So, you want to become an accomplished designer? Join the queue. The supply of quality designers exceeds demands, meaning you’ll have to bring something extraordinary. Need a helping hand with that? Then read on to get ahead!
Realize and Come to Terms with Your Purpose
The first and likely most important step to achieving success in design is to understand and accept your role as a designer. Creative types struggle to reconcile their need for unique and meaningful expression with market trends and client whims.
It may be a hard pill to swallow, but at the end of the day, your work’s highest purpose is to help sell whatever a client needs you to. Sometimes, that means disregarding good design principles or giving in to a client’s tacky suggestions. You should still bring all your expertise and skill to the table, but you also need to learn how to approach commercial designs in a more detached manner.
Work Smarter
Have you ever spent countless hours refining an exceptional design, only to have a client reject it in favor of a generic doodle that took you 20 minutes to make? The more you develop your skills to meet expectations, the faster you can produce designs a client will greenlight.
Carefully examining the design brief is crucial, as is communicating with clients about design specifics. Asking for clarification now can save you from do-overs and hours of extra work. It’s also a good idea to keep an asset library of previous successful projects and templates that can get you off to a running start. The less time and effort you need to spend on a project while still delivering top-notch work, the easier it will be to make alterations without becoming emotionally invested.
Broaden Your Skill Set
While continuously honing your core skills is essential to becoming a better designer, expanding your repertoire helps with your employability. The reality is that many clients hope to cover multiple roles with as few people as possible, and designers are increasingly at the receiving end.
You’ll want to pick up a handful of design-adjacent skills like web development, 3D modeling, video editing, marketing, and social media management, as well as competence with emerging AI-powered tools. Doing so will help you rise above the competition while making you a more valuable team member who understands other specialists’ approaches better and can help if they get swamped.
Be Organized
Are your file organization and security practices as sharp as your design skills? Far too many designers do great work yet don’t consider technical details like layer naming conventions, file organization, or version control. Assume you won’t be the only one to handle project files. You’ll likely forget the specifics even if you are working on project files alone.
File security is another top priority. You’ll often be working on projects that require NDAs due to their sensitive nature. Take this seriously by encrypting and keeping backups of project files. You’ll also want to protect your design software, project management, communications, and other online accounts with a trustworthy password manager. These ensure each account gets a unique, impossible-to-hack password and can add further protection through two-factor authentication.
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Networking
Having a solid portfolio and polished skillset is a must. However, those you know often do far more to jumpstart or take your career in a different direction. Being active in your specific field and your local general design community opens up opportunities ranging from friendships with like-minded people through mentorships to life-changing job offers.
You’ll want to present yourself in the best possible light, which might be challenging if your digital footprint is heavy with years of social media activity. Reexamine your online history and deal with stand-out posts that might not be flattering to your professional prospects. It may also be a good idea to use a data removal service to monitor and remove any unwanted information that brokers and others collect on you.
Toughen Up
No one’s designs are perfect. Letting others dissect them and point out inconsistencies can hurt, especially if you’ve poured your heart & soul along with weeks of work into a project. Yet, colleagues and clients alike can provide an invaluable fresh perspective. Learn to take criticism in stride and actively seek it out. People will be happy to nitpick, but they also won’t hesitate to provide specific advice you might never have realized you need otherwise.