How should UI designers improve themselves in life?

Some designer friends who have worked for two or three years have found that the workplace has reached a bottleneck and the design level has stagnated. They are always dissatisfied with their works, but they can't improve them. They feel very depressed. Every designer will encounter this problem. At every design stage, he doesn't know how to improve and break through. Although I am drawing and looking at pictures every day, I feel that I have not made much progress. This is not the mistake of your method, but the improvement of design level is not limited to a certain point, but the overall improvement of comprehensive ability, so how to improve it?

First of all, clear objectives.

Before you do anything, you should think clearly about the purpose of doing it.

Design is nothing more than three goals: to make money, to survive and to really like it.

Second, a lot of pictures.

An excellent designer must have seen more than ten thousand designs.

However, when we look at pictures, we should not look at them, but look at them with thinking.

1. Look at the picture with thinking:

When you see a good painting, first think about why this painting is good, what elements and TINT are used in the whole painting, what design techniques and creative ideas are there, and whether you can do it yourself or do it better.

■ 2. Appreciate excellent works repeatedly:

Review the past and learn the new, so is the design. Collecting the works that you think are better and looking at them later will often yield more than the first time.

■ 3. Always look at your past designs:

Always look at your own work. Always look at your past design, you will know whether your level has improved or not, and you will have more design experience.

When I first started designing, if I don't have any design projects at hand for the time being, I usually go to different design websites to see many excellent design works in the morning and do design exercises in the afternoon. An excellent designer should learn to manage himself.

Third, practice imitation.

The meaning of imitation is not imitation itself, but transformation. Turn excellent works into nutrients for our growth.

1. Primary Practice Imitation:

Find a work that you think is good, draw it bit by bit according to this work, analyze the structure of each picture and think about why it should be combined like this. If it were you, would you combine like this? Besides this combination, is there any other way to achieve it?

■ 2. Intermediate practice imitation:

Redesign according to the style and elements of this work to see if you can master the essence of this style.

■ 3. Advanced practice imitation:

Design according to this theme, put aside the original color, combination and creativity, and create a new style by yourself, keeping the theme unchanged.

Without enough practice, it is difficult to improve the design level even if the design talent is high. Only by practicing repeatedly can the design ability be improved quickly. The more you do, the faster you make progress. There is no shortcut to this, so we must do it in a down-to-earth manner. Of course, if you don't think when practicing, you will only get twice the result with half the effort. Just like learning to draw, you need not only strokes, but also brains.

Fourth, professional precipitation

The development track of a good designer should be gradual. Not only professional skills, but also design tools.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) printing knowledge

Printing knowledge is one of the essential skills for designers to advance. Next, I will introduce some common knowledge points in printing.

■ 1. Common printing materials: paper, plastic, iron sheet, cloth, leather and other materials that can be printed directly; Corrugated, double gray board, density board and other materials used to increase product thickness and protection.

■ 2. Common printing paper: coated paper, white cardboard, white cardboard, gray cardboard, kraft paper, double-sided adhesive paper, matt paper, newsprint and various art papers.

■ 3. Printing classification:

According to printing materials: paper printing, plastic printing, tin foil printing, etc.

According to the printing method, it is divided into planographic printing and roller printing.

According to the pattern on the printing plate, it can be divided into relief printing, gravure printing, lithography and so on.

■ 4. Common surface treatments are: glazing, laminating, calendering, bronzing, embossing, sanding, UV, etc.

■ 5. Common post-molding processes: folding, binding, mounting, pasting, die cutting, box pasting, window pasting, manual, etc.

■ 6. There are three ways to print colors on printed matter: spot color printing, four-color printing and spot color four-color mixed printing.

Sixth, knowledge expansion.

If you want to be an excellent designer, do you think you just need to design well? More is the accumulation and precipitation of knowledge outside the design. In fact, some excellent designers you see, such as Giankumiti and font designers, not only have solid design skills, but also know many skills other than negotiation skills, social interaction and psychoanalysis.

Because we should not only understand customer needs, but also analyze the whole project to find the right direction to solve the problem. Selling manuscripts is a technical job. If you want to be recognized by customers, you should not only let customers recognize your professionalism, but also recognize that you are a person. This is challenging and important.

Seven, choose the company

Choosing a good company can save you a few years of struggle. In addition to design companies, there are also some excellent companies here, such as BAT.

It used to be said that working in a good company for one year is equivalent to working outside for two years. Why do you say that? Because the more professional the company is, it often works overtime, sometimes on weekends, and the scope of contact is wider. It's hard, but it's really worth it.

Just graduated to find a job, everyone's salary level is similar, but after three or four years, we can gradually see the gap.

Eight, expand contacts

In the workplace, it is often said: network = money pulse, but when you are not good enough, in fact, you don't have any network, because when you encounter difficulties, you can't come up with enough chips to find someone to help you solve them. As long as you are good enough and strong enough, anyone will be your contact.

Now many designers with certain connections have resigned, and basically they can find satisfactory jobs without submitting resumes. Because there are many people you know, you can know which company is good and which company is short of people through your friends, so you can let your friends recommend you internally. Many companies encourage employees to recommend internally, and even recommend that successful employment can get a bonus of 1000 yuan.

The later it develops, the more important it becomes. Job-hopping, starting a business, recruiting, finding a partner, etc. all need to have certain contacts. I believe everyone has seen people who can't solve problems in the workplace. All problems can be solved by a phone call. I think this kind of people will especially use the potential of others to achieve their goals.

Nine, thinking summary

Think about your past, present and future.