So I decided to make this month Editorial Design & Color Theory Month!

What is editorial design? Editorial design is just about everywhere. Magazines, newspapers, websites, tabloids, comics, etc. It’s a different form of design. It’s visual journalism. It’s not like other forms of design where they tend to be only about promoting a single view or product. Editorial design can entertain an audience, instruct, educate, communicate, instruct, etc. It can also be a combination of them. You mostly see it as a combination of text and images.  However, sometimes one dominates the other. It’s the idea of communicating through clean forms of text and images that compliment each other.

Hopefully one day there will be a time where data does not get corrupt. Where machines won’t fail us. However, for right now they do. So please back up your work. Not only does it save you from losing all your work, it is also very good practice. If you have not done so already. Go out and spend the money to buy yourself an external hard drive and back up your computer. If you want to put it off for a while at least store it on a website that lets you upload files (Like Dropbox). You will regret the day your computer dies and you lose all your work. Luckily if you backed it up the only thing you need to worry about is buying the new part.

P.S: This actually happened to me quite recently. It was the reason I was away for about 5 days. Not only did my computer crash, but so did my backup. However, I had backed up my work so I did not lose an kb of anything. What really got me is that my external hard drive also broke. I had to go out and buy a new case for it. It got me worried for quite a while. I now backup on an external hard drive, and various cloud websites.

Asking for help is normal. Don’t ever feel embarrassed or torpid to do so. We can’t know everything there is to know about Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, etc. If you don’t know something ask. Maybe do a Google search. Or ask the people around you if they know a solution. There is always a way to do things about 2 to 3 ways. Also if someone is asking you a question, don’t try to hide the answer from them or even worse ridicule them for not knowing. Instead, let them show you why they need it and after you tell them elaborate more on their design choices. There is nothing wrong with trying to help. Even if it was more than they asked, some people actually appreciate it.

Why thank you Daughter Sam. Glad to know your good ol’ DAD is helpful. -Grin-
Love,
DAD

Always playing it safe is not always good. What is fun about being a designer if you have to stick to a set way of doing things? Take some chances with your designs. (Never with a client’s however.) You never know what might come out of the chance that you took. Never feel obligated to just stick to the predetermined way on how things are supposed to look. That’s boring and dull. Sure it looks right. Well that’s because I bet it has classical balance. Experiment with different things, and take chances on your design. Even if you fail, at least you know it doesn’t work.

Experience is the only teacher. By experiencing something over and over you start to learn it. About 90% of the population (Including myself) are kinesthetic learners. This means that you must have a hands on approach to actually learn and take in the content required. I know (or at least would hope) that most of you do tutorials every now and then. Well next time before you finish, I want you to delete it. I then want you to try again and do it from memory. You know it’s one experience to be shown something 20 times. However, when you finally experience doing it yourself it’s easier to remember.

I have never heard of someone getting hired just because of their grades/degree. Now after all I am still your DAD and I expect good grades. However, if you get bad grades because you don’t really follow the project specs or even go above and beyond I won’t mind. Now there is a fine line, by not following the project specs I don’t mean that if you are stuck using an analogous color scheme to go out and do a triad. Furthermore, what I do mean is that when you have a logo design project you elaborate on the design to make the whole brand identity for it. All in all, don’t try to get bad grades. If you get one, that should only make you want to push your concept/designs harder.

Hello Daughter Sara. Why Thank you! I hope everyone gets what they need from my advice, even if they know it or don’t.
Love,
DAD

It’s good that you refer to history, but don’t repeat it. That design had its place in the past. It’s fairly important being a designer to look to the past for successful communication strategies and aesthetics through design. However, You must understand how that work fit in during that time period and why it did so well. It’s alright to learn from others work, but do your own work and don’t copy from others in the past.

Hello there son/daughter. I always knew I would have a rebellious child.

Let’s start for me saying sorry you don’t like the format I choose to display my advice. Sometimes information is not always obtained with pretty or cool graphic elements. I tend to use a swiss style to get my general advice across, then elaborate on it in the text below. Like I said in Advice #85 (Just Yesterday) You can never impress everyone. However, I always aim to impress myself. (Which I do.)

I’m curious to know how I can improve your experience with me, so in the future keep in mind that just saying something ugly is not helpful. Give me some critique. I’m always willing to improve for my children, since after all this advice is for you.
With a little Worry and Love,
DAD

I never want to here this from any one of my children. Even if you think your work doesn’t compare to others. Stand up and be proud of your work. Explain why it compares to the others. In fact. Tell everyone why it is better than the others. Self confidence is key to being a designer. Learn to stand up for yourself and your concepts/designs. If you’re not going to do it no one else will. They will push you out of the way for someone who is taking the time to do what you should be doing. Don’t try to impress everyone, because you never will. However, there is one person you should always aim to impress; and that person is yourself.

When you collaborate with people you never know what might come of it. Doing this can send you in a whole different direction that you never thought possible. It’s always good to get together with different people and bounce ideas off each other. Furthermore, when you collaborate with people you show them a little about how you work, your strengths, and you weaknesses. You might find that they can help you develop your weaknesses into a strength. It’s also vice versa with you doing that to others while collaborating.

Get out of your habit of doing everything on the computer. Work in a different medium. You will find that hardships, but also the craft. Sure you can just jump on the computer and make that poster you’ve been wanting to do. But, think. Wouldn’t it be much more satisfying if you made it with no computer. For one thing it’s already tangible. You might also learn to establish a well known appreciation for the craft that you might not have before.

I am always curious about other people and their process. How they came about with their concept and how they executed it. It’s always fun to see people start from scratch and see their process and then the final result. Everyone has a process. We all do it differently. What matters most is that you trust your process. So what if you didn’t make 30 sketches/thumbnails. Maybe 5 is all you need. If that works for you then so be it. Just have faith in your own process.

We all love trends don’t we? They are great until they go away. Then what? It’s onto the new trend right? That’s why you should most likely stay away from trends. It’s perfectly fine to make a composition on a current trend. However, designing something that revolves around a current trend is amiss. Once it leaves the realm of being trendy it is old and stale. You don’t want someone to think your designs are stale do you?