8 top questions for newbie designers
by Sergio Ordonez at 7:26 am on Freelancing
A couple of days ago our friend Andreu, SOSNewbie reader, sent me an email with a serie of questions; it’s not the first time that that someone asks them, so i thought in writing this post.
1.- Do i need a degree to work as a designer?
The answer is… depends… on what you want to do, where you want to do it, and how. I think there are several situations:
You want to work as a freelance: the degree will be useless, if someone hires you it’ll be because of your portfolio.
You want to work in a good publicity agency: if it’s a small or good agency, the person in charge of the staff selection will be some expert in design, it’ll mainly look to your portfolio, and maybe some kind of degree too.
You want to be the coffee boy: the person in charge of the staff selection will be an administrative that will revise hundreds of files, it wont look at your portfolio; it’ll only see if you have the degree or not. Unfortunately, the mayority of the work in Spain or South America is like this, looks like in the USA or UK its different (any comments about it are wellcome).
We should also differenciate if you’re going to dedicate to a technic or artistic area. If you want to be a programmer, the degree will probably have more importance than if you want to apply to be an illustrator… there’s no degree to measure art.
2.- Do i need to go to a school or an academy to learn how to design?
The answer is No!. I’m pretty much against private design academies; the mayority if not all are more worried to take your money than to offer a quality program or that you find a job. And i have experience in this matter. It’s better to have an official degree.
But if you really want to invest in a good way your money, hire someone with experience in the area you like to give you particular classes, it’ll be a lot cheaper, more personalized and intensive. You can also buy some good books, although today everything can be reached for free, thanks to the Internet.
My theory is that if you feel passion for what you do, you don’t need nothing else than to observe and a lot of practice. The mayority of quality artists that i know are self-taught… i guss that if you reach your goal, is because you have a lot of interest, that at the end is what matters.
3.- Is there a lot of work for designers? Is it well paid?
There’s plenty of work, the problem is that in Spain and South America (at least) the work of a graphic designer is underestimated, so work conditions are terrible.
There’s a lot of work in low quality design agencies, where appart from designing, you also are in charge of the phone, making photocopies and walking the dog.
If you really want to make money and enjoy your work, the best option is to be a freelance. Without giving any data i can tell you that if you’re good and you know how to move you can earn more than any engineer or medic… if you’re bad or you don’t know how to move, you’ll starve.
Another option is to go to England, Germany, United States…
4.- Should i specialize or know how to do everything?
This is another of the classic questions, Is it better to be good in a few areas or be bad in all of them?
Let’s return to what we said before, it depends… :
If you want to be Freelance it’d be idea to be good in one or two areas, and be at least decent in all you can. I consider myself good designing characters, but many clients also order me logos and also their websites.
If you want to work for a quality agency it’s better to specialize, if it’s a good agency they’ll probably have different departments with very specialized people in each area.
If you want to be the coffee boy then you have to know how to sketch, design logos, draw, design websites, animate, use 3D programs and program in 3 different languages… all this in a creative way and for 600€ per month. Obviously it’s impossible to know all that.
5.- Do i need to learn how to draw to design?
The answer is Yes, if you want to mark the difference you need to know how to draw. There’s no need to have the level of a comics cartoonist, but you need to know how to draw with grace.
Drawing is the base of everything.
6.- What if i don’t have any talent?
If you don’t have talent you’ll have to compensate it with work.
A lot of people when they see my designs say “You are very talented!!”, which gets on my nerves. So then i start to explain that it’s not a gift that fell from the sky, it’s mostly practice, so if i added all the hours i spent in my life doodling anybody would do it with a similar quality…. the difference is that while others listen to some music or go party, i invest that time drawing. Well, actually i’m just trying to justify my terrible ear for music 
I prefer a thousand times a regular drawer that works than a lazy talented one. The regular wont be outstanding but it’ll be noticed, while the lazy talented one wont get anywhere… if you want to be outstanding you need to combine talent and work.
7.- But how do i get clients?
My friend… just work. Practice a lot, be seen in every site you can. Create a portfolio online. Visit regulary SOSNEWBIE… and keep practicing.
With time they’ll come… but don’t stop practicing.
