PLUS ONE SKILLS FOR DESIGNERS
Are you a skilled illustrator or photographer? Can you compose compelling ad copy? Do you know html and css? “Plus ones” can make you stand out from the pack and compliment your design skills.
Designers with a photography “plus one” skill can reduce the need for stock images. Reliance on stock photos has become a necessity for many designers but runs the risk of making work less unique as one stock photo license can be purchased by many customers. Providing your own imagery can make the design of an advertisement, book cover or website more distinct.
Having an eye for photography can be valuable even if you aren’t behind the camera. Knowing what to look for in a photo can aid in knowing the difference between a poor and high quality stock photos, help you to provide the right context for shots if you’re art directing a shoot and even help in reviewing photographer portfolios.
Another added benefit of photography skill is that you can take project shots yourself. Photos of your finished projects are essential to self-promotion on design communities, blogs or portfolio site.
Even the ability to draw rough sketches and stick figures can be helpful in conveying design ideas. Working in sketches while in the early stages of a project is a great way to foster collaboration. Low fidelity wire-frames, storyboards and thumbnails are great for brainstorming with others, since rough sketches don’t intimidate less skilled illustrators and invites participation. Iterating on sketches saves time since a designer can explore many directions before committing to a few to expand upon on screen.
For many visual designers and brand designers, vector illustration is not just a plus one, it’s a requirement. During the early phases of a project, using the icons from ui kits as placeholders may suffice but a designer should consider making unique icons/glyphs so as not to appear generic.
Not unlike a photographer, the designer/illustrator can use their image making skills to craft imagery to best suit a project. Depending on individual skill and style, this designer can create creative assets that are hand sketches, vector illustrations, digital paintings, collage/mixed media, 3D renderings and textures.
Writing is a helpful skill for designers to use within their designs and also part of their design process. If a designer is handing off design specifications for another party to implement, it’s important to have clear and thorough annotations that describe an interaction. Writing skills are also necessary when capturing thoughts in research documents and presentations to teams and employers.
Just as aesthetics can communicate the tone of a brand, so does messaging. What is the tone of the brand being designed? Is it conversational in tone? Professional? Humorous? Designers with copywriting skills use writing to define how brands speak to audiences and make it consistent across screen designs and print materials.
Do designers have to know code? Not necessarily. It really does depend on what your daily work requires.
If you’re a freelancer, it may be helpful to have this bonus skill. Potential clients often find designers with this skill more attractive to them since they only have one source for designing and implementing a website. As a designer with coding knowledge, you benefit from charging a much higher premium for your services than those without. If you lack coding skills, it helps to have relationships with skilled front-end engineers that you can partner on client work.
There are benefits to understanding code for the in-house designer. Smaller studios often look for full-stack designers. Full-stack designers understand ui/ux design and code in html, css and javascript. Larger organizations tend toward specialization so that the designer focuses on UX while the front-end engineer handles coding. Even though it may not be a requirement with the roles split, it can be helpful if the designer knows some coding to communicate specific needs to a front-end engineer.
Do you have to have an additional creative skill? That depends on your needs and motivations. Designers can compensate for a lack of skill by collaborating with peers on projects, finding web resources, and learning new skills. Like with any skill, if you want to work at it you have to be motivated and invested in practicing it.
My strengths lie in illustration, problem-solving, and visualizing design. As the design industry shifted from print/branding, I picked up ux skills, however, I didn’t learn code. Though I tried to pick it up, I wasn’t practicing coding enough in my daily work for it to stick. I honestly don’t enjoy coding nearly as much as I enjoy design. Instead of learning code, I use internet resources to find CSS, java script and html when I need to update my website and blogs. At work, I enjoy partnering with folks who are as passionate about coding as I am about design. So picking up a skill or not really depends on the individual’s needs and interest level.
What are some other plus one skills for designers?
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