School or College is a great place to collect friends and skills, however, along with time; you will find that not all friends and skills are in tune with you anymore. Knowledge which we learn in college or school is sometimes become useless in workplace, in fact, many skills have been neglected and unused ever since you leave the college or school, but for designers, especially web designers, there are some skills that will remain the same, wherever you go, and here are some of them:
- There’s no color like the color you make yourself
Lesson about color is one that may be useful in your work place as the way we look color never be the same after school lesson. In facts, each person interprets what the best or truest color solution for an image is, be it a bit warmer or cooler on his or her own way. So, controlling your color is the key. Maybe the methods may change but the theories are still the same. The understanding about how to manage colors in an image will make your work looks perfect and meaningful.
- Just Do It
When you wait for your ideas to come, you will just waste your time, so as teacher told you that you better simply made it, and then ideas would easily flow. This teaching is absolutely right. This does not mean you just work without conducting any research, but this means that no matter what comes across your mind, you just need to put it down on paper or pixel. No matter how large or small, the hardest step to take is always the first one. In the progress you will find that the direction will be clear, step by step.
- You Draw with Your Eyes not Your Hands
This old saying is absolutely true and you will remember this after you graduate from school and start working. As your eyes is the one who visualize the design first before your hand can interpret it. In workplace, you need to take a moment to step back and really take a fresh look at what you’re putting together. Walk away from your work for several minutes to make sure that you are really seeing will make you stay creative.
- Just Because You can, doesn’t mean you should
In design class, maybe one of us has been told by Professor that the design is enough retouching, even though we still want to add something on it. This lesson is worth it, as knowing when to stop would be one of the most important lessons we would learn in workplace.
- Simplify the image to focus on the meaning
Sometimes, when you want to deliver a message from an image, and you find that it is hard to be depicted maybe all you need to do is to simplify the image and provide a good text to explain it. This is one of the golden rule of design and the art of presenting in my opinion. Breaking down an explanation to make it simple can be troublesome, but this level of communication is really understandable to your audience. That is why many powerful taglines and logos only use simplicity and concise messaging to embrace their audience.