Top 3 Things I Wish I Knew A Year Ago

This year is my one-year anniversary at Pulse Marketing and what a year it’s been.

Being my first full-time graphic design job out of college, I never thought I would have learned and grown this much already.

Here are 3 things I wish I would have known a year ago, when starting this journey.

1. Don’t be afraid to be creative

I know this sounds like a funny tip, since I am a graphic designer, but above all, I am a total rule-following nerd. I love rules and sometimes, brand guidelines become a cage I struggle to get out of. Toward the end of this year, I began challenging myself to have more fun and to break free from that cage, while also keeping my designs well branded. This has been a process for me, but I believe I am finally naturally having more fun and exploring new ways to be creative.

1. Ask for feedback

Another nerdy thing about me is that I really do like getting feedback, as long as it’s put nicely. I always want to know how I can improve my designs or even myself. I know when I ask for feedback, it is coming from other unique perspectives. I personally place high value on this because everyone comes from different backgrounds and has wisdom from individual life histories.

I have always had this view, but when I started at Pulse, I was a little more nervous to ask for feedback from those with more experience. I knew they had quality wisdom to share, but I was afraid of looking like I didn’t know what I was doing. I had gone to school for graphic design, but had no real-life experience in the field yet.

What later clicked is that everyone is still learning and one thing I love about Pulse, is how willing everyone is to help each other grow. No one was judging me. This gave me confidence to start more openly asking for design feedback.

1. Become a life-long learner

To me, this is the most important thing that I wish I knew a year ago. Before graduating college, you have spent the last 21 years (if not more) of your life studying and learning. When I graduated, I was so excited to not be in school anymore and to just focus on designing, but no one told me how strange it would feel to not be a student anymore.

This caused me to change my perspective on post-grad life. I now look at every design project as a learning opportunity and I am more motivated to learn and grow in my own time as well. The difference now is that I get to study things I am passionate about. For example, I recently finished a HubSpot social media certification course and passed the exam at the end. Passing that exam gave me a sense of accomplishment I forgot about and craved. Now, I want to devote time to learning another language.

In summary, don’t be afraid to be creative, ask for feedback, and become a life-long learner. These are the top 3 things I wish I knew a year ago. Your top 3 may be completely different, but I challenge you to look back and evaluate where you have grown and what you wish you knew. I also challenge you to look at my top 3 and ask yourself if they are relevant to you and how you can apply them in your life.

Written for Pulse Marketing December 2018

Personal Branding — Be Purposeful

Branding doesn’t just happen.

It’s drawing, searching for inspiration, and a lot of research. It’s many revisions, puzzle cracking, and hard work.

Additionally, it is a process that requires a lot of time, love, and consideration of the company being branded.

One of the first steps to developing an amazing brand is to research the company, what they value, and what their target markets value.

Embrace your findings in every decision you make when moving forward with the creative process.

The best part about the personal branding journey is that you already know you better than anyone else. You just need to figure out how you want to be perceived and what it is that your future client or employer may be looking for.

Just like with a normal branding process, don’t forget to keep these things in mind while moving forward.

Also, it’s okay to look at what other creatives are doing in your ideal industry.

In fact, I encourage you to use your resources.

Make a Pinterest board. Scroll through Behance. Read design books. Flip through some magazines. You might be struck with inspiration to try something you would have never thought of otherwise.

Personal branding is fun because you get to be extra creative and design in your most favorite ways, rather than designing for a client where your favorite design style or a large amount of creativity is not relevant to the brand. It’s also always a good idea to see what your competitors are doing.

Look at their work and think, how can I make myself stand out when compared to them for a potential job opportunity?

Then, when you are ready to start the creative process, question yourself while making every little decision. Choosing colors, typefaces, icons, textures, shapes, paper weights… There are so many decisions to make.

Think, what are my reasons for picking these colors and what is the color psychology behind them? Why am I choosing a square business card versus and rectangle one? What does this typeface say about me? Why am I choosing lay-flat binding for my portfolio versus perfect binding?

When I was taking my branding class in college, that was my biggest takeaway. Be purposeful about every single decision you make, no matter how small. Lately, I keep finding myself getting asked why my personal brand colors are black and yellow.

My personal journey with choosing those colors started off with me just really liking those colors. When I decided I wanted to use those colors for my brand, my professor asked me why? I was like oh man I don’t know, I just like them. I was pushed to think about feelings and adjectives associated with each color and realized why I liked them so much. They really do embody who I am. Black is edgy and classy. Yellow is happy and bright.

This is important because what if I wasn’t a happy and smiling person at all? Maybe I should have chosen another color? It would have sent me down another path toward discovering the color that better embodies who I truly am.

Intentionality is everything. It’s the difference between a good personal (or not personal) brand and a great one.

Written for Pulse Marketing

My Top 3 Favorite Things About Being A Graphic Designer

Choosing a college major can be daunting.

Many students go back and forth between majors a few times before deciding on what they want to do with the rest of their lives.

I was a journalism major before deciding writing wasn’t necessarily my thing and that I was destined to be a graphic designer.

For the prospective graphic designers out there, here are 3 of my favorite things about being one:

1. YOU GET PAID TO BE CREATIVE.
   

This sounds like such a DUH thing to be thankful for, but during college this is what I worked so hard for.

Now, every time I’m sketching out ideas for a logo, playing with layouts, or looking for inspiration on Pinterest, and I look at my time clock running,

I get so stoked.

This is the dream.

1. IT’S A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT.
   

At an agency, I get to work with other older and wiser designers.

As a young designer, this is a really cool way for me to keep growing and to continue learning.

Not only am I getting input from other designers, but I get to hear other perspectives on design from our Intelligence Team or maybe the project manager.

For these reasons, I don’t recommend going freelance straight out of college.

I personally believe that there is so much learning left to do post-grad, in a creative team setting.

Although, if you do decide to go freelance right away or are already freelancing, collaboration is still possible.

You probably have other designer or creative friends. It’s always a great idea to get a fresh, outside perspective on a project, especially if you are feeling stuck.

1. IT’S A PRETTY LAID-BACK CAREER CHOICE.
   

I have always wanted a job where I don’t have to be all fancy and uncomfortable at work.

A job where I get to still have creative freedom in my clothing choices as an adult. And let me tell you, I have landed that job as a graphic designer.

I get to come to work in ripped jeans and vans, or even workout clothes if I want to.

I believe fashion is a great way to stay inspired and to show who you truly are as a person.

It seems that much of the creative industry shares this viewpoint and doesn’t enforce a strict professional dress code.

This is especially true if you are freelancing, because then you are your own boss and can wear your pajamas all day.

In addition to personal style, the work environment is very relaxed.

I love that my bosses and coworkers are all pretty chill.

I feel like I can approach my bosses about anything and working with others is inspiring and fun.

Of course, sometimes, we have to pick up the pace if there is a deadline quickly approaching, but overall, I feel like there isn’t a lot of unnecessary stress like in other work environments.

Although, this could just be my experience from working at Pulse Marketing and interning for two other creative agencies.

If you were trying to decide if you wanted to be a graphic designer when you started reading this,

I hope by now I have convinced you to just do it.

Being a graphic designer is a good time and I 10/10 recommend.

Written for Pulse Marketing

What’s The Point Of A 4-Year Degree?

This is a consistent question I have been asked and have asked myself. In pursuing a career in this field, there is no right or wrong answer, only opinions. My opinion is that the 4-year degree is well worth the time and money. I can see why people disagree because I have personally struggled to come up with my own opinion.

Here are my answers to some questions I have been asked and have asked:

Why should I pay to take general eds when they are completely irrelevant to my end goal?

General eds may feel pointless, and for the most part are, but you take away so much more from them than expected.

Communications classes help you to better argue your point and to speak in a more educated way.

Math classes teach you how to problem solve and how to be solution driven.

I actually thought my English classes were the most irrelevant. I already know how to read and write, so why did I have to keep taking those classes?

I’ve never been one to read for fun and I never thought I would be writing again after college. Just designing. Ironically though, here I am writing my monthly Pulse Marketing blog post.

Sometimes, I even get to write a little bit of content or proof-read. I also read a lot of design related articles for inspiration, to stay up-to-date on trends, and surprisingly, to keep learning.

Therefore, you may be surprised with what non-design skills you acquire in college and keep.

Why should I study design at a university when there are so many online tutorials?

Going to college for design, you are learning from people who have years of both, life and design experience under their belts. These are the people you want to be learning from.

You are also practicing your skills in a safe, non-consequential space. You are learning theory and proper practices, but also given the space to be creative and to break design rules.

College is where many foundational skills are set. It’s where you can really learn what you like and don’t like, but you still have to practice what you don’t like.

At a university, you are made into a more well-rounded and properly equipped designer.

College is a lot of time and money, when many companies value experience over education. Shouldn’t I focus on gaining experience, networking, and learning as I go for as cheap as possible?

While attending college, you are given many opportunities to gain experiences outside of classes and to network.

By even just attending your specific university, you are accumulating connections through alumni.

And yes, most companies seem to value experience over education, but I still believe college is important for the previous reasons listed.

Again, it will set you up to be a more valuable employee for the company willing to take a shot on you.

I have a college degree now, why am I getting paid the same amount as someone who didn’t go to college?

This field is interesting because no one seems to want to hire you unless you have experience, but how do you gain experience if no one will give it to you?

If you can find a company willing to give you a chance when you have less experience, take the opportunity and run with it for a while.

It might not be a high paying job yet, but you are gaining that experience necessary to get that high paying job later.

Take advantage of your time at this company and continue to learn and grow. Think of it kind of like a master’s program.

You go to college and learn the basics and more from experienced and successful professors in your field. Then you go into the field and gain some real-world experience, which is what will make you the most valuable employee later.

The first couple years of post-college experience is important in building your foundation as a graphic designer. You learn a lot of things that you can’t quite learn in a classroom setting.

So, don’t be discouraged.

Accept that this is just a season and as you continue to learn and grow, you will get those higher paying jobs and raises.

College sets you up to be a hard-worker, graceful under pressure, and goal-oriented.

These are attributes that will make you successful.

Written for Pulse Marketing

Intentionality And Combing Fonts

Who else here has struggled with combining fonts? I definitely have and that’s okay. I could be wrong, but I’d like to say all graphic designers have, especially when starting off. The struggle is just a part of the learning process.    

Here are 5 things I’ve learned about combining fonts so far:

1. Hierarchy

The first thing I learned when it comes to choosing typefaces, is to decide which part of the design requires attention first. This could be the title or the main point of information.

Establishing hierarchy sets up a path within the design for the consumer’s eye to follow. It allows for you, the designer, to decide in what order the consumer takes in information.

In order to use this superpower in the most effective way possible, you may choose to go with a bold and all caps typeface or possibly a typeface with a lot of character. This way, the text will stand out.

1. Follow the Rules, but Sometimes Don’t

After choosing your hierarchy #1 typeface, it’s time to decide what other fonts you will be using. It’s a good rule of thumb to use 2-3 fonts total, but all design rules are made to be broken, right?

Try everything, especially if using more than three fonts is relevant to the time period or theme you are designing for. For example, if creating a more vintage-style design, it may make sense to use many different fonts.

1. Contrast

Combining serif and sans-serif fonts is a popular design technique. The reason this is so popular may be due to the general need for contrast in design. Contrast is used to help create the visual hierarchy we previously discussed.

This can be done with multiple font families or within one font family. For example, you could choose a bold font for your heading, a thin italic and serif font for the sub-heading, and maybe a regular version of your heading for the body copy.

If you decide to use one font family, it’s wise to choose one with many variations such as, Avenir. This is one of my favorite fonts for a few reasons, but one is that it has many variations ranging from Heavy to Ultra-Light.

Also, be sure to avoid fonts that are too similar or too different. This may ruin the hierarchy by causing distraction or confusion.  

1. Be Intentional

If using multiple font families in a design, choose fonts that not only create a nice contrast, but also have similar personality types. This will help ensure you are intentionally choosing fonts that give off a combined sense of the intended mood.

It’s similar to picking colors. Color psychology should play a large role in what colors you decide on, if better connecting with your target audience is your goal. Choose fonts that complement each other and work together toward the overall design’s purpose.

1. Practice, Practice, and Practice Some More.

Ultimately, every skill takes time to master. You can’t become the best at anything without practicing. So, next time you are working on a design piece, really pay attention to the font pairings you are choosing.

Do they complement each other’s personalities? Do they create a nice contrast that helps convey hierarchy? Are you following basic design rules? If not, why?

My challenge to you is to question yourself more while designing. Do this often and you will become a better designer.

Written for Pulse Marketing

Sources

https://www.canva.com/learn/combining-fonts-10-must-know-tips-from-a-designer/

https://www.canva.com/learn/the-ultimate-guide-to-font-pairing/

Graphic Design And Music

Growing up, my friends were all musicians. Imagine being the only one who wasn’t a musician. I was always jealous of their talent, but I got to grow up in the world of gigs, concerts, and campfire songs. Now, flash-forward 8 years. I embraced my love for art and design and became a graphic designer.

While I’m still not musically capable, growing up around music is probably what inspired such a huge admiration of all music related design. It’s amazing how much of an impact graphic design has had and still continues to have on the music industry.

Some people think graphic design began with the computer. Some think it started with the printing press. In reality, graphic design started long before that. Graphic design has been a thing as long as people could write and draw. Therefore, graphic design has been useful to the music industry as long as people have wanted advertising. Although, it wasn’t until Columbia Records hired Alex Steinweiss as their first art director in 1938 that graphic design in the music industry was really revolutionized. He is the one credited with replacing plain brown or white paper album covers with artwork. Doing this gave Columbia Records the competitive edge and everyone else followed by example. Today, thanks to Alex, album artwork is the norm. Album artwork is what gives the artist a creative identity. Think of some iconic albums. What ones do you think of? Andy Warhol? Nevermind? Unknown Pleasures? The Darkside of the Moon? Now try to think of this from a marketing perspective. Great album artwork can increase sales, artist recognition, and can be adapted to any merchandise associated with the album.

Another one of my favorite music related design mediums, is posters. Posters are great because you can see them out on the street, in coffee shops, in museums, or in your bedroom. To me, I feel like they are the most interesting real-life pieces of design. They can also be made in a variety of ways; with pen, lithography, wood block, Adobe Illustrator… They can be simple or intensely detailed. You get one piece of paper to advertise the artist or event and it isn’t just the words that do the talking. The color choices, medium, font, and images all convey the mood. Everything is intentional.

Lastly, we’re living in the digital age now. So, music related design isn’t just present in print. It’s present in online music platform cover art, such as when an album is played in iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music. The cover art may be the same design as the larger print version, but the point is that the design has to be adjusted to fit the smaller space and must be scalable as well. Graphic designers also get to design digital ads, banners, and possibly websites. This is an exciting time for both music and graphic design with the rise of technology, but it’s always fun to look back and appreciate the classic mediums.

I love how influential graphic design has been in the history of music. After reading this article, I hope you will begin to love and notice the relationship between graphic design and music as much as I do.

Written for Pulse Marketing

Sources:

https://www.emagine.ie/our-journal/the-importance-of-graphic-design-for-music

https://www.speedysigns.com/blog/news/music-posters-the-rise-and-fall/