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The-Skills-and-Tools-You-Need-to-be-a-Successful-Designer.md

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The Skills and Tools You Need to be a Successful Designer

It is estimated that 70% of millennials have ‘impostor syndrome’ at work

Worry more if someone tells you they’ve never felt like a fraud. Ultra confident people may simply be too incompetent to realize how incompetent they are (the Dunning-Kruger Effect).

But you do have the skills!

Graphic Design - design skills, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign (more print-based stuff) Web Design - Photoshop/Illustrator/Sketch, Understanding of JavaScript & frameworks (e.g. Bootstrap), HTML + CSS, Responsive Web Design, familiar with new apps, Adobe XD Motion Design - Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro, 3D software (optional), design skills

Lying on a Resume

  • 58% of employers have caught a lie on a resume (the other 42% weren’t caught)
  • “If you sell your expertise you have alimited repertoire. If you sell your ignorance, you shave an unlimited repertoire. He was selling his ignorance and his desire to learn about a subject. The journey of him going from not knowing to knowing was his work” - Richard Saul Wurman on Charles Eames

Embrace your inner impostor.

Technical skills are fleeting - the technical skills that you used 5 years ago may not be the ones you’re using today.

Your Design Fundamentals are timeless. They don’t go out of style.

  • Color
    • Don’t add colors to just add colors.
    • Ask, “What context am I adding these colors?”
    • SEE: color.adobe.com
    • Color intensity
  • Composition
    • Leading the eye
  • Typography - the purpose of typography is to convey information in writing
    • SEE: typekit.com
  • Contrast
  • Symmetry
  • Intention
  • Balance
  • Texture
  • Space
  • Shape
  • Shade

BUT: It takes more than just good looks to be successful.

  • Soft skills matter
    • Interpersonal people skills that enable people to effectively navigate their environment
    • The gap in workforce skills is NOT a hard skills gap but a soft skills gap.
  • What are they?
    • Work ethic
    • Dependability
    • Positive attitude
    • Self-motivation
    • Teamwork
    • Organization skills
  • Soft skills are often undervalued.
  • The technical skills will get you in the door. But your soft skills will get you the job.

Trends

  • The rise of code-free web design where anyone can make a website (e.g. WordPress, Wix, Mural, Squarespace)
  • Tools that design for you (e.g. Adobe Spark Post)
  • The hybrid designer (e.g. “UI/UX Designer”, “Print/Web/Social Media”, “Print/Brand/Web/Mobile/Social Media/UI Designer”

Future Trends

  • Semiflat design
  • Cinemagraphs, Movement/Animations
    • e.g. GIF
  • 3D
    • 3D Printing
  • Landing Pages
  • Geometric Shapes
  • Courageous Colours
  • Innovative scrolling and parallax
  • Color transitions
  • Multicolor fonts/emojis
  • Context-aware type
  • Virtual Reality

COMING SOON: Project Felix (for 3D modeling)

Automation

  • 47% of all currently existing jobs have a chance of being taken over by machines within the next 20 years (Oxford researchers)
  • CATCH: Design Leadership is a good thing
    • “” - Linda Holliday

Conclusion

  • Have the hard skills to get your foot in the door
  • The soft skills get you the job
  • And understand design and technology trends to keep that job well into the future.