Jeans into Shorts: A Student’s Dream
Any student across the world will tell you there is just one item in the whole world they need, and most importantly want. What is it…? Money. Unless of course mummy and daddy are sending the butler round with weekly cheques from the mansion (trust me it happens), there comes a time in every student’s life where he or she finds themselves out of cash and feels as though they would do anything just to have Queen Elizabeth II beam up at them from those crisp notes once more.
It is no surprise then, that when a new season comes along, the fashion conscious amongst us find ourselves in a turmoil of emotions; torn between the excitement of getting a completely new summer wardrobe (even though last year’s is perfectly acceptable) and the ever-present loom of the dreaded minus figures in the bank. It was thus in between considering whether to sell my own body for money or someone else’s, that I decided I could save some beloved cash by just cutting up my old wardrobe.
Inspiration comes in many forms, and we see inspirational art everywhere we go in our daily lives. For a graphic designer, the primary medium for this inspiration is of course on the internet, and it is on the blogs we visit daily that popular digital art is often featured for us to be inspired from (such as MediaMilitia’s ‘Get Inspired’ posts). Several graphic design blogs also feature interview posts, where the most successful artists of our time are questioned along with their featured works. However, it is often forgotten that we can be inspired by the works of other members of the graphic design community similar to ourselves; it is not as often that we see the stories behind aspiring artists, rather than established graphic designers. It is for this reason that I will be creating a series of interview posts that will question designers of all abilities in the community; allowing you to share your tips, inspirations, your own artwork and your own journeys.
Today’s featured member of the community is Benabadji Samir, an 18 year old from Algeria, who has been enjoying graphic design for about two years as a hobby. He has kindly answered a few of my questions to allow you guys to have an insight into the process behind his works and perhaps inspire the way you feel about graphic design.
It’s well known by now that nautical is one of the must-have trends to rock this spring/summer. Every designer is implementing the sea-side influence into their collections and the high street stores are following suit. In today’s post I take a look at what online store ASOS have to offer on the trend and I help create a look that is subtly on-trend, rather than verging on sea-side recruit. I’ve created two looks: Nautical by Day for those long sunny afternoons by the sea; and Nautical by Night for those warm summer evenings abroad.
This is the 3rd installment of a series of posts, view previous posts to start from part one!
Tip Three – Experiment!
Tutorials are a big part of the graphic design world. They can be found on pretty much any graphic design blog, and new ones are continuously being produced. In fact, the majority of the skills I have learnt as a designer have developed from tutorials I have read on the net. However, once these basic skills have been learnt it is important to try and break free from producing effects presented in tuts. By creating works based on tutorials we are merely imitating a popular style that has gained enough attention to be taught to designers. So how can we achieve effects that are original and therefore create this unique style that I have been talking about? By experimenting. So often when I am scouring the net, I come across the work of the designer that instantly makes me say ‘wow’, as it is something that I have not seen before. This leads me to wonder how they achieved these effects, and the answer is through experimenting. By experimenting with our work we can achieve great effects and develop them into our own personal style. But we have all at some point sat at photoshop attempting to experiment with the features and ending up with something looking like it’s been created by an infant. So how can we experiment correctly and use it to our advantage? Well this brings me back to those ‘wow’ factor pieces of unique work that we often come across. When you come across an interesting effect from another designer, try and achieve this yourself without the use of any tutorials. Now I know this idea of copying another artist’s work goes against everything this article stands for, but remember it is for experimental purposes rather than publication. By playing around with photoshop and attempting to achieve other artist’s effects, we can then develop this into our own style, and learn how to achieve a unique effect of our own.
This is a 2nd installment in a series of three posts, view the previous post to view part one!
Tip Two – Create Your Own Distinct Style
By definition, to be ‘original’, you must create something that is individual and unique to you as a designer. By creating a style that is instantly recognisable and connected to you, you are not only bringing a new area into graphic design, but you are making yourself recognisable as a product to the client. If they like your particular style and feel it would fit well with their campaign, they are going to choose you because the product you are offering is unique and they will not find that style anywhere else. If you are merely repeating styles and techniques used by top designers, then you are offering no more than the other hundreds of designers that are trying to do the same. Some styles may not be a huge success at first, but it is important to have a style connected to your name – proof of this success can be seen everywhere in art. For example, once you are familiar with the work of Salvador Dali, a piece of his work that you haven’t seen before is easily recognisable as belonging to him. It is exactly the same concept in graphic design, and many of the top designers have a distinct design style to offer. Here are my personal favourite top three successful designers with distinct styles:
Whether designing for a client or simply just for artistic purposes, it is always important to maintain originality in your design. Why? Because originality means that you as an artist stand out as an individual. This means you are offering a distinct service that others are not providing, therefore putting you a step ahead of the competition in the eyes of potential clients. If you as a designer merely reproduce or imitate work that is already out there, then you are not proving that you are any better than the artists that created them and are therefore bringing nothing outstanding or spectacular to the client. More importantly, by implementing a sense of originality throughout your designs you are creating pieces that express your individuality and inspire others, which are essentially the primary functions of art. So now that we have established why is it important to create originality in design, we need to determine how it can be created, in order to make you as the designer stand out from the crowd and get noticed. Over three blog posts I will share with you my tips for how to achieve exactly that.
