Being an Efficient Designer
I’ve been in the advertising/design business for 10 plus years. In that time I’ve managed to learn a thing or two about being efficient. When I first entered the workforce, I was like any other young designer. I thought I knew programs in and out, and could execute any project just by being handed a job order. After about a week of working I learned that I didn’t know crap and needed to up what I can do and how I worked. I made an effort to know the programs better than my coworkers. I spent extra time in them doing fake projects and forcing myself to find new ways to work. Setting up a workflow that works for me and I continually try to better.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts
One of my biggest pet peeves is when designers not only don’t use them, but don’t make the effort to learn them. There are literally hundreds of shortcuts to make one’s work flow smoother and enable them to be faster. I know it seems trivial with the amount of time it may save, but all of the little time starts to add up. Navigating through tools with the touch of a button instead of fumbling around on the menus allows you to work fluidly and efficiently. And if you don’t have a dual monitor set up, it frees up much needed screen real estate from the plague of palettes. Here is a helpful link to help you with the short cuts in Adobe products.
A little knowledge
On any project it is difficult to start if you don’t get a little research and inspiration done first. There are many talented designers that waste loads of time on designing something and then it is completely off target. A pretty picture and a catchy headline is useless if it is off the mark. A few minutes of searching the web can help your understanding of a client and/or the industry. Obviously asking the client the right questions doesn’t hurt. Things like knowing who the audience is or something as big as knowing and understanding the client’s brand. Use a creative brief. You can find plenty online to use as a starting point. Here is a list of some on Scribd.
SKETCH. SKETCH. SKETCH.
Every designer I know has an art degree. Any art degree requires some level of concepting. Concepting starts with knowledge and a sheet of blank paper. Starting off in a program can lead you down a path that might not be the right solution for the project. Ten minutes of sketching up the same idea can save you hours of time in front of the screen. Sketching flushes out the bad ideas and allows the creative process to flow. I personally have 2 sketchbooks I use on a regular basis. One is for work. I write notes and do my thumbnails in. The other is exclusively for sitting around and doing creative exercises or sketch things from daily life. I keep then separate because, for me, my work sketchbook requires a little more analytic thought where as my other one is just for thoughts in general.
The Conclusion
Workflow is all about the person. What is good for one person may not be good for another. The key is to find what works for you. I discussed things that help me. What’s your workflow? Let’s talk about it on Twitter.
