What I don't do, however, is design myself. I have no idea what good design is or how one should go about achieving it. I don't know what to look at for inspiration or how to take any inspiration I do find and turn that into an actual finished article. Design for me is a big, scary world of pictures and colours and mood boards. It's a storm of possibilities that I can admire as a viewer but am confused by as a creator. What starts off as an idea nearly always ends up looking like a few capital letters on a bit of paper saying 'I HATE YOU.' That, I can assure you, is not good design.
My inability to make things look good is not something I have only discovered recently. After going through school doing a lot of art and graphics lessons and thinking I was actually quite good at both, I turned up to an interview for a degree course with a portfolio of pictures just to be told I would 'probably make a good copywriter.' That's when it dawned on me that maybe images were not the road I should be taking. Unfortunately, despite this realisation, design was not something I could simply avoid. There would be times when I had to take part in it, had to produce something pretty and had to present ideas in a visually pleasing manner. I couldn't just skip this bit out because I wasn't very good at it; I had to adapt. I had to transform myself into someone who wasn't frightened by borders and kerning, who didn't feel ill at the sight of Photoshop and who could, if he had to, choose a colour palette that wouldn't blind people looking at it. I didn't like having to do it, and the results still weren't spectacular, but it was important that I showed off my work in the best possible light and that meant design had to play a part.
This became particularly important quite recently. Having to design this website by myself and, subsequently, some business cards, offered me a chance to put to the test everything I've learnt about how to design when you don't really know how design works. Here are some of the key tips I picked up along the way:
- Don't make it too complex.
- Show off what's good about you. In my case that's words, so I used a few of them.
- Do the basics right. Good spacing, readable font and bold colours will make up for not having any noticeable art direction skills.
The final pieces aren't awe inspiring, they won't win any awards and they won't convince any of my friends that I've suddenly become good at this kind of thing over night, but they will do the job. They will get the point across.
Here's a sneak peak at what I've been up to. They'll be getting forced upon you at events very soon, unless you hate them. If you do, please don't tell me; I've already ordered hundreds.
