Download - Getting into Digital Design
GETTINGINTO DIGITAL DESIGN
ANDY CHAN Jonathan Hill Monica Giunchi
Digital design is a field of graphics which encapsulatesweb design user interfaces apps and everything screen based...
It is an evolving industry, it is always changing and exploring the uses of new devices and technology.
Professional Contacts
We contacted freelancers, small and large studios asking a short list of questions.
We asked:•What brought you into Digital design?•Was it always your intention or did you plan to work on something else?•What characteristics do you think make a great Digital designer?•What where the first things you learnt when you started out?•What has changed in your practice in the past few years and what do you expect to be working on in the future?•Is there anything else you think I should know?
BRISTOL
London
Kester Limb, GrowEugene Getov, Grow
Richard Windsor, Beef Remco Merbis, Pixillion DigitalDan Hirons, Activation Digital
Russell Kirkland, Mash and GravyRobb Green, SiftGroups
Tom Brooks, Olospo
Sam Clarke, Toasted DigitalAurelien Dallaserra, StreamPublishing
Mills, UstwoKen Chow, Freelance
GLoBal
David Gillett, Freelance, Bath Eleanor Rudge, Cogapp, Brighton
Sam Bell, Thought Collective, Belfast
Yuchen Zhang, Red Antler, New York
Kester Limb is a front end web developer and designer residing in Bristol, UK. He specialises in the field of standards based web development and interaction design. Currently working as part of the Grow cooperative based in Bristol, a collection of freelance web designers.
Kester LimbGROWBRistol
Kester Limb
Online Portfolio
Kester LimbWebsite for Cornwall Design Season 2011
David Gillett has been designing websites, games, applications, virals and educational resources for over eleven years and has a passion for interactive design.
After working for Complete Control for seven years, David is now a freelancer based in Bath
DAVID GiLLetTFreelance
Bath
Website, logo and user experience designed for Myeloma Acedemy.
David GillettCookies That Care campaign microsite designed for McVitie’s.
Ustwo is a digital design studio that delivers pioneering user experiences as digital partner to the world’s leading brands including Sony, Sony Ericsson, Intel, H&M, BBC, Turner and J.P.Morgan. They are boldly independent, serving a global client base from their studios in London and Malmö, Sweden (New York coming soon).
MillsUSTWO
London
Mills - MouthOff App
Mills - Whale Trail App
Getting Started
5 points to become a digital designer.
5 Points:
1. How to get into work2. What makes a great Digital designer?3. Usability and structure4. Backgrounds of the Designers5. The new frontiers of Digital design
“ If you want to build your own business it’s great to have a visual style that people identify with you. ”
KESTER LIMB
How to get into workVISUAL IDENTITY
How to get into workIDeas
“ For me, ideas are much more important than technique. Ideas are everything,
execution can be taught. ”
ROBB GREEN
How to get into workWork Experience
“ Get into professional practice early. As early as possible.
Take on freelance work. Design for the real world. ”
RICHARD WINDSOR
5 points:
1. How to get into work2. What makes a great Digital designer?3. Usability and structure4. Backgrounds of the Designers5. The new frontiers of Digital design
What makes a great digital designer?
ADAPTATION{ }“ I really believe if you train yourself to adapt as a core skill, you will get far. ”
SAM CLARKE
What makes a great digital designer?
One of the most important characteristics for a digital designer is the ability to adapt to the ever changing landscape of graphic design and learn new skills to enable you to work on new technologies.
ADAPTATION{ }
What makes a great digital designer?
BE interested}{Embrace the full flexibility
of varying outputs (monitor sizes, mobile, tablet) }{
What makes a great digital designer?
ATTENTION TO DETAIL{ }“ Great design is in the details, especially on the web - a really obsessive attention to detail can
make all the difference especially when you are working in pixels. ”
KESTER LIMB
What makes a great digital designer?
“ When you’re closely working alongside developers you need to be able to present organ-
ised coherent designs. ”
RICHARD WINDSOR
ATTENTION TO DETAIL{ }
5 points:
1. How to get into work2. What makes a great Digital designer?3. Usability and structure4. Backgrounds of the Designers5. The new frontiers of Digital design
Usability and structure
“ The ability to create beautiful and intuitive design - not too complicated
so that the user can find things easily.”
EUGENE GETOV
Usability and structure
Usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a website. Since the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and therefore decides everything.
Smashing Magazine, Usabilty and User Experience
Usability and structure
“ Make sure you never piss the user off. ”
“ Thinking constantly how users would respond to a function, a graphic shape or simply a text.”
RUSSEL KIRKLAND
YUCHEN ZHANG
5 points:
1. How to get into work2. What makes a great Digital designer?3. Usability and structure4. Backgrounds of the Designers5. The new frontiers of Digital design
Background of the designers
Contacts came from differentbackgrounds - graphics, illustration, animation, music, computer science, film editing.
“It just felt like a natural progression after certain opportunites presented themselves, Bristol is a very digital city after all.”
RICHARD WINDSORThe main reason for moving to digital design was due to the new opportunities opening up in this field.
Background of the designers
Contacts came from differentbackgrounds - graphics, illustration, animation, music, computer science, film editing.
“It just felt like a natural progression after certain opportunites presented themselves, Bristol is a very digital city after all.”
RICHARD WINDSORThe main reason for moving to digital design was due to the new opportunities opening up in this field.
Background of the designers
Contacts came from differentbackgrounds - graphics, illustration, animation, music, computer science, film editing.
“It just felt like a natural progression after certain opportunites presented themselves, Bristol is a very digital city after all.”
RICHARD WINDSORThe main reason for moving to digital design was due to the new opportunities opening up in this field.
5 points:
1. How to get into work2. What makes a great digital designer?3. Usability and structure4. Backgrounds of the Designers5. The new frontiers of Digital design
The Change
“ Trends change – a big big change in the past few years in my field is the moving away from Adobe Flash
to creating work solely in HTML. A very welcome evolution is the more mainstream availabil-ity of CSS3 fonts, enabling us to use rich fonts in our designs
while still designing accessible websites.”
SAM CLARKE
The Change
“ There is a much stronger focus on user experience design than ever, and this will
become even more important in the future.”
REMCO MERBIS
The Change
“ Touch interfaces are a new challenge, and mobile has finally taken off
after years of false starts.”
RUSSELL KIRKLAND
The one word that I hear more than any other at the moment is mobile. Mobile websites, mobile devices, mobile apps: the list seems to go on and on. In fact, a large swell of opinion says that the future Web is mobile.”
James Gardner, Designing for the Future Web, Smashing Magazine.
“ What HAS changed for me is that it is ALL about digital.
There is no other place
a designer should be. ”
MILLS
questions?And thank you for your time!
Read more about our research:http://digitalanguage.tumblr.com/
Review our presentation on:http:// slideshare.net/uwe_digital/getting-into-digital-design
ANDY CHAN Jonathan Hill Monica Giunchi