Maintaining Motivation: DESIGN ACRONYM

As designers, we often overlook the whole idea of this being a continuous thing. We set goals and we design for clients and its all the same mojo over and over. To some this is just expected and part of the game, but to others its quite challenging and overall disheartening.

So, with all this said i've recently come up with a nifty acronym to help some of you out in the future. I was just going to put all these words into the blog post, but I thought if I make it creative, you'll be able to refer to it and remember it easily. 

The acronym I came up with is 'Design'. I thought to use this word because obviously if you're a designer, this word is used quite often!

D = Decide.

If you have a youtube channel/graphic design blog solely for design, you will need to decide what you will be posting. Whether its time-lapses of your work or tutorials, you will need to decide what you will be giving your viewers.

E = Evaluate.

Once you've decided what you're doing, make sure its what you want. You don't want to plan hours of work to then have it result in no motivation to follow through.

S = Strategy.

Now you have everything planned and ready to go, you need a strategy for when you start posting. Whether this is uploading schedules, social media managing, etc.

I = Initiate. 

It's go time! Time to start uploading. When you post all your new content, you need to make sure you promote it correctly and in the right ways. Whether its through a Facebook page, or even Twitter. (The more the merrier.)

G = Genuineness 

With your content you need to be authentic and genuine. Your audience is smart so don't just feed them rehearsed artwork or content. Give them authenticity and you will have a positive response. If viewers can tell you put effort into your content and them, they will respect you, and even follow your work. 

N = Nurture

Finally, nurture. This may seem like a strange one but hear me out. When your content is doing well, you need to make sure you keep the standards up. Most creatives nowadays pump out content but it loses the sense of pride or dedication and just seems like its out there because it has to be. Plan your work, look after it. A lot more people appreciate it than you think.

So there you have it! My 'Design' acronym. I hope this helped in some way, shape or form. Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think!

Have a great week!

- Jess x

New Years & General Banter

Hey! Long time no post. Things have been extremely busy, but not in a bad way, good busy. Obviously Christmas just passed and that was great. I hope everyone else's was too! I didn't really do much activity wise, it was just nice to spend the day with family and close friends. 

I guess I kinda cheated the whole idea of Christmas, seen as though I got my main present 2 days before (spoiler alert, it was a MacBook!) Its awesome and i'm really grateful for it. It really does make an impact on my designing and opens a lot more opportunities. But, nevertheless, thats a short synopsis of how my Christmas went so I will talk about New Years that is coming up very soon. Well, 2 days to be precise. 

2013 has been good and bad, youtube/graphic design wise, I really feel like i'm starting to find my voice in all of this. I'm eager to see what will result in 2014, so I guess we'll just have to wait. Leading off this, i'm really thankful for the people that are currently following and supporting me. Words can't describe how much I appreciate it, and I really look forward to the future people who will follow my work and/or vlogging videos! Its crazy to think that actual people spend their time watching your videos and supporting you, one of the best feelings! To be honest nothing really could stop me from creating content, maybe in the future it will change in some shape or form - but I definitely couldn't stop completely. If anything, it's nice to put content out, not only does it allow me to improve, but it just expands me as a person and also a designer. I don't know if you guys know this, but i'm not exactly a 'social' person. I mean, don't get me wrong I like going out and seeing friends but I guess i'm just very introverted. Sometimes I wish I could change that, but if I did, I wouldn't have my channel and most likely wouldn't be a designer. With me getting more into vlogging, I eventually want to be at the stage of going out places (cool places, not just down the street or to a local shop) and just letting you guys get to know me more as a person. Can't really speed this process up as I have very long way to go! Thanks for reading this if you have read the whole thing, I appreciate it! This is kinda the first blog post i've made where I haven't had notes and a strict topic to stick to, so it was nice to just get my thoughts on the screen.

Leave a comment below if you want, I genuinely like hearing from you! 

- Jess x

8 Easy Steps To Creating Your Design

I get asked quite a bit at how I go about creating my designs. Whether its improvisation, thoroughly planned, or just get suggested the idea. I could've made this into a video but with the things I wanted to discuss I thought it would just be best to include it in one blog post for you to refer back to. 

I have taken the time to think up 8 easy steps to go about creating your designs easily. Hope this helps some of you!

This blog post may not help everybody as I know quite a few designers just like to improvise. But I just thought I would make this to help the designers that can't get through their designs as easy as others! 

Step 1: Rough Idea

So when designing you should already have a base idea that you want to create. (if not, get thinking!). Once you have this, it usually takes a while before you can visually create this idea that people can view. The rough idea can be anything, whether its a final idea, or even just a small element of what you want to add. Which now leads onto step two.

Step 2: Search For Existing Ideas

If you have friends or know what you're looking for, search around portfolios or different places where you've drawn inspiration from. This will then help you think up some of your own ideas that you can use for your own design.

Step 3: Look How Its Done

From the work you are viewing, look how they have designed it. Examine how they have designed their work and how they executed it best. Doing this will allow you to figure out the best way to approach your design idea.

Step 4: Extracting Elements

Now that you've thoroughly reviewed other designer's work, its time to concentrate more on your own. Because you have been thinking about elements from other designer's work, it will spark some unique elements to include into your own design. Its HIGHLY important that you re-create your OWN elements and not to steal others - you're only reviewing work to get inspiration!

Step 5: Continue Building Your Idea

Now that you have researched and have all the basic ideas for you design, its time to start building. Start creating different segments and fitting together what you think works. Now, this won't work straight away, so have patience when you are constructing your foundation! 

Step 6: Creating Multiple Versions

Getting your foundation of your design made is crucial. It's just like building a house - if the foundation is wrong, how is it mean't to stand up and actually work? (very cliché, but its to get a point across). This step probably won't apply to everyone due to time limits and patience levels but it is usually best to create multiple final copies of your idea. These won't be your final finished products, just mock-ups to refer back to so you know what to include and what not to include.

Step 7: Creating Your Final Design

Now that you have got all the time consuming researching and multiple rough concepts of your design, you're ready to create your final piece. Take as much time to make this and always refer back to what you have made in your mock-ups to make sure you're staying on your design theme.

Step 8: Presenting Your Finished Product

And you're done! Time to present it onto some fancy presentations. A great way to do this is to place them in real scenarios. Whether its on a shirt, picture frame, or logo mock-up. Doing this allows the viewers to view your work in different situations and you could even gain profit if the viewer is wowed by a large amount! 

Hoped this help some of you in some shape or form! It's very useful to have a plan when designing so you know you have included everything you need to. 

Have a great week!

Jess x

Creating Content & Positivity

So I know a lot of people are wanting to create certain content but are to afraid to pursue certain ideas they have had in mind. As a lot of you know, my style has changed over the past 3 weeks quite drastically - And to be honest, I've never felt more confident about my content. 

Step 1: Knowing where to start.

So, when you create your content you want to make sure you're well within your element. What I mean by this, is to make sure you are 100% comfortable that you are doing what you want to do, not what others expect you to do. I know you're probably thinking, pfft! course i'm doing what I want to be doing! But, as a matter of fact,  a lot of people create because they feel like they have to reach a certain goal that they want. So to sum this point up, is just to make sure you are creating what you want to create.

Step 2: Realising you're in control.

A lot of people think that the audience control their content, which in some cases, that's correct. But at the end of the day, you're providing FREE entertainment for your viewers to enjoy. So as long as you enjoy what you create, that's all that matters.

Step 3: Dealing with negativity.

We all get it. whether its a mean comment, a mean message, or even just a simple remark that will make you feel bad about your work. Most of the time You will get the odd comment that makes you question why you even bothered uploading what you created. 

Referring the my last blog post about bad comments and hate, you just have to ignore it. If you persist in getting the person back, the end of the day you will just feel bad because most likely the person that hated on your work is probably not in the best of places. A tip that I can give you with dealing with negativity is to avoid looking at comments at one time. For example, each time you view your work, limit yourself to maybe reading 3-4 comments at a time. This way, you will not catch all comments and will appreciate the smaller amount more than you usually would - It also works as a treat to reading a small amount of comments each day!

 Hope this helps some of you! Let me know if it does - I love hearing from you!

Have a great week!

Jess x

New Camera, Updates, Etc

Since I'm in the process of thinking of some more blog topics, I thought I'd do an update post just to update you all on where I'm at!



New Camera(HD yay)

So I recently just bought myself a new camera. I didn't want to go all out and spend thousands on a snazzy camera like people normally do. I just wanted a camera that would do the job, and do it well. You're probably wondering what camera it is at this point!

Camera: Nikon Coolpix p7700
Price range: $ 400-$700

Content Update (Uploading Style, Etc)
I've mainly always been a designer but since a few months ago, a lot of you have probably noticed my change in style. I'm into the whole creative side of things, so that's why I want to portray my thoughts and design differently to others. I've always wanted to do vlogs, or design related vlogs - So now that I am, I have all these crazy ideas that I can't wait to film. 

My Opinion On Unmotivated Designers
Having motivation and constant flowing ideas is always a tricky thing. A lot of designers that start out young think its 'unprofessional' to have their thoughts/designs on YouTube  but its not. Some of the best creators started out on YouTube! 
YouTube isn't a place to feel shy, or weak or shaded. Its a massive help for your future career. Another pointer is people think that they have to act like others to find themselves, that's also incorrect. The reason they gain an audience is because they're themselves. If you have a style you enjoy creating, create it! No-one is stopping you from doing that but yourself. Sure, you'll get the odd hater who tells you what your doing wrong. But as humans, we unfortunately tend to hold on to the pain instead of the 30+ comments that are great. The only advice I can give is to just try and ignore it - Or, just picture them in the most absurd situation that will make you feel better. (Grandma's basement usually works.) 

But if you're just having trouble staying motivated and none of the above points relate to you, feel free to tweet me or message my facebok page.

Have a great week!
Jess x

Self Worth As A Designer

Anonymous Suggested Topic '' I'm worried about making an impact, i'm worried about industry standards, maybe i'm not gunna be good enough, compared to some guys my age + younger. I'm nervous that because i'm quite an introvert, I may not work well in a group when it comes to a design brief. I look at portfolios on behance, dribble etc and everyone seems to be better. ''

I've simplified this down to self worth as a designer. Me personally, I have struggled with this quite a bit, because I relate to the topic a lot. Now that I'm heading into my graphic design work experiences and future work placement, I'm worried that my designs are too different from what the design industry expects - So, i've narrowed down some pointers that could help!

As a designer, we want our designs to be understood. What I mean by this, is that when someone views or judges our work, we want them to relate and imagine where the inspiration was drawn from to design or create the piece that they're viewing. If viewers/clients can't relate, then most likely they aren't going to appreciate what you have created. To support this point, you can create a workflow, to portray how you designed your piece and what made you feel the need to design it. This helps viewers understand your design the way you have and they're able to relate easier that way.

A lot of designers think of graphic design as an individual task - which in most cases, it is. But design is also a great way to create unique and unheard of projects. With designers being very self-centred and protective of their designs, there is quite a few ways to include each design ideas together. Say for example you have to create a web design for a client, this is where multiple designers could chip in. If you have 2D designers, or photo editors/photo manipulators, this can merge quite well. Whilst the 2D/UI designers present the website, the manipulators could work on the creative side of things, and different ways on how to make the company/client 'pop' and stand out. 

No matter what designer you are, there is always ways for different types of designers to merge together and create an epic project!

When viewing other designer's work, it's always important to remember that you have *COMPLETELY DIFFERENT* design techniques. They don't design or think like you do, therefore it makes their design style techniques different to yours. (Have I said the word 'different' enough yet?) You have to also remember that they may be more experienced, and may already be working in the professional industry.

We can't really avoid intimidating work, but the best way to view it is using them as guidelines:

- Look at how they present their work. E.g. Are they spending money on presentation? Estimated time-frame spent on the designs? Design methods they might of used? Programs/Software?

- How they have worded their idea, or how they went about getting the client/design. E.g Did they search for their own clients? Are they working as a group? Was the design created under a small/large design industry?

Points like that will be a great guiding line to when it comes to yourself creating your own work in the future, or improving your work you're designing at the moment. That way, you won't be thinking that they're better, but looking at how you can be as good as them by their work methods.

Hope this helped guys,

Have a great week!

Jess x

How To Get Your Work Noticed

I get asked this quite a bit so I thought I'd address it as my first topic. Portraying yourself as a designer and knowing how to do it successfully is always a tricky thing for designers to master. When you have clients wanting to order from you, or maybe a group of designers looking to recruit/hire you, you want to make sure you represent yourself correctly. 

↣ Once you have your own unique style that people can recognise you by, this is when everything will start to fall into place. If you have multiple design styles, other people won't know how to judge you by it because:
A). They may already know someone who specializes in that particular style, 
or B). They may not need you for that many types of work.
So knowing your style always helps you in the long run.


↣ If you started out by uploading regular videos to YouTube, or to a specific portfolio site, make sure you keep the standards the same each time. So for example, if its a logo design presented in high quality mock-ups - each time you design a logo make sure each presentation has the same quality the viewers witnessed before hand. This way, other designers and clients will have have high expectations of your work.



↣ You want to make sure you have the right networks that you are uploading your work to. Again, hence that you always want to be uploading quality over quantity. Here are some great sites that will help promote your work in the right way:


Dribbble(requires invite): Click Here
Behance: Click Here
DeviantArt: Click Here
Carbonmade: Click Here


Have a great week!

Jess x

Twitter: Click Here
Youtube: Click Here
Behance: Click Here