So how do you keep learning about graphic design?
Do you buy lots of books
Do you subscribe to graphic design related blogs?
Have you joined a graphic design forum?
There’s really only so much you can learn about design by practicing. Teachers love to say “Practice makes perfect.” I always counter with “Perfect practice makes perfect.” How can you get better at something if you’re doing it incorrectly?
I recently pulled out my old issues of Communication Arts. I forgot how much I really love looking at them! I started scouring them for inspiration and realized, it’s not truly inspiration I’m looking for—it’s how to be a better designer.
I think one of the keys to learning to be a better designer is studying other people’s work. And I don’t just mean looking at “good” design. It’s important to be able to identify what makes something “good” or “bad,” so that you can look for and plan these things in your own work.
When looking at other designs, try to notice things like
- Use of space
- Flow or direction – how does your eye track through the piece?
- Repeating elements – what makes the design cohesive?
- Color – if you struggle with color, start nabbing some palettes (more here) for future reference!
- Hierarchy – what draws your attention first? What should draw your attention first?
- Small details – the finishing touches and polish
What do you do to keep learning? What books, magazines, blogs, forums or other resources would you recommend to us?
Technorati Tags: Design, Graphic Design, Learning
For me, books have always been my greatest source of inspiration (and not always design- or type-related ones). The Web is also an amazing source of inspiration, because it permits one to meet those who we would otherwise never have come into contact with. What other technology can do this on such a scale?
My reading list:
Magazines/Journals:
Creative Review;
Idea Mag, etc.
Books:
The Elements of Typographic Style (the ultimate typography reference);
Grid Systems;
Typographie—Emil Ruder, etc.
Johno,
The Grid Systems book, is that the one with the blue squares on the cover and the title in red by Kimberly Elam?
Glad to see you here again
I agree with you about the web. I’m so glad I’m living in this time where I can connect with people from the U.S. to Japan
to the UK to Canada. It’s exciting!
How specifically do you keep learning? Do you disect designs to figure out what is good about them? How have you improved your skills and your sense of design over the years?
Reading, reading, reading. Whether online or books, that’s how I stretch myself. Sometimes it’s actually what I read. Other times—with books—I see things that look interesting and I file them away in my head, not knowing when I’l be working on something that thee file-aways might make better.
Sometimes a scrap from an article or exchange on one of the forums I frequent—yours, Johno’s, and a host of others—will come to mind as I work and suggest a way to go.
It’s all a really very fluid process, this learning thing. For some reason, for instance, tho’ I look at type all the time—on signs, in stores, on the streets, at newsstands or anywhere there are books, magazines, and newspapers, I don’t usually find myself staring deeply at the type I look at. But the past few days, walking around San Rafael in California, where we’re visiting, lowercase e’s of the slanted horizontal bar variety are jumping out at me each time a sign uses one.
Talk about a busman’s holiday!
Lauren
I should have mentioned the author of Grid Systems, Josef Müller-Brockman. It’s a tad expensive, and if you flick through it, you might think that there’s not much too it; however, read it…and you’ll see that it’s worth every penny (or cent).
I don’t really analyse the designs of others, though I’m always interested to see what’s behind the design (e.g. the grid); and from good design I learn something like, Oh, I never thought of using type like that before—that kind of thing.
I’m not really sure that I’ve improved much over the years; my own design is usually very sparse, and I stick to what I know (simple grids, percentages black, white and red). i think I mostly learn by doing, and looking back at my work and thinking, ‘oh dear, what a disaster’; and that’s a spur to improve.
Hi everyone, I believe you have to internalize the “rules” to be able to break them in a “poetic” way. Knowing your way around the grid (I agree The Grid System is worth every penny), the characteristics and visual textures of type, the invisible balance that holds it all together…
Personally I keep on learning by forcing myself to think “outside the box”. Sometimes I will take classes that have nothing to do whatsoever with design, just for the experience of learning about other materials and how people interact with them. The mind has a weird way of making things click at a certain moment in time.
There are two other things I always come back to. First, angles on choosing type for books I am to design and trying to catch the drift of how someone else chose the type on books I’m hired just for layout. And second, deciding on the proper usage of white space in relation to text area when deciding on the text page for a book.
I never tire of the possibility that something I’ve never considered before will rear its head.
Wow! This subject turned out to be more popular than I thought! Go figure, I spend hours crafting posts and there are no comments and 10 minutes writing down a few things I’ve been thinking about recently and I even gain a new commentor (Hi Marina!!)
Steve,
I know what you mean about noticing those little typographic details… I’ve really taken an appreciation to type ever since Johno started his blog. I collect (in Photoshop when I think of it) designs that I like and try to make a note about what struck a chord with me at the time. It helps for inspiration.
Johno,
It sells for $60 on Amazon, that’s really not too bad. Less than the price of most textbooks from school! I’ll see if the bookstore has a copy that I can look through for now. I still want to see samples of your portfolio! I think that living in Japan you would have a very “zen” feeling to your work—balanced, peaceful and calm.
I think you’ve mentioned that book before, now that you’ve said the expensive part
Marina,
Welcome! I’m glad you stopped by! Thanks for your input on the Grid Systems book. When you say “the rules,” how do you define them?
I have seen many people say that it’s important to look around, not just at design related subjects, but that inspiration and learning can come from all sorts of areas. I’ve experienced that myself, too. You are so right that those “Aha!” moments come at the seemingly strangest times. It’s sure awesome when it happens though!
I think I paid more than that for mine. $60 is pretty reasonable; it really is a classic. Moreover, I do feel that the grid is one of the most fundamental aspects of design—grasp that and one is halfway there.
People tell me I’m very ‘Zen’—not sure myself, but I do love simplicity (though even simplicity can be complex).
Johno,
I agree about the grid being one of those fundamentals. I would like to read more about it and see unique and different ways of applying it. I understand it, but I would like to be even more familiar with it. I shall add that book to my wish list! Thanks, John!
JamieO,
I haven’t seen the CommandShift3 site yet. Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a great concept. I like to keep screenshots of designs I like, either in a folder (in the computer) or in a Photoshop file, where I can keep notes about why I liked it. A new site I recently discovered is thumbalizr. Simply wonderful for this kind of thing!!
Hey there and welcome! Thanks for stopping by
Great post Lauren, and thanks for bringing it to my attention. I favor articles like this with specific “here’s what to look for” bullet points. This kind of bite-sized info is so helpful in dissecting a design, as you mentioned in your comment on my post.
I can look at good design all day and know it’s good (or look at bad design and know it’s bad), but this post helped me realize that unless I’m looking for something specific, it doesn’t do much good. I never thought of in terms like that.
Charity,
Exactly. And just like you, I can feel uninspired and down about my skills when I see a design and think “Wow, I wish I could do that.” I get myself out of that funk by being productive and picking out what makes it so good and how I can mimic it. Doesn’t always work, but it’s good practice, nonetheless! And it’ll help me when I’m not feeling so moody ;)
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