today I'm going to share with you guys three mistakes that I made as a young
designer hopefully enabling you not to make these very same mistakes
what is up people which Tom from Satori graphics the home of graphic design
content right here on YouTube if you're new here then of course
welcome and just to let you know I upload three to four videos per week
mainly based around Adobe Illustrator tutorials but also all kinds of graphic
design related content I'm on the cusp of being 30 years old and I've been an
accomplished graphic designer for going on 10 years you can check out my
portfolio of work over on WWE tour graphics net where you'll be able to see
a few examples of my best work like most designers have made mistakes along the
way so let's take a look at those mistakes now in my list of three
mistakes I made as a young designer
the first mistake I made as a young designer is based around deposits I have
a little story that plays into this point about my own experiences so back
in around 2011 I was commissioned by a client to design a logo for an online
radio station the price was really great and so we made a deal little did I know
I just made a deal with a selfish and deceiving man as I was young and silly
or maybe he talked me into it I don't know I didn't require a deposit before
the project started so throughout the next few days I finished a logo design
and he asked for some revisions several times over I also sent over a few of the
rule files which was a big mistake and then the days quickly turned into weeks
before my very eyes and then eventually silence nothing at all so I contacted
him and waited for his response but I knew deep down what I just happened I
started to get really frustrated with him and also with myself for being so
stupid I started to turn into something similar
to a creepy guy who stalks his crush online day in and day out but only I was
trying to get my money back instead of the love of my life as it turns out he
robbed me really good and also used the logo design for the business I was
really really not even stupid and I had no rights to the design legally as I
didn't ask for a front deposit and there was no contract so my first mistake that
I made a young designer is not asking for deposit up front your piggy bank
will still be smiling because she didn't lose actual money but you did lose time
and time is money essentially in graphic design
so what did the guy deal with the money rather than spend all my services who
knows your guess is as good as mine by let this go and I use it's a lesson for
the future working with our security in place such as a deposit or a contract is
essentially like gambling with your time and your business so make sure you
Nikkei CA a deposit before you start any project or work you may be a designee
with many many gadgets and many many skills and you even might have many many
cool designs but what does I even matter if you don't have a decent portfolio to
show off your work and your skills think of it like this a photographer may
have a billion cameras and camera accessories but without portfolio work
who's going to see all of their wonderful and beautiful snapshots
probably only their media friends and family likewise without portfolio your
graphic design work is not gonna get seen that much or as much as you like it
to be but what about social media here you cry I'm going to explain next why
portfolios are still relevant even with social media on my portfolio website WWF
is on air you can browse you of my work and I do have quite a wide selection up
at the moment the thing with the portfolio website is that you have total
customization over what you want on it and how to put it up
like my about page here I can write as little as much as I like and I can put
it into whatever format I desire however one of the most crucial things about
portfolio website is that you can have real-life clients provide referrals to
you as a graphic designer
this would install confidence in potential clients who are viewing your
work they can go to these websites here and check up on the people to verify
your skills so as you can see portfolio websites are very handy indeed and of
course you can even you can even integrate them into your social media
and vice versa so here on my Twitter page I have my YouTube linked of course
but also on my portfolio website as well
this is one mistake I made as a young designer
I waited way too long before I had a decent portfolio website up and running
so if you guys haven't done that yet try looking into doing it because it really
really will help your graph or design work
the last mistake I made as a young designer well not the last mistake but
the last mistake on this list it's about the client always being right or more
precisely the misconception about it see there's an interesting relationship
between client and designer with in graphic design the client comes to you
because they need you to solve a problem for them a visual problem that they
cannot resolve on their own McCoy that's why they offer you money in exchange for
your time as the problem will help their business grow if resolved so why would
the customer always be right in a situation I mean if a plumber came to
you to fix the pipes in your house you wouldn't stand there telling them what
works and what doesn't work they've studied and learned how to be a plumber
and that's why you've called them to your house today because you can't fix
your pipes on your in likewise the client cannot design their own logo sure
you need to listen to their Emperor but you should have control and authority of
the design talk to them in a way that shows you know what you're doing and you
know what you're talking about and convey why a certain design works or
doesn't work so essentially don't let them control the situation because their
final design will not turn out to be successful for their business or their
brand you're the designer you know what works best
in today's tutorial owners tip I want to show you guys a pencil tool in
conjunction with a smooth or if you select an object in Illustrator
and then press the n on your keyboard or locate the pencil tool here you can
freehand draw along your path and edit the style and the shape of the design if
you then locate the smooth tool you can roughly draw over the path again which
was smoothing out the line or you can simply click the anchor point and then
it also smooths and paths but along the entire line of the shape these two tools
when used in unison allow you to quickly edit and smoothen out a vector path and
a vector design in Illustrator
so I hope you enjoyed today's video if you did make sure to drop a like and a
comment on your way out and share my content if somebody else can see here a
quick message to those who are subscribed to my email list I'm sorry
but I've had no time to send out a weekly email for the past few weeks and
also life got in the way quite a bit but I'm going to be back again this Sunday
onwards with our graphics news graphic design freebies and hidden content if
you're not subscribe to my email list you can do so from a weekly newsletter
via my portfolio website www.hiwayfx.com
or and when I finally get around to getting one the quality of my videos are
going to increase quite a lot as well as me being able to finish the logo design
tutorial from start to finish if you haven't done already subscribed for
weekly graphic design content right here at Satori graphics and until next time
this on your future today peace