5 Tips to get the Most out of your Design

Designing Should Be Fun

Creative designing SHOULD be fun. If it isn’t something that you like doing, don’t do it.

Nothing like starting off a (rewritten) blog with a bit of an instruction.

But seriously, if you’re not having fun doing it, if it has become a “job”, something to pay the bills, then your clients would be better off having a different creative designer.

Also, designing does not need to be hard. It totally depends on you as a person.

Allow me to explain …

I’m not professionally taught designer. Through trial and error, I have learned what works for my eye. Combining this with a proper brief, also what works for my client’s eye. Believe me, there have been MANY errors in the trial period.

Designing is all about personal choice in what works and what doesn’t.

Since I fell into design – quite by accident I assure you – I have learned a lot. I’m going to give you some of the things that have helped me not to become overwhelmed.

As I already said, you don’t need to be a professional designer to create a professional design. To help you along with this, you may want to read my tips on what makes the perfect social media image. This is a download that you receive when signing up to receive my newsletter – total transparency!

Here are my 5 top tips to help you with your creative journey.

Experiment

If design does not come naturally to you, experiment.

Play around with your design platform of choice. Learn how to fail.

In other words, try out a lot of experimental design ideas, put them into practice and see what works best for you and what you’re good at.

This approach will allow you to play around with media, skills, techniques, colours, typeface, movement, etcetera.

Rest assured, the first design that lands will be bound to be a hot mess. So what?

But what if it’s NOT a hot mess? What if you hit gold?

The very process of experimenting will help to free you mind, to see where your creative skills need improvement and also why it needs improving.

If there is ONE thing I wish I did when I started playing around with design, was somebody that would be willing to critique my attempt and give me constructive feedback.

This leads me to the next point:

Talk to other designers who uses your platform

This is something that I do all the time now. I’m not in competition with anybody and neither are they seen as my competition.

All of our clients love us and our work for who we are.

Talk to other designers. On social media there are any number of groups you could belong to where designers hang out. Use their expertise.

Even if you have to network virtually – NETWORK! Check out forums. They’re a gold mine!

Discuss problems, ask questions, take part in challenges, collaborate on projects.

Email somebody whose designs you admire and ask them to mentor you. Chances are VERY good they would.

Learn to deal with negative feedback

For many designers, me included, receiving criticism is one of the hardest things to deal with.

But, deal with it!

Not every design will get a WOW from the client.

It is emotionally draining to receive criticism, but it is ABSOLUTELY essential if you’re going to improve your design skills.

Positive feedback is great. Make sure you deserve the positive feedback though. Getting positive feedback from a friend when your design is less than perfect does much to inflate your feeling of self-worth but leaves the client less than enamoured.

Talk about counterproductive!

Your continued development depends on honest feedback, not mutual backslapping.

So when you send your design to the client, instead of asking “what do you think”, rather suggest what your understanding of their brief was and how it is translated into the design.

That way the client will be able to critique your work in a constructive way without appearing over critical.

Continue your learning

As I mentioned above, join groups that offer advice and masterclasses where you are able to practice new skills.

New design skills become far easier if you have somebody that offers a guide first.

Perhaps develop your design skills by working on your own visual content for your social media platforms.

Formal study is not something I enjoy, so personally, there is more enjoyment and learning for me from a group setting where a number of us are able to submit our new learned skill for critique by members of the group far more advanced.

If formal study is your thing, study design theory. This will set you up with concepts like the golden ratio, grid theory, colour psychology and typography.

Seek inspiration

Actively seek it!

Inspiration does not always come as easily as we would like it to. If you find yourself lagging on the inspo side of things, don’t lose heart.

Instead of sitting and staring at a blank screen the whole day, research elements and how you can fit them together.

Look at your brief and try out of the box thinking. Google is a great way to start to research for inspiration.

I use it all the time.

The one thing I have also found that works for me is pulling my running shoes on and pounding out a couple of kilometres. Somehow that shakes things loose and I’m good again!

Whatever you do, just don’t sit and stare at that blank screen.

Conclusion

You’re the designer and you know best what it is your audience & clients want to see.

Designing to me is like a toy-box full of possibilities and I love playing in this specific toy-box.

If you’re new to design and want to start using Canva as your platform for design, you can sign up here and use the Pro features (the same I use for my designs) for 30 days absolutely free of charge.

If you want to go ahead and try your hand at design and need some guidance, you can download my free guide to the perfect social media design here. If you need a little more help, I can assist you using Zoom – which we’ll record so you can keep referring back to our session. This link here will get us connected for an hour to walk you through your challenges.

Otherwise, simply drop me a mail and let’s get you going with all of your social media visual content!!

Stephanie xx

ps: The Canva link is an affiliate link. While you do not pay anything extra for the Pro feature, I do earn a small commission when you sign up using the link I provided.