Process and Organization

The Creative Process:
We, as designers, see designs everywhere and therefore can take inspiration from anything. We are constantly taking in and analyzing everything. According to the author of "How To Be A Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul," besides talent, graphic designers need dedication and a love for the craft.

A designer also must find "a voice." This voice can be found in personality, a sense of awareness, and/or a vision. How you ask? Well, your inner confidence in your personality can set you in a certain direction along with your awareness in cultural and historic trends. You need to know what shows the true meaning of good work. Influences are key to broadening your views and expressions in your work and strengthens you as a designer.

A brief is a written statement about your project that provides details on what is to be accomplished. You must "research it, question it and sometimes challenge it." I looked up the definition of a design brief on google just to see what I could come up with. It makes you really think about the project that you are about to tackle and can help you think as if you were the client. It is the designer who needs to find out what it is that "unlocks the essential nature of the task."

The author states that there is nothing wrong with looking through books of designs to help start your creative mind. Sometimes you need that extra push. Research! Look at the sites of your client's competition. Find out what it is they're offering and make sure your client will have a just as effective and clear site if not better. Read the information about the client so you're familiar with what you're designing for.

Organizing Your Work:
When designing your digital portfolio, you need to make sure that all your work is "portfolio ready." Gather your all your portfolio-worthy material. You should have a copy of every project you do in some form whether it's the original, a sample, a slide, or on a disk. As you work, and you think that the project should go into your portfolio, then make sure you keep all the sketches and compositions that you worked on. This can be put on your site to show your creative process. Also, keep the original files because you may need or want to make changes later. If you're a student, then ask your professors and teachers for your work back so that you can use it also. I found an interview with the author Cynthia L. Baron on a site which I found interesting.

Organizing Digital Files:
This topic is something that I read over thoroughly and with great interest. There are five techniques that you should keep in mind when organizing. They are: Group, Name, Show, Weed, and Back up.

Let's start with Group. The author of "Designing a Digital Portfolio" says that using folders can keep you organized if you seperate your work by clients or project series.

Naming can also be extremely helpful. I'm sure we are all guilty of naming a file poster1 or something of that sort. Name uniquely, descriptively, briefly, and inclusively is what the author suggests. By using a unique descriptive name, it will be easier to go back and find exactly what you're looking for without having to sift through 50 files with the same name and a number after it.

By using catalogs, you can see your work files with bigger thumbnails making it much easier to locate the project you're looking for. This suggestion falls under the Show category. You can also get the dimensions and file info through the cataloging software when you're browsing your files.

Weeding through your files another good technique that you should do as soon as you can. Simplifying your folders right after you've completed a project is helpful. Put the process files into a separate folder within your client folder while it's fresh in your mind. Also update the original file if there was any changes to be made asap so that you don't forget later.

Last, make sure you have Back Ups to your files. Once you complete a project, save it onto a disk and store it somewhere safe. This way you have a copy to go back to if you ever need it.