Just having some fun today in a random Sunday post to help expand our “Commentary” section. Today, I’m taking on the tough issues – the ones that really irk the hell out of me when I see them used by a lot of the so called “design” community, many times in forums. So, do you agree with me, or no, and what little (or big) things irk the hell out of you?
The Issues:
- Hosting design screenshots on Imageshack – It happens a lot more than you’d like to see. Browse any freelance forum, and you are most likely to see many people using Imageshack or other crappy free image host to showcase their designs. If it was a one time thing, than that’s acceptable, but to use free image hosts all the time – what’s wrong with you! Every time I run into someone linking to Imageshack, I automatically downgrade how good looking I’d consider the site to be (before I even see or – or it loads), just because the designer served it up to me through a slow, ad infested site.
- The sit back effect – Once again, this is a popular practice throughout forums and not so much in the professional design community, but it still becomes extremely annoying to me whenever I see someone doing it, no matter if they’ve been in the industry for five days of five years. When a client asks for you to contact them, you don’t reply and say “I’m interested, please email me :)”. That is a very common forum response to someone asking to have work done.
- That “Web 2.0” phrase – “Web 2.0 Hosting Design for Sale!” Have you ever seen that? Most likely. It is incredible to see so many people believing that sticking a label to their designs is going to make them that much better. Guess what – it won’t!
- Advice Givers – One thing I really hate, is when people try to give you advice but have nothing to show for it. For example, some one tells you “Um yes, that design sucks, nice try”, but they don’t have their own portfolio or anything that can back up their claims. If they don’t know anything about what that our criticizing on, then why are they doing it?
- Photoshop – And the biggest, by far most embarrassing tell tale sign you are not a designer, is when you have no idea what a PSD is. You would think this would be impossible for any “designer”, but it is not. I literally have seen people ask “does it come with a psd”, and the person selling the template says, “no, what’s a psd?”
The Solutions:
- Hosting design screenshots – Stop being so damn cheap and buy some hosting! Giving your work its own place to be showcased lets clients know that you mean business, and you take your own work seriously. Hosting is extremely affordable these days, and even if you don’t want to go out and buy a domain and deal with all the “site owner” issues, there are plenty of portfolio hosts / services, such as Carbonmade, that will do it all for you!
- Solving the “Sit Back” – If you are truly concerned about a potential client, and actually want a shot at getting the job, open up an email and start writing! It’s up to you to secure the client, not for the client to get back to you about the potential job. Create some damn communication! A lazy designer isn’t a good one, much like a worker in just about every other field. Your job is to impress the potential client, and taking those extra step over all the other lazy designers will give you the edge.
- A cure for Web 2.0 – If you think “web 2.0” has one specific meaning, than please go follow trends somewhere else. “Web 2.0” means nothing, so do not go advertising yourself as a “web 2.0” designer, or you work as done in a “web 2.0” style. Otherwise in another year, your going to be pretty damn outdated, and it’ll be time for your clients to upgrade to Web version 3.
- Should I criticize or not? – The answer depends who you are. Know your own strengths before you attempt to bash someone else. If you just started, its not the best idea to go around criticizing the experienced. Hell, would you ever tell Zeldman that he didn’t know anything about web standards? I don’t think so. So don’t complain about things unless you can back up your claims with a strong portfolio and client list.
- Get to know your tools – Familiarize yourself with all the design related terms: psd, ai, layered, cmyk, rgb, photoshop, illustrator, etc. You are not ready to enter the industry or consider yourself a designer just because you may be able to download a free template and move shit around in photoshop and call it a design. You have to understand what the tools you are using are, and how they are used.
This is meant to be an off-beat post poking fun at some random issues.
