Patty Ho Design | Web Interactive Designer

‘Patty, you are such a machine!’

This is often the compliment I got from my manager and the people I work with. They are referring that I always turn over the work so quickly that I work just as fast as a machine.

I am not a machine but I try to work efficiently.

1. Setup a design resource library

One of the reason that I can create a design so fast is that I always have my design library with me. Half of the time you will get those clients who want something out of nothing. They are also often due within short timeline. So what do you do? Dig out your library and put stuff together.

So what stuff you put in the design resource? And how do you organize it?

I create folders that named by the nature of the assets. For example, fonts, texture, pattern, icons, vector shapes..etc. Anything you want. You are ultimately responsible for your own library and be organized with it. The more organized you are the faster you can find your assets.

Here’s some site where I often visit to grab  ‘free design resources’

• Bittbox.com
• Dezignus.com
• Webresourcesdepot.com
• Tutorialblog.org
• Adobe Exchange
  

Most of the sites often link to other free resources as well, so feel free to dig in!

2. Juggling small task and big task in an efficient way

I guess it’s annoying when you are in the middle of work and suddenly there are small projects show up and they are due the next day. Yes, I know you can’t avoid those, but that’s the ‘time management’ skill comes in.

I usually will take a look at the time line of the project and decide what to work on first. However, I always tackle small projects first (for example, banner ads ). I get them out of the way first so I can concentrate on bigger project later.

It’s unavoidable that people always come back with more changes, but that’s the life of web designer, you just have to deal with changes and not to stress about it.

Oh, another thing I do is, I work on the project as soon as it was hand down to me. I don’t wait for 2 days after I decided to be brain-dead for a while. I work with momentum and I keep it that way.

3. Continue reading and researching

Sometimes I get those ‘downtime’ where I finish my projects and nothing new comes in. I use those downtime to do more reading and collecting design resources. I read about technology and design patterns. You can’t be a web designer if you don’t know CSS. That’s just wrong.

Also, people often mistake print designer as web designer, which is sad but it’s reality. The way we use typography is for screen reader. We design for legibility while practicing the foundation of typography. A practical guide to web typography is a good guide for those who wants to read into type setting for web readers. Another awesome post from Smashing Magazine – Typographic Design Patterns and Best Practices, it gives a very good consensus of the typography practices that web designers use these days.

Smashing Magazine is probably the best place for me to read about design trends, typography, idea and tips.

4. Do ‘other stuff ‘

Have you ever come across ‘creative block’ sometimes? I get that from time to time. It’s often because I am staring at the same project for too long. I lost the ‘creative’ sight of it. Therefore I stop working and just do something else instead. It could be just chat with friends on MSN, go for a walk or simply just look at sites that is totally irrelavant with design.

After I have taken 5 min break or 30min ‘mental’ break, I usually can come back with abit more refreshed mind to do my work.

5. Lastly…

# 1 rule to become a kickass designer is don’t think about work and talk about work after you get home.

# 2 rule to become a kickass designer is don’t think about work and talk about work after you get home.

Cuz literally you will just annoy the crap out of your family and your friends. No matter how frustrate your work is, just don’t talk about it. Leave it behind till you come back the next day. You will be less stressed and live longer.

Cheers!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Blog, Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.