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Give me some positive advice!

I'll give you some positive but also some very important advice.

Don't become a designer unless you can handle criticism or negative comments about your work. It's the only way to improve and accepting criticism well is a core skill for any designer in any medium.

Last week, I had a whole branding exercise (logo, stationery, business cards etc) thrown back in my face to start from scratch because it wasn't what the client wanted. Never mind that I hadn't been briefed properly by the right people; I just had to listen to their concerns and start again.

That's just the way it works.
 
Yeah, I've had to redo a couple of projects a few times due to people not liking them or being too offensive >_>


I had to relayout an entire paper 4 times... God that was annoying.


Anyway, I just want this to be a happy thread and not one that makes me feel depressed.
 
jive said:
Anyway, I just want this to be a happy thread and not one that makes me feel depressed.
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Right then

What's the difference between a successful graphic designer and a pitbull?

The Pitbull doesn't have ink stains on its fingers.

Really, asking for advice on a design but only the happy stuff is like asking for a driving lesson, only let's have none of the brake pedal, only the accelerator.

Consequently, I will opt out - I can't offer usable advice while attempting not to say anything negative.
 
Yeah, that's kind of what I meant. I don't have anything against people helping, I just hate it when they say "rubbish/10" and leave it at that.
 
jive said:
Yeah, that's kind of what I meant. I don't have anything against people helping, I just hate it when they say "rubbish/10" and leave it at that.
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Unbelievable.

Learn to embrace criticism bro, you need it more than you need sympathy.

Rich.
 
Ok, if you really do want constructive criticsm, the main thing that stands out is that you seriously need to work on your typography. Some of the posters are ok in that they are the trendy sort of thing that's in now, but I think the typography really lets them down. Sorry. Hopefully you'll see this as useful, because if you can crack the typography, that would make a big difference. I would also say that none of them have a particularly strong idea behind them - it's just the information put on a page.

Blue Velvet's right - you seriously need to be able to take criticism in this industry. I know how it feels – you put everything you have into design, and it does knock you down when someone doesn't like it because you've put so much into it, but if you can take criticism and learn from it, it's very good. What's the point of only listening to the good stuff? It's just ego fluffing, and makes you feel good for a couple of minutes. Bite the bullet and speak to the people that you think are going to give you the worst rap, and then learn from what they say.
 
yeah, i'll second the work on typography comment.

you obviously have all the tools to be able to be successful. at least, it seems you do. you seem to have a good understanding of the capability of the programs etc.. it's just your typography, and to a lesser extent your layout that is holding you back. your photo treatment is nice & color use is okay...

work on making your type look great, and try not to be so predictable with your layout. a lot of the stuff sorta falls into a pattern of 1/3 page for headlines, center page for image, bottom 1/8 for info footer. mix it up a bit! have some variety! do that and you'll go a lot further.
 
I third the typography thing. It feels pretty amateurish. Lacks soul.

The Elements of Typographic Style and Thinking with Type. Get both books. They will help get you started.

And I have to agree, learn to take the bad with the good. You have to. I would not be an award-winning designer today had I not been beaten to a pulp by teachers, clients and colleagues over the years.
 
I really like some of your stuff and others I don't. Most of it is just my personal tastes, and I'm sure others on here can give you better technical advice than myself.

I'm with you on dealing with "empty" criticism...but it cuts both ways. "I love it" and "rubbishy trash" are both opinions that don't really help you. Probably best just to ignore those at this stage now anyhow. BUT....always be willing to accept negative comments that contain reasoned arguements or are attempting to improve your work...that doesn't mean necessarily following all the advice (you can't, some of it is going to contradict other's advice), it just means listening to how your work is being received so that you can find ways to improve and learn and grow.

In addition to the advice above on checking out some books on Typography, I'd recommend going to either a good bookstore or library and looking at some Graphis Design Annuals or other collective design books. Look through them not with the idea of looking for inspiration, but look at how each work "does its job" of conveying its information/contents/style. After that, I'd probably recommend a walk in the park...since a famous designer once said that design books are the worst places to find inspiration.

Also, I'd love to see some non-music related stuff. Maybe go into a local restaurant that has a really bad menu and give a try at re-doing it or do a mockup of how you would design your local newspaper or your favorite magazine or the packaging of your favorite crackers. Just pick some things that you would never normally design and give a go at it and compare them with similar things to find out if they work (or post them here again and ask all the pros here).

Good luck :)
 
Blue Velvet said:
I'll give you some positive but also some very important advice.

Don't become a designer unless you can handle criticism or negative comments about your work. It's the only way to improve and accepting criticism well is a core skill for any designer in any medium.

Last week, I had a whole branding exercise (logo, stationery, business cards etc) thrown back in my face to start from scratch because it wasn't what the client wanted. Never mind that I hadn't been briefed properly by the right people; I just had to listen to their concerns and start again.

That's just the way it works.
Click to expand...

Amen to that. I spent three years doing my companies advertising material (with no formal training). Good thing I had a thick skin on criticism. Spent many an hour on new layouts that got shot down by my boss. I also learned that lesson by posting some of my photographs on photosig.com.
 
primalman said:
I third the typography thing. It feels pretty amateurish. Lacks soul.

The Elements of Typographic Style and Thinking with Type. Get both books. They will help get you started.
Click to expand...

I understand the comments about typography, but in todays youth driven market (just look at the OP's target audience for his artwork), and the edginess of the fonts does work for some of the posters.
 
Thanks for all these btw. What are some good example of typography? I've not really had any training in this sort of thing but I'm going to do Graphic Design next year at Uni/Art School.
 
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