Steps for a student to become a designer

The IT industry is one of the most popular in our time. Not surprisingly, many students now want to become programmers or designers. This is more interesting than revise my essay. So today we plan to tell you how to become a designer.

Designer – a creative profession, creative and promising. This profession is becoming more and more popular, because the industry in Ukraine is only developing. So, where do they study to be designers, what skills should such specialists have, where to work after graduation – today you will find out!

How popular is this profession today and where do designers work?

In fact, this profession will never cease to be in demand, because the more different companies appear, the more work designers have. After all, every firm needs identification. Now there are no companies that would exist without business cards, logos, advertising. Also, quite often companies are engaged in rebranding, updating all their visual content. Accordingly, all this is the work of designers.

If we talk about simpler things, the designers also develop postcards, souvenirs, illustrate books. We will also not forget about how 3D printing and its scope are currently developing. And the work of a designer in this field is in demand.

As for web – UI / UX, it seems that soon each of us will have our own site. And all this is also the work of designers.

What professional qualities should a person aspiring to become a designer have? Do you have to be good at drawing?

Group of college students using laptop outdoors

The ability to draw beautifully is definitely not the most important thing. Drawing can simply speed up the work in some areas, for example, if you immediately visualize your idea in a sketch. But today there are so many digital devices, graphics tablets, filters, collage effects through photography that in the field of design there is no need for a specialist to draw well. It’s just an extra skill. But we, the designers, work through special programs, so you need to be good with a computer mouse and “hot” keys. Sometimes the ability to draw interferes even a little with design work. You start to think more about the rules of academic drawing, and that can take you a little bit away from design into the realm of fine arts. Of course, when designing an interior design, you need to understand the future. But this is more of a drawing, physics, rather than drawing by hand.

Does a designer need to know English well?

Yes! This will help him, first of all, to enter the foreign market and freelance. Second, if you work in IT companies, knowledge of English is required by default. Well, the books themselves, educational resources, manuals, electronic lessons, video lessons – all in English. Even Photoshop has an English interface, so you need to learn it.

Does a designer need the desire and ability to change?

Fashion trends are very changeable. This is their essence. And trends in website design are no exception. Now in vogue is the so-called “flat” design, the design of “Metro”, developed by Microsoft, because not so long ago popular skevomorphism – the opposite of flat design.

Therefore, a web designer who has started training must realize that in order to become a master of his craft, he must constantly change and be able to work with different design styles. But even that is not enough to become a good master of web design.

It is necessary to define the own corporate style which will be recognizable both in clothes of skevomorphism, and in a “flat” suit. For example, levi’s jeans can have absolutely any color, cut and shape, but the red stripe on the back pocket is a hallmark that should not be confused with similar products.

Some useful tips

  1. Basic knowledge

In the early stages, it is important to have at least an indirect understanding of the basics of web design. Read a few books in this area, subscribe to interesting newsletters on thematic sites, and, of course, read other articles on my blog.

Ideally, you should take a step-by-step video course on web design to radically change the level of knowledge in this area and increase the rate of further professional growth several times. Once you have mastered the basics of this topic, you can move on to studying specific issues.

Find information on the Internet about the details that concern you, and scrupulously process them. Constantly strive to gain new knowledge. Each new micro-chip will positively affect further work. Not sure where to start to become a web designer? In the first stages, pay attention to the principles and basics of this business (HTML5, CSS3, etc.), combining different elements and the famous “game with colors and fonts”, which is so loved by customers.

  1. Programs for development

Often people who do not know where to start learning web design, grab everything at once. You should not do this. Do not download all image editors you know exist. To create a normal design work, one Photoshop program will be enough at first. Constantly improve in this graphic editor, and you will be happy, golden piastres and a house in St. Tropez.

Photoshop is not an easy thing, and we will have to spend a decent amount of time studying it, however, we are not afraid of difficulties, right? I hope you’re still here at all, and haven’t escaped after those two scary words in parentheses from the last paragraph

  1. Approximate training time

The training time it will take to become a master of web design depends solely on your perseverance, desire and desire. I advise you not to overdo your studies and not to force yourself to memorize something, otherwise you will get bored quickly. Professional growth will only happen with a sincere mental desire for what you do.

It took me about 3-4 months of studying articles, books and video lessons to create something more or less suitable. You are lucky to get to this blog, because here I give information in a structured way and answer in detail the questions, the answers to which I got no faster than diamonds from the mountains to the dwarves.

Learn new information, try to search again, try again and in six months you will develop good design skills that will ultimately bring a good income.

  1. Start practice

Once we have learned where to start to become a web designer, and how long it takes, we can start practicing. I recommend as the first work to try copying any sites that please your eyes.

Strive from the beginning to perform the task well, albeit not too quickly. The increase in speed and productivity will come over time, but the release of a second-rate product may become a habit, which will be much harder to get rid of.

  1. Basic tools to start earning

First you need to decide how you will receive money from customers. These can be personal meetings, payment by bank card, WebMoney, etc. Set up your work wallets, accounts and write down their numbers somewhere on your phone or computer, so that you can then reset the customer data at any time and don’t make him wait.

Also, one of the most important tools for attracting customers for a web designer is his portfolio. If you haven’t had any orders yet, do a test job for yourself at the peak of your capabilities. Then add it to your portfolio and show it to clients until there are other projects implemented.

  1. Formation of prices

Determine in advance who your target audience is and what projects of any scale you are going to carry out. If at the start you are going to take on everything in a row, then at least outline the approximate prices to answer the customer’s question about the cost of the order. To do this, go to the sites of competitors and study their price.

It is not recommended to use the strategy of artificial understatement. Sometimes it is not a plus, but, conversely, a minus, because if the cost is too low, the customer clearly doubts your competence.

  1. Where to get the first orders?

To get started, place ads on several popular freelance exchanges. They should be accompanied by a quality portfolio, prices and a story about their experience and capabilities. As a rule, after such a procedure, the first order will not take long. However, if the description is weak or the portfolio is crude, the more experienced freelancers who have already earned a certain rating on the stock exchange will win.

I recommend posting ads on free bulletin boards and various forums dedicated to web design or related topics (SEO, marketing, etc.). Additional trust among customers will cause the presence of your own site, so it will not be superfluous.

  1. Communication with customers

As soon as the first customer contacts you, do not panic and do not run to the neighbor for a hundred-gram glass. Calmly pick up the phone, listen to what the person wants. Find out what examples of work he likes, and specify the timing of the task. Then take the order, if you can implement it, and create ahead.

I recommend writing all the questions asked by the client on a piece of paper and consider reasonable answers to them, as the probability is 99.9% that on the first call you half of the information is vaguely probekali-mekali. This action will help to form a database of phrases that you will use in further communication with customers.

  1. Execution of the order

The scheme of work of most designers looks about the same. First, the client gives a technical task. Then, within the stipulated time, the project is executed by the designer and the finished result is provided in the form of a jpeg layout. If the customer approves the work, the layout begins.

Consider the payment system in advance (50% to 50%, after or partial / full prepayment). Here you decide for yourself, at your own risk.

  1. Further development

After developing basic web design skills and completing several successful jobs, do not stagnate and gradually expand your technical arsenal. Learn new chips and follow trends. Remember that your income should not increase from the number of orders completed, but from the growth of projects. It’s better to do one project a month, but for $ 2,000, than 5 for $ 100.

Learn from real projects

“The path to a thousand li begins with the first step” – Chinese folk wisdom. So, to overcome the path from a beginner to a skilled web designer, start working on a real project. It does not have to be a large, complex structure and functionality of a multi-page site. It is better to choose a less ambitious, but much more achievable goal – to create a business card site or landing page.

Weblium

Weblium offers more than 180 thematic templates and more than 227 ready-made blocks, which can be used as a basis for the site and customized to your liking.

All templates are designed according to the best practices of digital design, because Weblium is a product of TemplateMonster – the market leader in website templates.

Each template and individual blocks of content have many fine-tuning, allowing you to achieve a truly unique design of the site.

The maximum space for creativity is opened by the zero block function, which allows you to build your own blocks from scratch and create a compositionally complex layout.

It is equally important that the project, even if it is educational, has practical value for you. Professional designers advise to develop a site based on live content, to avoid lorem ipsum and stock images – “stubs”. Be it a portfolio site for presenting your professional achievements or a personal blog dedicated to your hobby. The practical benefits of your work will be an additional incentive for learning, and successful completion with a useful result – an incentive to further develop design skills.



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