How to become a good designer.

By Marcelo Jordo

Visual communication of any kind, from posters to tv commercials should be seen as the embodiment of form and function: the integration of the beautiful and the useful. Copy, art and typography should be seen as a living entity. A designer demonstrates his skills by manipulating or making the best use of these ingredients in a given space. A designer like any other type of artist works between two different worlds. One of them is the day to day reality, where he should study and pay attention to in order to become able to perceive the spectator feelings and predilections. The other world for me is the designer's mind itself where he will use the outside world information to make new associations and create new symbols to present back to the public. Quoting Paul Rand, ...the designer improvises, invents new techniques and combinations. He experiences, perceives, analyzes organizes, symbolizes and synthesizes. Ok, so far sounds pretty easy to become a designer and start doing some ads, posters and billboards. Just give me a piece of paper and the problem you want to solve and I am a designer now. Sounds easy but its not. Just like any other job, if you really want to become a good professional you have to really understanding all things involved in the creative and production process. You have to know composition, which type is better for that particular work, which colors should be used and in my personal opinion, the most important thing: the concept. When I say concept Im talking about the idea, the solution for the problem. And this is not only for advertising. Its for everything related to design. This idea is what is going to make the connection with your target - the viewer, customer or general public. You might know everything about typefaces, colors, composition, computers and business, but if you dont get the attentions viewer to your work, I am pretty sure this work was a big waste of time and money. But how you make this connection? How can I be a good designer? Or should I have a style different from the others? I think the answers for these question are all related to each other in a way. First of all, you have to think that your job is to deal with the public, and the public is made of people, and people are human beings. So if you want to communicate to human beings, the first thing you should do is to understand them. Human beings are basically driven by their feelings. Fear, love, hate, happiness, angry, desire, worries... And if you learn how to deal with these humans emotions, I am pretty sure you will be able to make that connection with the viewer.

Take yourself for an example. You see a car poster that make you laugh. Its funny, you smile for about 10 seconds and go away. You can't even remember the brand of the car, but two days later you are walking on the street and you see the car of the poster parking on the street and all of sudden you smile again. And probably you are going to think: -Thats is the car I saw on that funny ad. That is it, you make the connection. You got one. And what is good about that is that you have a whole bunch of different emotions to work with. Humor is one of them, and it is particular one of the best to use to sell something to someone. Make a woman smile and she is yours. Make a crowd laugh and they are yours. People love to smile, to see beautiful things and to have fun. So, we just have to learn how to do that. "True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart; it is not contempt, its essence is love, it issues not in laughter, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper." (Thomas Carlyle-Thoughts on Design- Paul Rand) And going back to the previous questions, how we learn to deal with emotions? If you want to learn human emotions, dont forget that before all, you are one. Remember that before been a designer, you are a human being. And you have the same emotions as everyone else. Learn how to deal with your feelings and you will be able to deal with someone else's feelings. You are now the one who will create the design and at the same time the one who is going to be affected by it. So,what I am trying to say is that the concept in a design work should be related to a pure emotion. That one which will for sure provoke some reaction on the viewer. And if you do that, and if you already have a good idea in your hands, you will probably realize how easier it becomes the task of thinking about the composition, the use of colors and types. Just like a good copy, a good book or a movie, you cannot start writing or shooting before you have something on your mind. Find a good idea and the rest - layout, composition, types, colors, size- will just come naturally. They are just tools to make your idea get better. But what about becoming a good designer? I think the process is natural. If the main purpose of a designers work is to communicate, once you learn to deal with human emotions and start to develop this skill, sooner or later you will become a good designer. As Paul Rand said: A designer is really confronted with three classes of material: 1.the original material: product, copy, slogan, logo, format;

2.the formal material: proportion, balance, line, color, harmony, mass, shape, texture, rhythm, volume; 3.the psychological material: his own, as well as the spectators instinct, intuition and emotion. He must therefore, fuse these heterogeneous elements into a homogeneous unit. Style? Younger artists always have this preoccupation on their minds. People say that they need to have a style in order to be able to compete in the arts field. But to think in style at the beginning of a career is just like put the coach in front of the horses. We are all different from each other. This means that each one of us has different backgrounds, education, hair colors, tastes and approaches to same problems. And if your work as a designer comes from your personal world and from your own way of seeing things, and if you know who you are and know what world is yours you will be able to produce a work as unique as you. And after a while, when you least expect, your work will have your style. And only you will be able to create and produce it. Now, you are probably thinking why I wrote all this things about design and life? The answer is that I have learned that design is art. Designers are artists. I have learned how they deal with emotions and put them on their work, such as, fear in a war poster, joy in a drink ad, desire in a fashion editorial. I have also learned that all these artists have different styles. But not because they needed to have a different style, but rather because they were just being themselves, they have found their own spot and created so many amazing designs. All different, unique and good. They lived in different times and did different works. But for me they all have one thing in common: the pursuit to communicate using art, good ideas and pure emotions. And I choose Paul Rand to illustrate this essay because I think his work demonstrates the simplicity, the ideas, the unique style, the composition, the sense of humor and the intelligence that I think any good designer should has.