There are many great pieces of advice sprinkled in there! I think I expected to see some of them, based solely on the fact that this is a 500-level class. I’ve got the coffee part covered, though. There were three pieces of advice I picked out, and they all focus on areas I know I need to improve upon in my own design.
Every choice must be intentional. I have very little training on the principles behind publication design and am generally self-taught. That’s why I’m taking this class, though! I want to discover why designers make the choices they do and use that to inform my own decision-making with my work.
Go to office hours. I’m really bad at this because I tend to overload my schedule, but I know from my experience with Prof. Harper in GRA217 that it’s really important to get the feedback of a professional graphic designer (and the person who’s grading your stuff).
Sketch first. I used to hop right into Illustrator or InDesign before actually planning out what I wanted my work to look like. Hope is on the horizon, though. I bought a Field Notes pocketbook, which is the brainchild of my favorite designer, Aaron James Draplin. It’s small, but it’s fun to carry around and has encouraged me to sketch first. I’ll definitely be making use of them this semester.
I’m hoping to take advantage of these pieces of advice and several others to produce something great! From the looks of the first class, I’ve got all the resources to do so.
