Design for Yourself: 8 Tips How Not to Struggle and Enjoy the Process.
Article originally posted on Hologram Design Blog
Finally, the time has come. After weeks or even months of overthinking things, I’ve decided to make a shift. To transform my freelance business into a design studio. That’s how Hologram was founded.
For the last couple of years I was working in many companies and as a freelancer after hours. As a freelancer, I was doing businesses under my personal brand: Tom Koszyk.
As a person from the industry, I’m aware of how important a brand is for a startup/company. That’s why I was sure that I needed a brand for my studio from the beginning. I didn’t worry about a portfolio, references. I already had plenty. The thing that was missing was The Brand.
There is that universal truth that says that we are the worst possible clients for ourselves.
After all the things that we do can’t be measured. At least not immediately. I was afraid of the process to be honest. I even contacted a few peers and asked about their availability. In the end, I picked up the gauntlet and decided to do it myself.
It was an interesting experience. One can tell I’m surprised by the results — I liked the brand, my new logo and website. Moreover, the reception was good, people liked it. After all, I thought a little about why it was so rewarding and nice instead of a nightmare and formed a few rules. Follow them and the chances are you’ll love designing for yourself.
1. The Goal
You start with a purpose. Ask yourself what your final goal is: What results do you want to achieve? Don’t be lazy, take your time. Setting a clear goal will help you stick to your chosen path.
At first, it sounds obvious. Man, you want to have a studio, you need to have a logo and a website. Yes, sure. Just two things. First, think deeper. You want to have a business, so you’ll need to attract clients to your web page. They won’t come by themselves. If you don’t have a truckload of money to spend on advertising you’ll need some social media presence.
I mean Twitter, Facebook, Behance, Dribble etc. It’s easier to think about it at the beginning than face a situation where you have to design a Facebook cover image or a post in minutes.
Secondly, writing down everything will help you create a to-do list. The chances are much higher that you won’t forget anything with it. Moreover, you’ll be able to make a plan and decide on the right order…
2. The Right Order.
So you write down everything you need to do. Great, now it’s time to clean that up. Decide what comes first and what comes next. It’ll be a great help along the way. Having a well-organized to-do list is the best way to avoid procrastination. There will always be the next thing.
For me the first thing I needed to do was to choose a company name. It wasn’t the first time I’d done product naming and I hated that part before. Then, the enlightenment came.
3. Start Bottom-Up.
The second point could be named the same but here, it’s about the creative process. What does it mean? Let’s start with an example. I struggled with the name of my studio for a long time as I was only thinking about super-fancy cool names and free domains. Then, I realized that’s not how it should be done. I started over, from the ground up.
What is Hologram meant to be? It’s a remote design studio for startups and interactive agencies from around the world. We help startups design their products, working as a partner sharing our knowledge along the way. We help agencies with design tasks they need to outsource and we’re working remotely. That was the clue. I wanted to emphasize that although we’re based in Poland we want to work with partners from around the world. After all, in the 21st century it’s not a problem, right?
I’ve searched for the perfect metaphor for remote communication. Even more than communication, for presence, being there and care. The Force came with a help, or “A New Hope” and R2-D2 to be more specific.
Because I’ve started right at the beginning everything turned out to be easy. It’s easier to get on a train while it’s still in a place then while it goes 100 mp/h.
4. Take Your Time.
Don’t rush. You need to keep your distance, ask others for opinions. Think, meditate, go for a walk. Take a day off. Relax. Turning everything upside down won’t look good when it’s all live. You won’t build an image of professional, trustworthy partner if you’re not able to decide on the colour of your logo.
5. Content is King.
It’s a trendy phrase nowadays, but it’s also true. Especially when it comes to design. It doesn’t mean you have to throw away all your creativity. There’s still plenty of space for beautiful visuals. Nonetheless, you need to start with content. Just as I’ve started with the meaning while naming Hologram.
Let’s say you’re working on a portfolio website design. Don’t start with a “Lorem Ipsum”. You’ll be doomed that way. You just can’t design something for the sole purpose of being trendy and beautiful.
Sit down, think about website purpose. Think about your target audience and what they would want to see. Then test. Ask your clients what is important for them and why they chose you. Yes, they already chose you, they made the decision. Chances are they’ll answer all of your questions with pleasure and only then, after you’ve got your content, start designing.
6. Consistency
Basically, you need to develop a visual style and stick to it. I know that ideas come and go all the time, that you’ll want to change something every now and then. Designing for yourself can be an endless, painful experience if you can’t settle on anything.
We, designers, have this awful tendency to overthink. There’s a thin line between striving for better and overdoing things. You need to trust your gut.
I like the term MVP. It is mainly used when it comes to shipping products (software for example). Minimum Viable Product is the product with the highest return on investment versus risk. Your design should also be like this. Define basic visual boundaries and stick to it. Leave yourself some space for improvement over time. Don’t just turn everything upside down with every revision.
7. Test, Test, Test.
Remember that shipping your design is not the end of the road. Whether it’s a web design or logo your user will test it. Listen to them, learn, and improve.
It may be harder when we’re talking about business cards, but it’s not impossible. Remember not to print a thousand of them at once and it should work.
8. Enjoy the Ride.
Enjoy, have fun, get pleasure from designing for someone with exactly the same taste!
These are my conclusions after spending months on designing for myself. It was a long and hard ride but in the end, it was also rewarding and a pleasure.
Have you designed anything for yourself recently? Do you agree with my thoughts? What are yours? Reach me on Twitter or Facebook and let me know.
Thank you for reading,
Tom is a Founder and Creative Lead at Hologram , a Senior Web Designer at GOG.com, and a teacher at Envato Tuts+
Do you like my story? Share or recommend it please, I’ll be very grateful!
