Five good habits worth reviving from design school

Five good habits worth reviving from design school by Tamara Nyholt, courtesy of Design Assembly.

* * *

From our first school day as enthusiastic design students our educators endeavour to instil within us good habits that will hopefully remain throughout our future careers. As years pass and the challenges of real work situations come to the fore, either by accident or design some of this helpful guidance falls by the wayside. Maybe it’s time to get back to basics:

1. Treat your files like they’re being assessed

We’ve all been guilty at one point or another of creating a file that’s, let’s say, ‘a little messy’. The problem is that this time saving in the short term ends up being a big time waster in the end when you’re preparing work for print.

Remember those days in design school when your tutors meticulously picked through each text style, layer, colour and document with fastidious thoroughness? Maintain that scrutiny in your own work and your efficiency will save you time and money in the end.

2. Keep a journal (and use it!) 

Far from a means to torture you throughout your school years, journaling can be a productive means of channelling your creative energy. Whether you sketch, draw, collect, doodle or thumbnail, the physicality of putting pen to paper can often put our brain into a different gear that draws out those good ideas. Journals are also a handy means of gathering images and samples that you might use in future. No one has to ever see it and no one cares that you can’t draw. Use it.

3. Provide a rationale

Why have you put that ‘trendy,’ swirly motif on your layout? Is it supporting your concept and improving your design or has it just been stuck there to improve a banal composition?

Good design comes from having a strong idea supporting the execution — which also helps you make appropriate creative decisions. If you can’t explain what purpose it’s serving then hit the delete button.

4. Collaborate

Remember when you constantly shared and discussed your work with your classmates? Many of us in New Zealand end up in solo operator roles and lack another designer to share feedback and ideas with. Consequently, we short-circuit what can be a valuable part of our creative process.

Maybe it’s time to renew some of that collaboration and get in touch with other designers for a critique — it can often help get you back on the right track.

5. Read and study your craft

The more informed we are about our profession the bigger the repository that we can draw upon creatively. There is a phenomenal array of books (thank you Steven Heller), videos and websites that discuss design theory, design pioneers and general graphic design craft. In my experience the best designers are those who are inexhaustible in their thirst for information about the career they love. 

Do you have other important lessons from school that you’ve dropped off? I’d love to hear what they are and if you’ve managed to revive them.

Courtesy of Design Assembly / conversations on graphic design.