When we were children, we all used to dream about becoming someone, something; very good at whatever it is.
Doctor, scientist, f-16 pilot, football star, singer…The list goes on. The following episodes starting by this one; is for those who used to have a lot of abstract visions and dream of becoming a good and successful designer.
I prepared these article series mostly depending on my career experiences and amateur to professional background in the business.
Some of you may agree on these matters, and some not. Or think some of the rules are not that critical. These below are my aspects. I hope they will be helpful for you.
Okay; with high possibility, most of you might think that you’re already in a good level with what you do, which is a trick of your mind. Even for the greatests around us, ask them. There’s no saying “I’m hell of a pro, and I’m done learning what I do”.
The first 10 is the basics of becoming a good web and graphic designer. Even some definitions might force you to determine if you are the right person for this business or not.
Allright, let’s get started!:
1- Hello, Do you speak English? How do you do? (Native English speakers can discard this one)
Hah, too elementary for a start?! Allright, the point is; if your primary language is not natively english, then it means when you do web design as a profession, you’re at least skilled with understanding the computer based english.
You need that to develop yourself, to solve a problem, to understand your possible local and international clients, to professionally respond to requests.
I’ve personally known so many clients and seen job postings ask for a fluent english speaker when they seek a designer to make their jobs done or hire.
Because;
a) Good communication is the golden key
What we do is defined in terms of Visual Communication. If you can’t verbally communicate, you can’t visually communicate.
You can not “Yes sir, no problem. Yes my friend, I can do it.” to the client or your employer without understanding what you exactly must deliver and see the inquirer’s point of view. You have to at least have an excellent understanding. That’s mostly the first part of gaining a good client, getting hired by a good agency, having a good team relationship.
I’ve seen plenty of my design students got hired by top agencies or started a good freelance career, who were all starters after a couple months of training from scratch. Their language and communication skills were the reason for that happy result.
b. Resources and Professional Education Materials are First English
Either you’re educated or not; in this business, you can only get better with self research and development. I would like take myself for instance. I’m a completely different major educated, natively non-english speaker born in Turkey. But in my country, I’m a pretty well known professional designer considered to be one of the tops at the moment(This part is phrased by my boss-Hah, gotcha!).
I am considerably lucky, because I knew english pretty well and I was one of the firsts to start for web design in my country in those early years (‘96 to ‘99).
I also had a long term course at UCSD - Fine Arts Dept but that was only after I started my career and got myself trained with research on the Internet and read books about design principles, color theories, the basics, etc.
Now we get back to the point. Say you have already studied Design; without a good understanding of English language, there’s no way you can go further with your profession.
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