Most designers miss the mark.
I wish I could tell you design is easy.
It’s not!
In all of Gusiness World Records, where’s the glory in doing something simple?
If design were easy, everyone would be doing it but apparently, most people suck at it.
It’s easy to feel like it’s just text, shapes, and images on a screen but is that all there is to it?
While it might seem so, it’s actually not.
Design is not easy. It is complex and if you don’t love it for that then you should probably find another thing to do.
You’ve heard the 10,000 hour rule.
That it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a complex skill of material.
It doesn’t work if you don’t improve each design you make.
This is not to scare or intimidate you but to tell you the truth.
The simplest of things are those hardest to master.
Think alignment, contrast, hierarchy. They seem like you understand them just by looking at examples but if you don’t practice them enough, you’ll end up creating mediocre work. And who wants more of that?
The only way to learn design is to become comfortable with its complexities. The only way to learn anything is to become comfortable with its complexities.
I used to think writing was easy. They were just words on a page, I thought— until I made a post and it bombed. And another, and another, and another until it hurt to post anymore.
I had to study beyond LinkedIn posts. Beyond what LinkedIn gurus teach.
That’s why I invested many hours learning writing and the results are slowly showing up. I’m still learning and it never really ends.
It’s a continuous process so, if you’re not learning, you’re dying.
Enough yapping. Let’s get right into it.
How to stop sucking.
Copy.
You would think this is bad. I thought it was bad.
Until I realized the pros did it too. No one became a great designer by pulling out original work out of God knows where.
The key to learning design is copying what has already been made.
It trains your creative eye. It creates new pathways in your brain and start noticing patterns in design work. You begin to notice different styles and suddenly, it becomes exciting to notice them.
This is when you start to critique design work. Every designer that I know living on earth critiques any piece of work they come across.
“These colors are nice!”
“This is messed up.”
“I kind of like the composition here but the contrast isn’t working so well”
I see comments like these all the time.
It’s important to know that you don’t share these pieces of copied work. They are just for practice and to sharpen your skills in the design software you use.
You will be tempted to post it and say, “Look everyone, I did this!”
That might get you some serious roasting in the comments provided they know who the original creator is. This is one of the cases where copying work is bad.
SHARING COPIED WORK WITHOUT CREDITING THE OWNER IS BAD!!!
How would you feel if someone did that you saw it? I imagine you won’t take it very nicely.
If you want to share, make a subtle difference and credit the owner.
This brings me to this:
Don’t copy from one source.
Take a person’s work. Copy it. Move to the next. Copy it. Move to the next. Copy it.
When you copy from one person only, it limits your creative ability because different designers have different design styles.
Limiting yourself to one design style can make you complacent. You become comfortable and comfort is the worst thing you want to feel as a designer.
Your socials should be consistent with one design style but your mind should be flowing with different design styles.
And of course, you are free to explore, share, and see what works.
You should stick with one design style because it becomes familiar to your audience. I have people saying “When I see Kelison’s design, I just know.”
That’s what consistency is. And it’s very helpful for brand building.
Do branch out sometimes, but remain loyal to your style. Own it and show them that you do by doing some nuanced shit with it.
Distribute.
You’re not going to get traction by just recreating other people's designs.
Find your style. Design. Distribute. Discuss. Decide. Reiterate.
The best thing you can do is get people to share your work. This means creating sharable work which translates into making it about your audience.
Sharing is the lifeblood of social media. More views = more opportunities.
More views does not equal more cash, so don’t spend all your time trying to gather views that don’t pay you.
Practice.
I have 5 design ideas per post but only one goes out. Look at this scale. I have 10 pieces of content and 50 designs but only 10 go out.
Research. Then create.
It’s easy to go with a design because you think it looks good. But as I discussed the thing most designers get wrong here. You’ll find out that good design isn’t enough anymore.
Design that guides the eyes is what gets people talking.
That’s it.
Hope you enjoyed this friends.
P.S. If you’re interested in becoming “the designer” clients want to work with or create content that turns heads, join my email newsletter. Never miss a beat again.
