It takes strategic research to build a product people love. Trust the process. Work with real people. And you can get users to see immediate value in your product.
Having spent time at art school, I have empathy for artists. Especially for those who try to make it a career. I want them all to make it. And before they make it, I want the cruel, commercial world to not crush them.
Out of 2 million arts graduates nationally, only 10 percent, or 200,000 people, make their primary earnings as working artists. — (BFAMFAPhD)
From what I’ve seen and heard, the first few years out of school is the make-or-break period. My idea was to help artists get things done, to see more success in their first career steps. …
For better and worse there is plenty of advice online telling designers what they should and should not do. Designers should use this product, designers should stand up for themselves, designers should have these soft skills, designers should try this new project, designers should write, designers should code, designers should teach— to name a few examples. Dizzying. It leaves the young designer with excessive expectations, like an overburdened pack mule that whinnies, “this is all too, too much.”
Designers should design.
That’s it.
As Mike Monteiro of Mule Design Studio puts it: “Design is a job.” Designers should do their jobs. …
Symbols are Sketch’s most powerful feature.
Symbols have potential — potential for linking, syncing, sharing, merging, scaling, tweaking, nesting, and, best of all, easy prototyping. If I run into a prototyping tool that doesn’t have symbols functionality, I discount it almost outright.
Symbols are flexible design elements linked to an editable source, otherwise known as a single source of truth. In short, they’re magic.
Your Sketch symbols don’t have to outlive you, but they should be able to grow as your projects do. They should also be able to be shared conveniently with others. …
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