By Ashley Huisman, Graphic Designer
New Century Press, Rock Rapids, IA
When you have a moment, I hope you think of just how far you’ve come.
Ever sit back and look at your publication when it’s out or a specialty product your company put together and just think about how many advances you’ve made, how many skills you’ve gained, or how many goals you’ve crushed? How many lessons learned?
It’s difficult for myself and I’m sure anyone to look back and recognize all your accomplishments and once in a while give yourself a pat on the back for all those personal or companywide obstacles you’ve hurdled. There are so many things I can think of now that I use every day at my job that I wish I would have known when I started this career back in November 2017. I thought it might be helpful to list out some of my greatest lessons learned along the way. Maybe you have similar or seeing this will jolt your memory.
My number one - I think the best and most effective lesson I’ve learned in the newspaper layout world is styles. When I started newspaper layout, I honestly tried to avoid styles. They were intimidating, I wasn’t sure when to use them and for what. And what if they didn’t work right? I didn’t feel quite comfortable trying to “fix” them or make them work better for me. Russell Viers is a big advocate of using styles and has taught many sessions where he explains how to best use them to your benefit; they’ve definitely become a huge benefit in my day-to-day work. I’ve learned how to be comfortable with my styles and how to manipulate them the way that works best for me.
Another thing I’ve learned on that same subject is to take the time to work on your styles and your templates. It might seem like you never have time as you’re always working against deadlines but trust me, take the few minutes, the half hour, whatever, to make those small adjustments because they really do make a huge difference and usually makes for quicker, easier work in the long run.
Number two - don’t procrastinate on projects that make you nervous. You know those projects that you’ve been asked to do and you’ve already been dreading it for a month’s time? Ya, not worth it! I dreaded being asked to work on a big project or a special publication. What I’ve learned? Procrastination never helps, ever. Now when I’m asked to complete a task out of my comfort zone, I try to make the time to “research” so to say, look at past ideas, search for new trends, see if there is any inspiring art work out there that can get my gears going.
If I get an early start to a project I will, more than likely, have time to sit back and think on it and decide if I want to make changes or go a different route, much easier and usually end up with a better end product in the end! If you procrastinate and rush, you only have time to submit your one, quick, rushed idea and you have no time to think on it or make improvements. Maybe this project could be so much better?
My number three lesson learned - work smarter, not harder. In this case I’m referring to artwork, fonts, special sections and the like. The more time I’ve been doing design and layout the more I’ve learned how to reuse some ideas for other projects, or taking one idea for a special section in a publication and reusing that artwork and concept but making some tweaks and small changes to use in a similar project in another publication. I’m also a fan of downloading some of the free artwork on Adobe Stock and I will pull elements out of one ai file to use in multiple projects. I might pull a pattern design out of the background to use on a sports poster and then use the rest of the pieces in a customer’s ad. If I remember an idea or specific artwork I liked I will go back to it and take pieces or manipulate it by changing the colors, shapes or elements to use in a new design or layout.
Those are three of my biggest lessons learned over the years and there are so many more that I can list out. Maybe this will help you to recognize all your lessons learned and see how far you’ve come!
Ashley
New Century Press, Rock Rapids, IA
When you have a moment, I hope you think of just how far you’ve come.
Ever sit back and look at your publication when it’s out or a specialty product your company put together and just think about how many advances you’ve made, how many skills you’ve gained, or how many goals you’ve crushed? How many lessons learned?
It’s difficult for myself and I’m sure anyone to look back and recognize all your accomplishments and once in a while give yourself a pat on the back for all those personal or companywide obstacles you’ve hurdled. There are so many things I can think of now that I use every day at my job that I wish I would have known when I started this career back in November 2017. I thought it might be helpful to list out some of my greatest lessons learned along the way. Maybe you have similar or seeing this will jolt your memory.
My number one - I think the best and most effective lesson I’ve learned in the newspaper layout world is styles. When I started newspaper layout, I honestly tried to avoid styles. They were intimidating, I wasn’t sure when to use them and for what. And what if they didn’t work right? I didn’t feel quite comfortable trying to “fix” them or make them work better for me. Russell Viers is a big advocate of using styles and has taught many sessions where he explains how to best use them to your benefit; they’ve definitely become a huge benefit in my day-to-day work. I’ve learned how to be comfortable with my styles and how to manipulate them the way that works best for me.
Another thing I’ve learned on that same subject is to take the time to work on your styles and your templates. It might seem like you never have time as you’re always working against deadlines but trust me, take the few minutes, the half hour, whatever, to make those small adjustments because they really do make a huge difference and usually makes for quicker, easier work in the long run.
Number two - don’t procrastinate on projects that make you nervous. You know those projects that you’ve been asked to do and you’ve already been dreading it for a month’s time? Ya, not worth it! I dreaded being asked to work on a big project or a special publication. What I’ve learned? Procrastination never helps, ever. Now when I’m asked to complete a task out of my comfort zone, I try to make the time to “research” so to say, look at past ideas, search for new trends, see if there is any inspiring art work out there that can get my gears going.
If I get an early start to a project I will, more than likely, have time to sit back and think on it and decide if I want to make changes or go a different route, much easier and usually end up with a better end product in the end! If you procrastinate and rush, you only have time to submit your one, quick, rushed idea and you have no time to think on it or make improvements. Maybe this project could be so much better?
My number three lesson learned - work smarter, not harder. In this case I’m referring to artwork, fonts, special sections and the like. The more time I’ve been doing design and layout the more I’ve learned how to reuse some ideas for other projects, or taking one idea for a special section in a publication and reusing that artwork and concept but making some tweaks and small changes to use in a similar project in another publication. I’m also a fan of downloading some of the free artwork on Adobe Stock and I will pull elements out of one ai file to use in multiple projects. I might pull a pattern design out of the background to use on a sports poster and then use the rest of the pieces in a customer’s ad. If I remember an idea or specific artwork I liked I will go back to it and take pieces or manipulate it by changing the colors, shapes or elements to use in a new design or layout.
Those are three of my biggest lessons learned over the years and there are so many more that I can list out. Maybe this will help you to recognize all your lessons learned and see how far you’ve come!
Ashley