

Ask HN: How to be a Kick-ass Designer - nQuo

I'm really interested in learning how to be a kick-ass designer. I've been told I have a great eye for design/aesthetics, so it'd be great to put it to good use. Interested in making beautiful icons, websites, app interfaces, etc. What would be the best way to learn? Best resources?<p>PS. Would I need to go to school for it? I've heard otherwise, as designers like (@dcurtis) were self-taught.<p>Thanks.
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jamesteow
Hah. I'm from Toronto too (looked at your Twitter).

I'm a designer (though not kick-ass) so here is my input.

Design school is very different from one another. Some design schools focus on
style while others are focus on conceptual development. Neither is inherently
better than the other.

While you can be self-taught, I would say school was great for making
important connections in my career and in exposing me to different subjects
that would add to my creative arsenal (namely photography).

If you have a good eye, that's a great start. Having a sense of style is
supremely important as a designer since having a creative vision is one of the
core responsibilities.

I think some of the best resources are books that deal with some of the
principles. Josef Muller Brockmann Grid System in Graphic Design is certainly
one of the Holy Grail books of grids. Reading about Typography is also of
utmost importance if you indeed to do web design, as it plays such a central
role.

But I think some of the most important things are: doing a huge volume of work
and getting critiques from designers who you respect. Both of these will help
you get a feel of what is right and wrong.

And if you can, intern or work for an agency/studio for a bit. You'll learn
TONS.

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dools
Find a designer you like, and ask them for a job. Failing that, offer to do
some work for them for free.

