Hi, this is Anne for Graphic Design How To, and I'm talking to Ben G. Kaiser here, and
he has his own YouTube channel.
And we're talking a lot about graphic design stuff today.
So, Ben, one thing I want to know is what you think the top three skills that a graphic
designer needs, what are the top three skills?
So I would say number one would be understanding hierarchy.
So that would be how to arrange the elements of your design in a way that shows people
what is most important about the design.
So where are you going to pull their attention?
We see this a lot with the user experience stuff within web design.
You want to put, you know, maybe your big banner right at the top to draw them into
the ad, to draw them into the page.
And then you pull them to the next piece of the hierarchy, which can be maybe a quick
sales letter or quick body copy text that really pushes them towards your goal.
So maybe your goal is getting their email or your goal is selling them a product or
just informing them.
So I think that is where we see it a lot recently - with a lot of user experience in websites,
but then that's even translated into magazines.
I mean, you think about a magazine cover, usually you see the person, and then who's
featured on the magazine.
And then you'll see, like, a sidebar that says, you know, the person's name with what
the full article, that feature article of them, is about.
And so I think hierarchy is very important.
And that translates into the imagery.
Even the color you use to direct people's eyes and all the way to the typography.
So making sure you use your typography in an intelligent way, having a nice headline,
and then a more subdued subhead.
And then the body copy, all leading them into each piece of the design,
Right...you have to really think about where you want them to look, like.
Yes.
What do you want them to see?
Because if you have all different sizes of fonts, people just don't even know what to
look at.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
I think being intentional is so important.
And you can learn about good graphic design from looking at great graphic designers.
You know, don't just study everything you see, you know, really be picky about who you
choose to study.
There are some great designers to look into.
I mean, some of my favorites are Michael Bierut, Massimo Vignelli.
Those two guys really have taught me a lot about graphic design.
Michael Bierut works for Pentagram, which is like the number one design agency in America
and then Massimo Vignelli was his mentor who's now passed away.
But uh, but he was a fantastic designer.
And just learning from legends, so to speak, is good.
Number two would be understanding how to learn & evaluate new technologies and their usefulness
in your career.
There's many times that you know, something new and flashy comes out - I think of, like,
Adobe Muse, where it was like a really cool idea, but it just wasn't useful in the whole
scheme of things.
But you know, seeing how important digital design is becoming for us as graphic designers,
so learning how to use a little bit of AfterEffects, learning how to use Premiere Pro, I mean,
these are gonna be things that will keep you desirable for either employment or freelance
opportunities.
Yeah, and then I noticed, like, whenever...I still get job alerts and stuff on my phone
from back when I was looking, and I noticed that almost all of them are not just looking
for graphic designers, they're looking for graphic designers who also do video, or who
also do web, or who also do whatever.
So if you can get more and more technology types under your belt and have at least somewhat
of an understanding of those, that is so important for us.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And it's just, people...like I said, it's not about learning a set of skills and just
banking on that set.
It's about just always adapting, always growing.
And so this is a great career if you like to learn.
My third greatest skill, and again, this isn't straight graphic design.
But I think if you can nail this, you don't have to worry about all the little things,
because they'll all fall into place and it would be - learn how to just put your head
down and work hard.
Because when you work hard, it doesn't matter what your...what skill that comes before you
that you want to learn.
If you're willing to put in the time, you will be able to learn it, you will be able
to level up your abilities as a graphic designer, whether it's ... photography, whether it's
you want to get better at photography to incorporate those into your designs.
For me, for most of the job I just took, I'm now a digital marketing manager at a local
agency.
And the reason I have that job is because of my YouTube channel.
It's because I wanted to...Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
Just, I wanted to learn it and so I just put all my eggs in that basket for that, that
timeframe.
And I just learned how to do YouTube I learned how to do video I learned how to communicate,
and they saw that as something they wanted.
And so they called, you know, reached out to me and said, "Hey, we saw you doing this,
would you be interested in this job?" and so without the desire just to work hard and
learn more, that would not have been there.
So that was probably my number one tip is just work hard!
I was such a floozy in school...(me too!!) and I just wanted to have fun, like, I went
to a Christian college, so it wasn't like I was like out 'til like 1 am drinking and
partying but like, I would just go out and ride my bike and I would just hang out at
dinner with friends and I was just such a silly kid.
I think we all are at that age, though.
Like I wish I had the drive now...or, the drive THEN, that I have now because I would
just be so much further along.
But yeah, I will say that, like, if you...even if you're not good at whatever you're learning...so
when I first started out as a vector artist, I was doing icon sets and they were just okay,
but I, you know, I was able to sell a few of them, and then, I got a lot of motivation
to do more.
And I didn't even think about the fact that if I keep working hard on this, and I keep
working and keep working, that I would get better.
But I'm so much better at doing it now than I was starting out.
So even if I didn't see that coming or you're...you don't have that as your main goal, you'll
find that the more you work on something, the better and better you'll get.
So I think that is a really good tip.
I'm going to link Ben, his YouTube channel, in the description, and you can go and check
him out.
He's got really great stuff out there on YouTube.
Thanks, guys!!!