My First Week studying Design 101 at SENPAI — What I have learned, created and all the gist in-between
I never felt like writing was my strength but ironically, it’s one of my goals for this year. I’m grateful for the push and now I have to face my ‘fears’, suck it up and give you guys a good story.
Here goes nothing.
You know that eerie feeling of stumbling blindly through a dark room searching for a way out and somehow feeling like you’re also losing oxygen? Well that’s how it felt for me when I started designing, that and the ever looming feeling of being an imposter.
Although I did a ton of research and consumed information like a crazy person, I always still craved a well mapped out design education plan that I could relate to and actually learn from.
While perusing through TechCabal Daily, Issue 562, I read that a design company called Senpai had just launched a free online design course. The best part was that it was free (terms and conditions apply obviously). I figured it was their first time and they were probably going to use us as test guinea pigs but I decided to give it a try. I could easily opt out if it didn’t meet my expectations but it’s only been a week and I’m wondering where they’ve been all my life.
First off, I’m in the most ridiculous group and it’s called “JOLLOF RICE DESIGN”. I shit you not! My team is literally called Jollof Rice Design and that was how I knew I was definitely in the right place.
Our team mentor is Olusegun Aribido, He’s awesome, one of the best Nigerians on Uplabs, has a weird thing for Jollof rice and you can find some of his designs here. He also gave us some C.R.A.P advice (please it’s just an acronym and you should read the article first before you slit my wrists, thanks)
In his exact words:
Basic items to cook a wonderful Jollof Design.
1. Pencil and sketch pad
2. Consistency / practice
3. Empathy
4. Look out for inspiration
Now I’m hungry -_-
So what did you learn sis???
Relax, I’m getting to the good part.
This week, I received several articles to study, a couple of videos to watch, some podcasts to listen to, an exercise to carry out and this post to write (yes this very one) I’ll share in no particular order.
First off, if you want a crash-CRASH course in the fundamentals of design and you’re like me who prefers to watch/listen, here’s a fun, short video.
A DESIGN CAREER
One of the things I read was written by Henry, founder of Senpai, and it talks about what it entails to have a career in design in 2018.
A quick summary
- Have a lot of empathy
- Learn to see and draw (for which you must learn the ten principles for good design by Dieter Ram and no I’m not going to list them. Don’t be lazy, open the link and read -_-)
- Learn the principles of design (balance, proximity, alignment, repetition, contrast and space)
- Specialize in an area of design — Graphic, Interaction (i.e. UI, UX), Industrial, Spatial, whatever floats your boat really.
- Pick and learn your design tools
- Learn the business of design (The Futur, saving lives since 1923 and yes I made the year up. Fight me -_- )
- Build your portfolio (obviously)
- Get your first design job or don’t, whatever makes you happy.
Honestly, just read the entire article, Henry did a very comprehensive job.
SEEING DESIGN
Another topic I absolutely enjoyed was “Learn to see design”.
As a designer you should see:
- Typography
- Information Architecture
- Interaction design (User experience and User Interface)
- The conversation between Business, Design and Technology that lead to this point.
Look at the image below and let me know when you “see”. Also check out this article
We don’t see that we don’t see — The Tree of Knowledge, Maturana & Varela
You would have to develop a sharper eye for good and bad design. You also need to develop the ability to see things as the customer would and help them see better too i.e. use design to make the invisible visible. I learned that “learning to design is learning to see” and that you need a “design eye” to design and a “non design eye” to feel.
See with one eye, feel with the other — Paul Klee
I’ve also come to understand that good design is invisible but it doesn’t mean the interface should be hidden, hereby rendering the product obscure. Read more about seeing design here.
EXERCISE 1: Our first exercise was to create a document showing and describing websites that are good and bad. I hadn’t really used figma prior to this but I’m conversant with a couple of design tools so it wasn’t really an issue. However, Henry was kind enough to create this Figma tutorial which you should check out if you want to learn the basics of Figma.
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
The most relatable thing I heard all week pertaining to design was a podcast about “Information overload” from the Futur.
Remember when I said I consume information like a crazy person? Well, this podcast really put things into perspective for me. At some point I stopped assimilating information but instead of slowing down, I felt like I needed more.
I was actually scared to stop taking in information, meanwhile I really just needed to calm down and be selective about it. So you should definitely listen to this podcast if this is an issue you face.
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEED
I learned about the hierarchy of needs and how a design needs to meet some minimal need and work as intended or it wouldn’t really matter and it’s as good as useless. Read more about that here
CONCLUSION
So far, I’ve learned so much and I’m really looking forward to more. I’ll leave you with this video which pretty much sums up what I mean when I say “Design is Everything”
