5 Things Visual Designers Should Learn in 2019
From animation to SVGs and beyond
I like to have my hands in a lot of different pots at once. I’m just too curious and interested in life to have one title, one role, or one creative outlet at a time. My grandma says my brain is just always going and that’s why I can’t sit still :) Whether it’s my busy brain or my creative heart that’s to blame, I am incredibly inspired by different software, art traditions, mediums, and platforms to learn from before going out to make my own stuff. The variety keeps me interested and I love to take what I’ve learned from one area and apply it to projects in another area.
Being a visual designer doesn’t mean that’s the only thing we can do — our skills and training make up the foundation upon which we can then build up and out and dabble in a variety of other areas. And that’s fun!
Based on this idea, here are 5 tools, techniques, and software I think visual designers should get into these last 6 months of 2019. Learning and adopting these skills can create more responsibilities in our current positions, open the path for new jobs, and all-around contribute to our creative growth.
1. Logo Animations
I believe that as video has become more and more popular (and possible with better technology right in our pockets), motion as it relates to visual design and brand has become crucial. One fun way I see this nicely intersecting with brand design is in logo animations. They can be used as pre-loaders on a website or app, bumpers at the beginning or end of a video, and endless other places. As designers, we often spend significant time crafting a beautiful logo so how fun would it be to translate that into motion? Picking up a skill this makes can only make our work and value shine brighter. Here’s a cool Skillshare logo animation class I came across if you’re interested.
2. Daily UI or Daily Coding Practice
I was introduced to DailyUI by a fellow Studio cohort-mate (thank you Kelly Phillips!) and wanted to sign up to challenge myself in the UI arena. Having focused on brand and visual design in the traditional sense for the past year, I wanted to challenge myself to grow in my UI design skills. I think incorporating some kind of creative daily practice into our design routine allows us to expand beyond our training or job title. Plus, it can’t hurt to have product design work in our portfolios, just in case we might want to work on applications one day.
Another daily practice I adopted for a while this summer was to spend a minimum of 5 minutes a day completing JavaScript challenges through the Grasshopper app. It’s so fun, expertly gamified, and helped me stay open to coding and logic, even while primarily working on visual design projects.
3. SVGs
I was recently working my way through a React for Designers course when I encountered SVGs. Purely out of unfamiliarity, I hadn’t embraced the trend and just stuck with static images in my work. However, once the course instructor used SVG wavy borders and CSS animation to create the illusion of a wavy, moving content block — I was in love. Visual designers, with even some basic understanding of how to use SVG can then consider the use of SVGs in their work to great visual effect. This cool and simple site shows how popular brand logos can responsively change format based on device or view size. Similar to learning small skills in an animation software, understanding and using SVGs can increase the value of a visual designer and show the level of thought behind their work. I think we’ll only continue to see the use of SVGs in digital design so getting comfortable with them now can’t hurt.
4. Protoyping Software & Talking with Devs
Although I spent the majority of my graduate education on the visual side of things, participating in Studio’s Entrepreneurial Design courses has convinced me of the value of prototyping a concept so that stakeholders and users can interact with it. Learning to use a prototyping software such as Adobe XD or Framer would be so valuable for a visual/UI designer these days because it would allow you to a) see your brand or visual identity applied in a real world context and b) make an even stronger case for your design decisions because you can show, in a compellingly realistic manner, what the result will be for the product overall. Here’s a link to a free Framer course just in case you’re interested!
The other side of this is learning basic engineering vocabulary and dev limit to inform your design work, particularly in the areas of product or UI design. I think developing this skill in our careers would allow us to speak about and defend our designs with conviction as well as design with empathy for those who will go on to actually build them.
5. CSS Animations
Circling back to number 3, learning how to create or at least becoming familiar with CSS animations, is a worthwhile use of time for visual designers. Using the above button hover state gif as an example, designing for different states or actions adds dimension, thoughtfulness, and beauty to the experience of users. One fun analog way to think about this could be designing the inside cover of a chocolate wrapper in a way that furthers brand loyalty rather than just leaving it paper white. Keeping this in mind when designing for web adds just one more layer of finesse and thoughtfulness to our work and the way the brands or designs we create live in a variety of contexts.
I am personally tackling numbers 1, 4, and 5 over these next few months of the year as I work on my portfolio and apply for jobs. I want to always be learning and expanding my abilities as a designer/developer hybrid and think this list is a great starting place. I hope one or two of these suggestions is inspiring to you and that you’ll get a busy brain imagining all of the possibilities!
