Get ready designers, you’re in for a great semester! While you might struggle at times with this course (or others), this semester is going to fly by so really try to cherish this course and Professor Strong before it ends. You’ll learn a lot about publication design and life and share lots of laughs with your professor.
With that being said, here is some advice before you begin:
- Design takes a lot of time and effort. Design is tedious and takes patience. Make sure you allot for more time than you think you’ll need and work on your publication little by little every few days.
- Look around for inspiration. Pinterest is your friend. Your fieldwork publication is your friend, as are other publications. Seeing what others are doing is helpful because it can spark your first idea. Maybe in your research you see a color that would fit your publication, or maybe a layout, or typography.
- Don’t be afraid to move on if you find yourself getting stuck. This is typically how I work but you might get hung up on something. Don’t. Great ideas don’t come at times like these.
- Know your keyboard shortcuts. This will make your designing experience so much easier. ‘W’ allows you to switch back-and-forth between showing your grid and hiding it. The most common and most important (in my opinion) is Command-Z for undoing something and Command-Shift-Z for redoing something that was undone.
- Don’t compare yourself to others. This will be tough because your classmates will create some amazing work. But you have to remember that all of your publications are very different from one another. Also, designing isn’t easy and doesn’t come natural to everyone so if you fall into this category, be patient with yourself. You have great ideas and if you just keep pushing yourself, you’ll achieve the best version of them.
- Have fun! You’re obviously interested in design, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, so really take the time to enjoy this course. You’re going to be so proud at the end of the semester when you hold your final prototype. It’s such a rewarding experience. And if there’s things you wish you could’ve pushed further, even after you turn in the assignment, you can. This is your publication.
