Stefan Hiienurm

I wrote this article to share my experience with other young designers all over the world. I hope this will help you to be more successful.

Introduction

To be successful designer you must follow small and needed things every day. This small details are sometimes very important.

Portfolio

If you are graphic designer you must have portfolio or some showcase of your works. Backup and organize all your works somewhere, don’t delete nothing, because in the future you may have to show some of your works to your clients.
I personally categories my works by year and project(clients). This gives you best overview what you have done and when.

Portfolio is like a business card what represents you. If i say portfolio i mean online portfolio. We are currently living in internet era, it means that 90% companies look designer from online. This doesn’t mean that you can’t own a printed one, but i recommend online portfolio at first. Please do not use some kind of free website generator. If you don’t know how to code choose alternative services like  Squarespace or DeviantArt Portfolio.

Scream, everywhere!

The second thing you must do is that you should scream as loud as possible. The big problem with many designer is that they are good in what they do, but nobody even don’t know about them. Publish your work in social communities like Dribbble and Twitter. Also send your works to inspiration magazines. This guarantees to you in long term that you name is known for other people and also for Google.

Socialize, add comments, ask & answer questions. Make direct communication with people. Fans like if you talk with them.

I personally prefer this social channels:

• Dribbble
• Twitter
• Forrst (ask me for invite in Twitter @shiienurm)
• Pinterest
• DeviantArt
• Behance
• Tumblr
• Zerply

Client communication

Designer most valuable skill after creative thinking is communication skills You must understand your client needs and will able to put them into visual concept. This is the hardest part of all things. Design for personal purpose is way more different than for clients.
Doing design for clients is dealing with problems and they got tons of them. Plan your time wisely and make timetables and tasklist to improve your productivity.

Get yourself a Mac

This is no fanboy thing, it’s just truth. Mac OS is made for graphic design. You will never regret this investment. I guess i’m not very good person to say exactly why, but i guess you can find good articles inGoogle.

Improve your skills

To be successful designer you must learn new ways to do things, improve your skills and know  which is in vogue. For me it’s magazines. Great inspiration and news magazines are great if you don’t know what to do with your time.

My favorite magazines:

• Smashing Magazine
• Abduzeedo
• Web.AppStrom
• Inspirationfeed
• Designinspiration
• CSS Tricks
• Web Designer Wall

I hope that i covered most important things what helped me to be successful. There are more aspects, but it’s pointless to cover all of them. These points give you good stratpoint.

“Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
- Saint Francis of Assisi

PS! This is my first long article, please do not be a very critical, i will improve myself every day.