Agonizing and intimidating situations will arise in the everyday life of a graphic designer. However, if you’re a master of your craft, or at least a good apprentice on the way to becoming a master, you’ll be able to dribble your way out of any complicated design situation. Often, you’ll find yourself a few hours away from a huge project deadline for which you have not sketched anything, nor given it any thought, due to having a million other things on your plate. The clock is ticking, the computer screen in front of you is still blank, and the expectations of your supervisors are extremely high. You’d better come up with brilliance soon, because all the sales executives have done their jobs at this point, and the account’s life is in your hands. A lot of pressure indeed.
If you like sports, you can flatter yourself and imagine you’re Michael Jordan or Pelé, who often found themselves with minutes, or even seconds left, in a crucial game they were losing, but turned it around by dribbling their way past five opponents over and over again. How did they do it? A lot of practice, because practice makes perfect. Designers must constantly dribble their way past a blank Quark Xpress screen, a crashing computer, paper jams and who knows what else. However, if you’re lucky enough to be in the business of creating art, then you can actually have fun preparing yourself for these situations.
Jazz, I find is one of the best ways to creatively overcome these challenges. In other words, improvise. Improvisation is key when time is lacking, and one can improvise effortlessly even when they are not inspired, or are having an off day, simply because a lot of graphic design relies purely on great technique. When you have your technique in great form and at the tip of your fingers you don’t have to be inspired to produce outstanding layouts quickly. It’s rewarding and almost makes you feel like a wizard or a magician, pulling one trick after another out of your hat. The bigger trick is, however, where to look other than your imagination to acquire these tricks.
Mastering technique has to do with discipline, so like any great artist you have to study, and you can never study enough. Be pro-active; always read about graphic design, see what others out there are doing, and pay special attention to design history. Paul Rand, Hans Schleger, Jan Tschichold, Saul Bass and W.J.H.B Sandberg can teach you a lot. They have become legends, not only because of how passionate they were about design, but also because they mastered, and had superior knowledge and control over their typography.
Go to art museums, and go often. Become a member of art institutions, surround yourself with visual communication, architecture, and absorb it - let yourself be consumed by it. This way, you’ll come to work each day with tricks loaded up your sleeve. You’ll have different grid structures, paragraph separation styles, typeface combinations and color schemes to choose from. Layout will come easy because it has been absorbed through your eyes and ears. You have to be a sponge in a sense; let the environment that surrounds you sink into your skin, and then sweat it all out on your canvas.
Make it your environment the best you can by putting some great music on and relax. Now, like Michael Jordan and Pelé, you’re confident, you’re on top of your game. You now have the skills you need, and pressure will melt away as you beat the clock to win over another client.
Eduardo Pires is currently a Senior Designer at PFS where he helps set artistic direction for many design-related projects and executes creative concepts through his own unique style and graphic design talents. Eduardo earned a bachelor of fine arts in communication design from Parsons School of Design, New York City. He previously worked for Popular Science and Rolling Stone magazines, Giovanni Bianco Studio and collaborated with Bouchez Kent and Co., as well as various freelance projects.
To be honest, I was at first hesitant to take this as a guest editorial. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it seemed a bit Hallmarkish and, with all respect, a tad corny. However, there is an interesting point on this post: "When you have your technique in great form and at the tip of your fingers you don’t have to be inspired to produce outstanding layouts quickly."
Recently, I was discussing with a friend how some times — under certain circumstances like unrealistic deadlines or low budgets — it is possible to simply reach into our "bag of tricks" and whip out a very decent-looking piece of graphic design, whatever it may be. This "bag of tricks" can be anything from using a "style" to using a favorite typeface or color combo to any other visual trickery. This, of course, verges on the icing-on-the-cake scenario, but let's face it, sometimes that's all a job requires…
On Mar.04.2005 at 09:43 AM