my biggest advice to young designers
may 12, 2022
Category: education
my biggest advice to young designers
TL;DR: Show up before you’re ready.
You know how people always use that “you’re never really ready” phrase? The same thing can be true for young designers getting ready to start their biz. After college, I landed what I thought was my dream job. I was working for a leading magazine publisher on one of their biggest magazines and I felt so unfulfilled. Fast forward a bit and I was still working that 9-5 while taking on branding clients and starting Brighten Made. Through the whole experience, there’s one BIG piece of advice I wish I could tell my younger self…
START BEFORE YOU’RE READY
Put yourself out there, even though it feels uncomfortable. Even if you feel like you need more time to develop your style, your niche, the work you want to take on. You’ll learn all of those things by just starting. Tell all your friends and family you’re hoping to start your own design business. You’d be surprised how many people will support you and want to see you succeed.
Nothing is ever going to be perfect and if you wait for perfect you’ll never start. You don’t need to do a fancy brand photoshoot or have a crazy website. You can always go back and refine later but it’s best to get your work out there first and then refine as you learn more about the type of clients you want to work with.
To me, the greatest way you can grow and learn is by doing. Maybe that looks like trying out a new style to realize it’s not the right fit for you. Booking new projects and evaluating what went well and what didn’t. Working with a wide range of clients to find out the ones you work best with so you can serve your audience well.
OKAY, BUT WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE?
It could be as simple as creating a personal project! Think of a DREAM client you want to work with or a style you’re wanting to play around with and use it as an opportunity to design something just for fun!
Then POST IT. Think of ways you can create content around it. Could you do a timelapse or a screen-recording creating it forms tart to finish to turn into a reel or tiktok? Create images to share it on places like Pinterest, your blog, or Dribble. Instead of posting the project and saying “look at this cool thing I made” share about WHY you were inspired by it and HOW you created it. Share the behind-the-scenes!
Through it all remember, the journey is the destination. We get so caught up in the number of likes, followers, whatever — when our worth is and never was defined by that. You can’t compare your journey to someone else’s, you can only focus on yours.
