Where the F**k do designers’ new ideas come from?

the 7 golden rules to keep innovating

1:: Keep moving, the only constant is change.

Once you have decided to become a designer, the major challenge you should face is the change. If you forget to update yourself, soon and even without noticing, the world will be one step further and you stuck in a ruk.

2:: Design is about emotions

Those days, designers spend one year prototyping a hellish product to eventually release it with a 100 pages manual. This is a thing of the past.

Nowadays technology allows you to understand the frustration of the person behind your product. Remember that always is about the personal experience, the user experience, not yours, not your client. Every feature you add or kill should fill their needs, in the most simple, beautiful and elegant way.

3:: Don’t be shy and steal like an artist!

Are you lacking ideas? Well, don’t worry just find some “inspiration.”

My grandfather, a well-known writer who used his words like real weapons, when asked how he learnt to write, he used to say: “ at the beginning I steal words, but I steal like an artist.”

Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.

So, don’t be shy: steal like an artist!

4:: Keep it simple — Design for your mom.

“if you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough”

Yes, I know you are designing for geeks or tech Junkies but still, you should always keep it as simple as possible.

…and remember, before launching ask your your mom to test it first.

5:: Don’t take me seriously

Never believe all the stuff you read on internet, most of it is bullshit.

I'm not a guru on web design, but on the 5th month learning by myself I never saw the need to take a two-year master degree to learn design.

So, learn by yourself being critic, taking everything you read just like an external opinion. Use the information to explore THE BIG PICTURE.

6:: Stop searching and start discovering

Finding relevant information on internet has quickly become similar to drinking water from a firehose.

To not die trying, use a passion driven website like noosfeer.com, and never run the risk of not finding that perfect article or video, that you didn’t know could exist, but that you end up loving.

7:: Be the fox not the sheep.

Be careful when following trends, they are tricky, and you may go the wrong way.

Create your own style, be yourself and do something that people say.. this was surely made by you.

giosolARTE, photographer and web-designer.