How To Get Started With Design

Alana Gleason

When I took on the role of Media Intern for a brand new, non-profit (SurvivorVision) I thought my duties would be limited to social media. However, I quickly had to adapt to multiple roles including design. I had no Photoshop experience, I had never taken an art and design course, and I had no idea how I was going to single-handedly redesign a package for this company.

I started with what I knew- their current marketing wasn’t working. Why?

I constructed an analytical survey and dispersed it to members of the community to identify which parts of the brand were unclear or just uninteresting. The results were surprising: people wanted to engage with an elite brand, one that aligned with their charitable personas and their social ones.

I then turned to the internet and found simple photo editing and type design programs for free, designing everything on a single-save server. It wasn’t easy.

I constantly started over and made fresh edits to a reconstructed design (mostly from memory), but this experience taught me so many things. One, I knew what I was doing, I just didn’t have the tools yet. I would recommend taking use of the Gregory Hall Media Labs to play around with Photoshop and other Adobe software. I’ve heard many people learn skills from YouTube tutorials and from Lynda.com.

I also had research to support my designs. I was able to pitch my new ideas to the company owners and provide reasons as to why they should take my advice. Design is a science. Sometimes you have a great eye and it comes naturally, but people always like to know where this bright idea came from. If you can’t attribute it’s unique selling point immediately, then you may want to highlight the hardcore evidence as to why your new design is sure-fire.

The honest truth to learning a new skill is throwing yourself out there and never giving up. I wouldn’t have gained this design experience with branding social media pages or event packages without immersing myself in the practice. I guarantee that no one is fully an expert in college, we’re all learning. If there’s a design skill you want to pick up then AAF is a stellar place to start. You can gain experience through their creative agency, OTH, or even with outside workshops held in the media labs. I can recommend taking an arts and design course to brush up on lingo or acquire basic concepts. There really is no right path or wrong direction. Take your cursor and get clicking!