Stop using
digg, stop looking at
css galleries all day...
Step away from tutorials/examples/etc for 1 month. No design books, no magazines, no
flickr, no outside inspiration...
You have to take the lead in your talent. Anyone can look at
css galleries, or design repository, and it's a good source for
inspirationWHEN you are running dry.
If you want to do trend whore stuff, alright. Do the 45 degree lines,do the gloss, use drop shadows all over, combined they could be great,or a complete disaster.
I'm self taught in my skill set, it's the only reason my creativity
is different in the perspective of clients and designers alike. It's why my
interest lies in genuine branding, because when you make a brand, the
only inspiration you should get from competition is what not to do,otherwise your brand isn't that special.
So I give any new designer a challenge or anyone that binges on
cssbeauty and
digg... Stop it. Next time you start comping a site, get
anotepad and pencil, don't pull up your browser and scavenge
theinternet to see how to do that glossy crap shine outline style...
Make your own in your head, on a notepad, moleskin, then worry
aboutexecuting it.
The world itself, both nature and man's creations are an
inspiration enough to where the web, in comparison, and the whole web 2.0
cliche isa fraction of life to look at for ideas.
If design and/or branding is more than just you being bored on the comp,or your way to feel intelligent, but actually have a passion,
Ichallenge you, to test yourself to see if you are good enough if
google didn't exist, or
css beauty, or
css zen garden, or the countless
blogs giving tutorials for things you never even imagined in the first place.
If you can not take up this challenge, or even consider arguing it as a whole,
it means you are not cut out for this and you are replaceable, or you
have yet to open your eyes to being
inline with whatever is
dugg, or
caughtup in how cool/hip/talented the rest of the 'design' world thinks
you are.
So, the challenge is there, and it will only help you in the end.
Good luck for those who take this post to heart.
I write this because I thought about the 'Where will you be in
tenyears' and some people said 'well
i'll be 24, 26, 28, etc... Well I am 24 now, and it all started as a hobby, but did I call myself a designer even when I had clients, not until I was actually creating things
thatI could be proud of. i did minimal before it got big on the web, I did2.0 functionality before it got big on the web, I did
guerillamarketting before social networking sites, etc. That's what makes
meproud of my work.
I didn't just kill time on a computer, looking up tutorials, or what was being most commented on, etc.
We live in an age now where people think they're smarter for posting
a comment on a
blog, or 'digging' something, or being a part of a
beta invite, or
downloading photoshop and making something better than a
crap photo with a filter...
But it doesn't. Binging on sites for creativity and reading
other people's thoughts only to do the exact same things, and sometimes
incombination for horrible results... That's not your job. That's
not being a designer, or Creative Director, it's not innovative and
it'snot professional, it's skimming by and feeling good because you are
in a group that seemingly has forward momentum...
So examine, given age and real experience, are you just along for
the ride or are you willing to move forward and question how 'design'
is becoming a social trend, not a profession?
(For those in which it applies)