
How to become a designer without going to design school - karenxcheng
http://karenx.com/blog/how-to-become-a-designer-without-going-to-design-school/
======
devilshaircut
I hope this doesn't sound "unnecessarily rude" as an earlier poster
characterized negative feedback, but I also found the design for Exec to be
incredibly pedestrian. To be honest about my position, I do have a degree in
design so I perhaps am biased.

That said though, I think the analysis is a bit glib. "Learn to draw"; "learn
graphic design theory"; "learn how to write" \- not really sure how this
advice possibly can compare with the huge amount of lessons you accumulate
from practicing design in college. The suggestion that reading "The Design of
Everyday Things" is a significant step to becoming a practicing designer is
overly simplistic. I would never presume that, for example, "Gardner's Art
Through the Ages" makes you into a museum curator.

The idea that someone could become a designer in 6 months reminds me of things
like get rich quick schemes, get ripped in 10 minutes a week videos, or as was
cited in the article, "You Can Draw in 30 Days". It reminds me of this comic:

[http://mccreavy.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/02/owl.jpg](http://mccreavy.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/02/owl.jpg)

You can't draw in 30 days. It is said that professional cyclists don't reach
their peak for 10 years. This is also the nature of design.

EDIT: Found a better link for the image I was referring to.

~~~
karenxcheng
My designs for Exec can definitely be improved - details in the spacing/layout
of the website, as well as the branding overall.

There are always tradeoffs with design, and we make our tradeoffs consciously
at Exec. Our priority is iterating quickly, with a design that is presentable
and functional. For us, the 80% design done in a week is better than the 100%
design done in a month.

Everyone's tradeoff is different - for apps that differentiate themselves on
design (Clear, Paper, Flipboard) then it's worth it to take the extra time to
get to the 100%.

As Coryl mentioned, I am definitely not discounting the value of design
school, I have a ton of respect for the designers who come out of design
school and I'm considering going myself one day.

Design school is expensive, both in time and money. It's 4 years of time and
tuition is $$$$. Not everyone can do that. A lot of people just want to learn
themselves, and you CAN get good enough to become a professional by self-
teaching.

My design level isn't up to the standards of devilshaircut - heck, it's not up
to the standards of myself yet - but it is up to the standards of many quality
companies who are hiring. It's good enough to start a design career, and it's
up to you to keep improving through the years.

~~~
devilshaircut
I definitely respect you and your self-starting attitude. It's definitely true
that school is expensive and impractical for some people's life's situation.
The only thing I take issue with is that the experience can be compensated for
in a period of 1-6 months.

As you indicate correctly, there are other ways to become a designer outside
of design school. In either case, however, it takes a lifetime of dedication
and hard work. Reading a few books and designing a few websites is a good
first step but it does not a designer make.

------
ineedtosleep
Speaking as someone who doesn't design much anymore, I think the key here is:

    
    
        There was one key difference between me and many of the
        other designers that gave me an edge: I knew how to work
        with developers.
    

Being able to work with developers and being able to understand how their end
of the process works will ultimately lead to much better design and UX
(assuming you're working on web/mobile). There are too many designers that
keep designing for web/mobile as if it were print and it bothers the hell out
of me.

EDIT: Formatting.

~~~
film42
I've dealt with many people who say they're 'technical' and 'work with
programmers' only to have them say, "Hmm.. let's change this module to this
side, and then add this functionality." not knowing those _small_ changes will
cost several days of work: static changes, backend peeps changing the api,
circling through people trying to get things done. It can be a real issue. The
best designers I've ever worked with would dive into the code with me and ask
questions. On one particular iOS project, a designer would actually make
custom views after showing him the basics.. it really helped me, and I can
tell he learned a ton about approaching developers/ making sure a design is
truly done before implementation.

In other words, I totally agree with you, but it's up to a programmer to
decide if the designer fits, not the other way around.

~~~
lucisferre
Pretty sure it goes both ways.

------
coryl
Thanks, I enjoyed the post, and I think it reaffirms the idea of controlling
your own destiny. People seem to be missing the point just because they can't
see past the post title.

You can be whatever you choose to be and you don't need anyone else's
permission. If you can show an employer that you produce good work and that
you are _relentlessly resourceful_ and tenacious, then why wouldn't you
deserve it?

Nobody discounts the value of a design school or a computer science degree.
But there are other paths, as proven many times over by leaders in the field.
In 5 years, imagine how good she'll be, and how little anyone else's opinion
will have mattered.

(Also, shame on you shitheads with your judgement on her work. Constructive
criticism is one thing, being vaguely dismissive is another. No jerks
allowed.)

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sp332
Google cache
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cach...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fkarenx.com%2Fblog%2Fhow-
to-become-a-designer-without-going-to-design-school%2F)

~~~
karenxcheng
Thanks for posting this! I need to find a new host for my blog that can handle
traffic better. If anyone has suggestions let me know.

~~~
ixtraz
Try github pages

~~~
ncarroll
Here is a little love for Octopress. Easy to mess around with the themes and
easy to deploy with github or rsync.

------
dennis_vartan
Learning Photoshop mechanics and UX concepts isn't sufficient, IMO. One can be
proficient in $DRAWING_TOOL and still unable to compose something that looks
good. As much as I appreciate sites like Tutsplus, they teach mechanics but
rarely answer the "why." Why do we add this 28% opaque drop shadow in step 37?
Knowing _why_ something looks good is essential to being able to create new
works.

Two books I personally found very useful for "why," both discovered via HN:

    
    
       "The Non-Designer's Design Book"
       "Design for Hackers"

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Well, you also have to learn Illustrator, which is probably more important
than photoshop these days.

Knowing what looks good requires lots of experience. Just learn the tools and
get started, you'll suck at the beginning anyways.

------
at-fates-hands
This is a great post. The only thing I would add is to learn to code at some
level.

I remember a few years ago, I was at a large corporation and we had a large
team of developers and designers. Things were REALLY bad, and people were
leaving in droves. I had several friends who were designers and they were
depressed because they had been interviewing and every single company wanted
them to know how to code and understand how code affects design. My two
friends were rockstar designers (both had won Webby Awards for their designs)
and felt like there was no way out for them. They were stuck at a bad company
because companies were now looking for more hybrid designers.

It's great to know everything you pointed out, but knowing how to code will
give you a leg up on other designers.

------
lquist
Perhaps this is a vote for design school?

I've always found Exec's design to be terrifically underwhelming.

~~~
karenxcheng
Thanks for the feedback. I'm always on the lookout for ways to improve my
design skills and going to design school is one of those ways. I wanted to get
across - you can get good enough to get a decent job without going back to
school, if that's not in the cards for you.

~~~
jnbiche
Classy response that makes _this_ developer want to work with you, design
school or not. And I'm looking for a designer for an upcoming project. I'll
take a close look at your portfolio. Is it linked through your blog? HN
traffic has taken it down (I'll echo the recommendation of others to look into
one of the many WordPress caching plugins such as SuperCache).

EDIT: Apologies -- your blog is back up and I see you're not a freelancer, so
cancel my presumption that you're looking for contract work. Still a classy
response!

EDIT 2: Ah, you're the one behind the Exec mobile design that generated all
that buzz. Well, now I'm doubly embarrassed.

------
shalmanese
I've known Karen for a while now and just wanted to say that 6 months of
learning for her is not the same as 6 months of learning for a normal person.
There's a hidden layer of superhuman dedication and focus that made it all
possible as well.

------
rnernento
This is an incredibly well written and useful article and it's a travesty the
site is down. Definitely don't discount it because it doesn't load at first.

------
jasonvolpe
Thanks, Karen. This looks like great guidance. There is certainly no avoiding
the "learn to draw" step if one ever expects to generate original material.

------
AtTheLast
"A good designer is a good communicator." I'm really glad you mentioned this.
To many people view design as making something look cool or pretty.

------
rdouble
It would be interesting to have a post about how to get a design job after
working in another field. What does your portfolio look like? What does your
cover letter say? What happens during an interview? Did you know the people
beforehand? (#1 way to get any job) What do you actually do the first month on
the job? Is it better than your old job?

------
xweb
Really this post helpful and inspiring. As a long time developer/tinkerer who
has struggled at times to find good designer help, I'm inspired to spend some
time seeing if I can get back into doing my own designs. At the very least, I
bought the first book in your list!

------
rpicard
My desire to really learn design has been slowly growing over the past year or
so. I love programming, but I feel incomplete without being able to create an
product with code, design, and copy that I'm proud of.

These tips will come in handy as I start my own design journey.

------
pknerd
Just joi hackdesign.org

------
noir_lord
[https://iamexec.com/feed](https://iamexec.com/feed)

look at the left and right margins of the items in the center column, they are
_way off_.

~~~
xixixao
[https://iamexec.com/mobile](https://iamexec.com/mobile) the icon is low res
on high dpi mobile. But seriously, the post is super encouraging and helpful,
however many mistakes there are on their website.

~~~
wavefunction
Consider if 0.5% of their users are using hdpi displays (unlikely these days,
but just consider), maybe not worth the effort if resources are constrained?

I dunno, it's easy to point out flaws without understanding the context.

