12 years now. Throughout these years a lot has happened, all of which caused me to grow as a designer and learn new things. In the beginning I had a vague idea of what was necessary to get better and succeed in the design industry, but it took me quite a few years to discover some basic concepts that really made me become a better designer. I will share some with you today.

Promote your work

"Put yourself out there, being awesome is long tail" - Allan Branch

In the beginning I was naive. I thought if you were good enough people would find you. I was never promoting my work until my office got robbed. Then I decided to create Abduzeedo and put my work out there. I made a Flickr account, DeviantArt, Behance... you name it. These services are much more important in promoting yourself than an own site can be. If you use the right tags and produce good work, these sites will make you more visible to the community.

Tips

Start posting your work on sites like Flickr, DeviantArt, Behance, Carbonmade.
Participate in groups on sites such as Flickr. It's an easy and simple way to get your work out there.
Eventually create a separate portfolio site as well. It will give you more credibility.

Illustration tag on Behance

Smashing Network is selecting good blogs to be part of their network, when it comes to Smashing Magazine, we cannot expect anything less than let's say smashing ;)

Experiment

Your best work is your expression of yourself. Now you may not be the greatest at it, but when you do it, you’re the only expert - Frank Gehry

I think one of the main things that I really learned, is that personal projects are the best way to evolve when it comes to techniques and aesthetics. Being our own client and consumer, gives us the freedom and time to do what we want. Every time I see a nice effect in movies, posters, magazines, books, etc., I make a mental note to myself and then go home and try and recreate that effect. Doing that has really increased my arsenal of skills. It gives me more confidence when I have to start a new work for a client. Another great thing about experimenting is that it makes your portfolio bigger, better, and more versatile.

Tips

Try to recreate effects you see and like just to learn the technique.
Experiment with new trends that way you will be able to absorb those details that characterize the trend and apply them to future projects if necessary.

"Chocolatopia" - Personal illustration, that I worked on during 2008 in my lazy spare time. with some longer breaks... Basically it's a photo montage, with some strong retouch / paint work and some 3d additions. - Pawel Nolbert

Personal project inspired by a scene from the Ironman movie

This is a Personal Project to launch my nw website to middle of November. A little preview of the new image and brand of PLAYFUL. A lot of fluorescent colors, shapes, geometries, typography and tones of LOVE. - Pablo Alfieri

Encourage Feedback

Feedback is really important for designers. Sometimes you might get a lot of criticism, but that's okay, it's part of the game. The secret is to use the criticism as a motivator to evolve and not as a reason to get angry. You might even get some useful tips and advices. Sometimes we get so used to what we're doing that we become oblivious to some details in our work that is pretty clear to everybody else, it's important that we let other designers or really just anybody to take a look at our work. The small details are what will make your work better and unique.

Tips

Ask questions when posting your work.
Respond to the comments and post versions of the images with the suggested adjustments.
Never argue or get extremely upset with the criticism, it not only won't help you but it might also ward off others from commenting.

Signalnoise Live Broadcast is a great example from James White on how to interact and get feedback from the community

Give Feedback

“It looks good” is the worst feedback you can get - Whitney Hess

When it comes to design, giving feedback is as important as receiving it. Participate in the community expressing your opinion when people ask. Try not to be rude or cocky. The idea is to help, get help, and evolve. The clash of ideas and point of views will really broaden your design skills.

Comment on posts and sites where images are shared.
Help others by giving valuable tips and ideas.

The easiest way to promote yourself as a designer is by sharing your skills. Before Abduzeedo, I used to experiment in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc but I used to keep them to myself. Then my office was robbed and I lost everything. So I started Abduzeedo and with it, the tutorials. At first the tutorials were just a way for me to backup my files and have a quick overview of my techniques, but some became really popular which made me realize how important it is to share what we know.

I get a lot of emails with people asking me what the point is in making these tutorials and giving the source files away. Well, my answer is simple. I can show someone how to create a light effect or how to use Photoshop filters, but I can't show them how to come up with the idea themselves. The tutorials are about how I use the apps to make the ideas come true.

Tips

Write quick tutorials showing some techniques you think might be useful to others.
Write guest posts for other sites sharing your experiences and thoughts.

Reader tutorial by Chanito

You can even make money by sharing your skills. Sites like PSDTUTS pay you to write for them

Pursue Simplicity

“Design is so simple, that’s why it’s so complicated” -Paul Rand

Less is more. That was one of the Bauhaus mottos almost 100 years ago and it's still new and true, even more now in the internet age where we live with an overflow of information. It's important to be simple and efficient. Everything that is good is simple, but not everything that is simple is good. Making something simple and good isn't easy. It requires a deep understanding of what we have to do and whom we're doing it for, so we can simplify things. I believe simplicity is all about being confident in the thought that less is more and making decisions to remove unnecessary features and elements.

"Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent". — Joe Sparano

Like I said, it took me more than 10 years to fully understand these things. I can call it experience because most of them I learned through my own mistakes. Now it's up to you to see if it'll be worthwhile for you. These aren't exactly rules, just thoughts and suggestions. I would love to hear your take on becoming better designers.

Magazine cover for Super Interessante based on a tutorial that the client saw and liked.

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

Creating a Graphic Portfolio Without a Client

paul0v2 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:00:34 +0000

The main problem designers face while beginning their careers is to find a client without having a portfolio to show. It’s hard to find a client to trust you to design him something without having any quality previous work to show him that you can make it. Here you will see and learn many ways that you can find to create a good quality portfolio without having that first client.

Creating a portfolio without a client doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do any work. This is not going to be easy and quick; this will take a lot of work and time but it all pays off at the end.

Be Organized

Organization is the key for saving time and being more productive. If you willing to put time and effort to work on creating a portfolio that can set your freelancing career you will have to organize your self and make a schedule in order to be able to produce more. Organize your work space and set working hours, that’s the only way you going to get yourself to produce something.

For more time and organization tips read: How To Find Time For… Everything!

Work for Yourself

Work on personal projects that can further help promote your work. Designing something for yourself will be your first task, the good thing about working for yourself is that you have total freedom on the design but remember that is very important to set deadlines based on the time you have to work the same way you would if the work was for a client.

Design Wallpapers

Start working on a set of wallpapers, 3 to 5 wallpapers based on a theme, also make sure to transform them into iphone wallpapers as well. When you done creating your portfolio this will help promote your work.

Wallpapers by Pablo Alfieri

Design Posters

Designing Posters and printing them can give you an extra edge to your portfolio and give a future client the feeling that you have good knowlegde of what you doing both in designing and printing. The same way you worked on a set of wallpapers work on a set of posters based on a theme, that can help you create a series of posters related to each other which can be a rich set on your portfolio. In the future you can giveaway a couple prints of your posters to help promote your work.

Typography Posters by Stefano Joker Lionetti

Design a Calendar

Designing a nice and creative calendar can show a lot of your creativity and print solutions, this is a chance to make something inovative to show your future clients what you capable of creating. In the future you can giveaway a couple calendars and also promote your work.

Design a Picture Book

Select a few of your own photos and make a nice picture book, mix it with some good typography and have a one of a kind piece in your portfolio. This can also bring the interest of your friends and family to getting one too, it all ads up on your portfolio.

Composition and Content by Andre' Wright Jr

Design for Contests

Designing for good contest can put a nice piece on your portfolio and also carry a name to it. Such designs contests like HugoCreate give you the opportunity to work on your own for a big brand. You don't have to win the contest, just by making a good piece to later display on your portfolio is already a win.

Hugo Create work by goshaptichka

Collab Work

Do a collab work with other designers that are in the same situation as yours. It's a great way to expand your work and learn more about working in group. Look for people that are hungry for work just as much as you are and invite them for a private project, trade ideas and built a design concept, at the end it's all going to your portfolio.

Collab work from Matt W. Moore and Magomed Dovjenko

Brand Yourself

Now that you already got some decent and creative pieces on your portfolio it's time to move on and get your self a nice logo and a website, that's another way to improve your portfolio within your own work. Every client that goes in your website will analyze it as well as your portfolio because it's also part of it.
Here is a great article on The Art of Branding Yourself and Your Freelancing Business

Design a Logo

Your first identity client can be you, design a nice logo for yourself to show as reference on your portfolio. Make sure to read Vital Tips For Effective Logo Design

Logo for his own studio by Hoang Rabbit

Design a Website

Designing your own website can be a challenge but at the end it you can say you did, get help from web designers if you need. There is a lot of services that convert PSD to HTML in case coding is a problem. Remember to stay away from templates in order to remain original.

Design a Business Card

Now that you got a nice portfolio with a website to display them, it's always good to have a nice business car that you can give away everywhere you go, remember that the business card will represent you and your work when you not there. Here are some great samples and good finish options to print it: 5 Finishing Options to Print a Business Card

Each worker got their own business card at ID Branding

Conclusion

If you follow through you will get the experience of designing different projects for different medias and learn a lot on your own with your own mistakes. Building a portfolio on your own without clients is very difficult, very difficult to stay focus on something that doesn't pay off right the way.

Make sure to set deadlines to every project and work on it as if it was worth a million dollars, it all pays off in the end.

Now all you need is a client, with a nice portfolio it will be like a lot easier than before.

"Everybody makes mistakes at first; and if a painter never learns what his mistakes are he will never correct them. Therefore test your work; and if you have made mistakes correct them; and don't make the same mistakes again." Leonardo Da Vinci

Good Luck!

About the author

Hi there! I'm Paulo Canabarro, 26 year old web designer - paulocanabarro.com I'm from Brazil currently living and working out of Providence RI, USA. I'm truly passionate about design of all kinds, finding and sharing inspiration here has become part of my life. If you like to know more about me or get in touch visit my website paulocanabarro.com Stock me at Twitter and Dribbble

career

Question? We want to hear from you!

So, if you have a question, we want to hear from you!

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Tips on How to Become a Better Designer

Promote your work

Tips

Experiment

Tips

Encourage Feedback

Tips

Give Feedback

Share

Tips

Pursue Simplicity

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Creating a Graphic Portfolio Without a Client

Be Organized

Work for Yourself

Design Wallpapers

Design Posters

Design a Calendar

Design a Picture Book

Design for Contests

Collab Work

Brand Yourself

Design a Logo

Design a Website

Design a Business Card

Conclusion

About the author

Sponsored Links: