Self improvement is a life long journey that requires daily labor.

Every creative person has some kind of process they go through when they start doing a project. Some are super organized others are utter chaos. Most of us seem to fall in the middle somewhere when it comes to the process.

One thing that would help me become a better designer is organizing my chaos better and having a more direct plan of attack. Documenting how I got to where I ended up and my reasoning as to why I made certain decisions along the way. It is helpful to document this for future employers, clients or even just self criticism in hopes of self refinement

I tend to start on paper, lots of sketches, wire-frames, ligatures or whatever it may be that I am working on. Lists, maybe some words, phrases etc that will be helpful in my development. I do tend to get distracted a little bit at this point. Using your hands to create allows for so many different looks, the possibilities are endless. So to go off on tangents and exploring looks that upon a stricter self criticism would prove to be pointless, can certainly be a better usage of your time. So make sure you audit yourself to know where you can be most and least productive at teach stage of development.

Just the same when I get to a computer...I try to be almost too thorough. Exploring typefaces that often have no business even being explored. Just to say I was thorough in my exploration. Again wasting time in favor of finding some pile of gold in a giant pile of garbage.

When I finally have a typeface or look decided this is where I really start to make some moves. I find that I can make different ligatures, spacing, angles, cuts etc etc to quickly develop a mark or layout into something that by this part only needs refinement.

So somewhere from the beginning to the middle is in need of refinement. I tend to get a bit scattered brained in my direction, the scope is a bit too wide. If I could become a bit more organized in my process, I could do better and faster work.

between each of these steps I tend to just toss my process out. Old sketches, or major breakthrough. I will delete the beginning stuff simply because it does not look good in favor of the finished product that looks great. Which ultimately ignores how you got there. Sometimes the process is the most important part.

Self audit yourself and process. To each their own but knowing your strengths and weaknesses is great insight. It is not wise to recognize character flaws and issues and just ignore them...or worse...except them simply as what makes you unique.

Self improvement is a life long journey that requires daily labor.

Be organized.

This is a short and sweet tip for any designer out there.

Be more organized with your designs. 

Be able to use grids, proper alignments, rulers etc to properly compose whatever you are designing is of the utmost importance. We often rely too much on our eye to make these judgment calls. As good as some of our eyes are, being able to make pixel perfect decisions with grid lends itself to super well organized and balanced aesthetics. 

This is super important in typography. Learning how to properly set tools is the foundation for learning and applying all other gestalt theories. I am still working on my typesetting skills myself and when they progress my eye for everything else increases and I make better choices with composition.

Design is quickly becoming integral to UX/UI. They need to learn how to work hand in hand. A flashy webpage or a slick product does not mean a lot if the user experience or interface is terrible. So designing with the user in mind is of the utmost importance. 

I can get down with this.

The design community is subject to the cycle of trends just as much as any other community. I hate trends and think that they lower the creative ceiling. (At least being a slave to said trends).

One of my favorite things going around is custom lettering and attention to typography. It seems to be almost a fight against the many years ruled by the king Helvetica. Now do not misunderstand. I love Helvetica and use it a decent amount myself. But it is great to see a change coming to the current status quo.

Many hand lettering is done on paper, sketching out letters, inking and refining the lines. Then importing the finished letters/type into Illustrator and vectoring the logo making is crisp, clean and highly usable since it is now a vector. Now you have all the tools available to you in the digital realm to make changes and edits to further explore the mark you are creating. All while preserving the handmade look of the original drawing at the same time. 

This really speaks to my background. I grew up drawing and am pretty handy with a pencil and pen. So being able to combine these two worlds to create unique logos and types is really a dream come true.

To see larger companies start embracing this look and breaking from the blocky, sans serif type choices is refreshing.

I would love to see this not as a trend that is destined to die. But more like another tool to add to the toolbox. Offering another look and possibility when working on brainstorming sessions.

Oh for fonts sake!

Now, do not misunderstand what I am about to say. So let me say this before we get started here....

There are tons of terrible fonts....a lot. But who gets to decided what is good and bad? Who are the gate keepers that decide what looks good and what is crap or passe?

There are some well known and great designers who use fonts that I would never think would be acceptable by mainstream designers. Other times I am like...."Ok, looks great but can we use something other than the same old 5 fonts?"

Good type setting seems to be slowly dying off and is being overlooked (super guilty, I am trying to step my game up here).

I understand that communication is key and that a font can say volumes with its kerning, tracking, density, serifs etc. So the importance of type choice is obviously super important.

What helps me stay sane is the notion that a character does not sit on or over the plane. But instead it sits inside the plane and the relationship between other characters and the space it is occupying is of the utmost importance. This fine dance we do with grids, spacing and composition can sometimes be exhausting.

At the end of the day though, is our ability to pick a good type just the result of trends? Does a trend make something good? Well of course not. Are some types timeless? Some would ague yes. Others would argue they have lives, to be born and die themselves.

Maybe there is something more I am missing. Maybe they are more like tools, thousands to choose from. Making the choice up to me (us) to choose which tool communicates the best.

But boy that leaves me still wanting though.