Design is the ultimate reflection of your beautiful thoughts and imagination. There are no hard or fast rules to create and develop your design, but to work consistently – which results in creating your own unique style. I always take inspiration from all around and connect my thoughts to create a blueprint.
Every designer has their own definition and stories to speak about their craftsmanship. The ultimate stature lies in the style of the design. Thus, diluting our expression to maintain the uniqueness in work is essential.
Today, I will be decoding the design map to understand and invent your own style with authenticity. To be honest, style is the primary essence of design to build your reputation on.
Featured image by Adhemas.com | © Adhemas
Tabulate Your Resources And Elements
Take efforts to build and design from scratch. Using your skillset and degree of relevance, focus on your special strengths, they can be either illustration, logo designing, typography, package designing, modelling and so on.
For instance, if you have to create a background for your website, don’t use the stock photos as they are; try to customise them. Choose appropriate colours, shades and filters for the site design. Now-a-days, you can find a lot of themed web templates to help you build a website. But, instead, try creating your own theme using template builders.
Don’t Plagiarize
It is illegal to copy and reproduce a design in any form. That takes away the credibility of a designer. As a graphic designer or a visual designer, we all look for inspiration.
I personally admire some of the creations from renowned graphic designers like David Carson known for his innovative typography and Paula Scher, a legendary female designer who has carved a niche in the world of design. They always inspire me to build unique, responsive sites. Make use of the tools and applications to protect your authentic work.
Shield Your Work
The best way to protect your design is through copyright protection. Your design will automatically fall under the class of copyright protection, once you display and prove the originality of the work. Ensure that your work is original in terms of idea, orientation and pattern to qualify the copyright eligibility.
The ‘©’ symbol that you view on the internet marks the power of copyright existing with the owner. Likewise, ‘CC’ is a license granted to the users for using the design under the licensed terms and conditions. With the increasing number of competitors and their work, the chance of infringement increases. The proverb, ‘Prevention is better than cure’ sells effectively with every copyright information. All the logo design, typographic, infographic, branding, posters, packaging design, etc. under graphic designing is eligible for legal protection.
Under the UK law, anyone can obtain the ownership and rights through design registration. The right is granted as soon as the design is produced. You can seek these rights to buy or sell the design, modifying the design, license effectively, resolve the disputes amicably, etc. So, before presenting your most endeavoured designs to the audience, aim to obtain a legal ownership and protection for the same.
Always Follow Your Heart
Remember those childhood days, when we used to scribble and draw sketches on the last page of a piece of paper? Likewise, make a separate book to fill it with your creative designs and patterns.
Make it a habit to draw anything that travels along in your imagination. This will enable you to infuse such patterns at the right time in your design. My habit of portraying all my favourite experiences and moments in my scribble book, influences my work.
Design With Personality
To develop your own uniqueness, you must be able to define and tuck in your style with a blend of your personality. First, identify the traits you possess as a designer to take your designs out of the box. Your personality will always influence the brand & design statement.
Suppose you are planning to buy the latest smartphone from the market, how will you select from those massive range of brands? What will matter the most? It can be the Design, Price, Technology, Operating System, Colour, Brand, Pixel range and so on. Thus the most appealing personality of a smartphone influences our choice.
This design with a clear vision is created by Steve Scavo. The most appealing aspect of the design is its clarity. The interface is blended with a realistic background and colour. Always portray a clear message for a long-lasting impact in the work.
Classic and Unique
This marvellous work by Sagmeister and Walsh is a Magazine. The beautiful creation has been carved with intricate design to portray a royal look. You can always choose the colour that resonates to you the most.
Vivid, Modern and Elegant
This poster design from Fabian Lange reminds about the colourful spring season that gives it a fresh look. Modern designs are like an essence of fragrance. Keep the modern thoughts alive to assemble them in form of your designing traits.
Stick To Your Hit Formula
Trends like storytelling through long scroll, integration of HD videos and images in the websites have become quite popular. The point is, not everything that exists today will be in trend tomorrow. So create your own trend that holds your values and beliefs. Stick to your own magic mantra rather than following someone else’s. To do this, work towards your passion and see the transformation.
The Three L’s: Look, Learn & Lead
If you are a beginner planning to pursue your career into designing, start looking around. Be open to experiment, make mistakes, learn quickly to improvise and keep upgrading yourself with time. Observe the elements, patterns, length, colour, fonts, and sourcing platforms that make up a website. The designs form an imperative gesture of a designer’s personality.
Based on a visual designer’s personality, the conceptualization can be creative, refreshing, bold, sober, unusual, intelligent, and so on. Definitely, we all like to visualize colours and design based our likings. Based on my personality, I would always prefer going ethnic and bold for the design as I know it would be the best design to create. The design should connect with the people to stay afresh in their mind.
Concluding Thoughts
One of the best ways to learn around is by connecting with the design experts and dignitaries. Yes, it can be a tough nut to crack but not impossible. The social media has connected the world together, so it becomes easy to get acquainted people through LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Keep updated with their latest work. Make a note of the USP’s and uniqueness bundled in their work. Later, you can use theme to design a prototype.
I first started off with the Photoshop basics and then brushed up my skills for using an illustrator. Also to be handier, I used online tools like Pixlr & Picassa, forums like designers talk & PageCrush, layout softwares like scribus, depthcore and so on. These steps helped me build and mark my style in the world of design.
The world itself is a design that buds wonders every day, and is ultimately filled with infinite designs and patterns. Be the world!
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