Dear Designer

To everything, there is a season.

Before you continue reading this, I want you to close your eyes and take a slow deep breath, then say this to yourself "I can become the best at this, it will only take time".

I recently started talking to newbies, doing design reviews, and sharing the knowledge and tricks I've gathered over the past years. It’s my own way of giving back and ensuring that the people coming up after me get the help I didn’t get when I started out.

Most of these new designers had similar concerns, how do I start? What do I read? How can I be better? I knew how they felt because I had also been there but I was able to figure things out on my own.

Let’s get right into why you are here. I’m sure you’re anxious to read all I have to share.

• Money Should Not Be Your Main Motivator

I’m sorry but if money is the main reason why you started out a product design career, you would not get the fulfillment you need. Don’t get me wrong, money is good and it’s fine to want it but when it is the main reason you started a career, it is wrong. A question you should always ask yourself when you feel like this is; what happens to me when money doesn’t come as quickly as I expected it? You would probably get tired and frustrated.

Your motivation should instead be your love for solving problems and creating designs that are usable and scalable. If you have this on lock, the money will come. It’s not rocket science!

• Your Design Should Be Usable As Well As Beautiful

If you’re the type to go on dribble for design inspiration, you need to pay attention to this. Most of the designs on dribble are beautiful but some of them are not usable in real life. Instead, I’d advise you to search for components that make up whatever you want to design The reason you’re designing, is for users to use. Your design has to be functional and it must solve a problem.

• Kickstarting Your Design Career

A lot of designers complained about being overwhelmed with everything they see online and it doesn’t really help them. Below are some of the resource channels on youtube that helped me to grow and hopefully they help you too

• Books Every Designer Must Read

The trick is to read one chapter per day.

Here are some of the books you can read:

• Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton
• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
• Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon
• Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockmann
• How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things by Michael Bierut
• Logo Modernism by Jens Daniel Müller ,?R. Roger Remington

Don’t Be The Only Designer On The Team

As a newbie, being the only designer on the team won’t help you grow. You still have lots to learn and you need someone to guide you. You need someone who has design knowledge and not just Photoshop/Illustrator knowledge. It’s best to have someone holding your hand as a guide. Connect Felix Isamah

• Design Inspiration

As I said earlier, Dribbble is a good place to get design inspiration if you know how to use it. Some other places to get design inspiration are?Behance,?Pinterest, and much more. Google is also a good place to search for design inspirations, just type in your keyword and you’d get lots of them.

• Job Search And Rejections

Most designers complain about job search and the many rejections they get. I understand how this feels and I’ve also had my fair share of rejections. So far, I’ve gotten almost 50 rejection emails if not more. I felt bad but I didn’t let it weigh me down. Instead, I asked myself what I was doing wrong and how I could improve.

First off, make sure your portfolio has designs that solve a problems. Leave that comfort zone and design a solution for a problem that doesn’t affect you, and explore things that would require you to think well. Your design process is different from design thinking. You can be taught how to use design tools but you cannot be taught how to be creative.

Secondly, most design companies want more experienced designers and are not ready to employ entry level. The thing is most entry designers lack tangible working experience except for the design challenges they’ve taken part in. Design challenges help no doubt but if all you have to show for your skill is design challenges, you aren’t different from the thousands of others who are also like you and you have no value to them.

• Always Ask Questions

If you do not know something, please always ask questions. It saves you stress and time. Don’t assume, always make sure you ask if things aren’t clear.

• Rest

I don’t think the power of rest can be overemphasized. When you feel like you have done too much, please take a break and relax. Do other things asides from staring at your laptop screen all day. There’s so much to do like going to the beach, playing games, going on dates e.t.c. Burnout is really bad and in order to avoid this, resting is important.

• Post Your Work And Ask For Feedback

Please post your work everywhere so people know what you do and are able to refer you when positions pop up. Now, how would you get referrals when your work isn’t out there? So my advice is to post your work always across all social media networks that you frequent.

Also for feedback, when you post your work and when you’re asking for feedback make sure it’s not vague. Try pointing people’s eyes to where you need feedback e.g. What do you guys think about the color I used in this design, Is the font I used here okay for this product, What do you think about the illustrations e.t.c? This way, people don’t give you the “Nice design”, “Mad design”, or “Very lovely” comments.

Thank you for reading this article. I know that it might seem like you’re not doing enough, but I want you to keep your head up and keep it going. It is not going to be easy trust me but it’ll be worth it in the end. I wish you the best in your journey and I want you to remember that I’m always rooting for you.

If you’d like to see more of my work and connect with me, my contact information is below

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