I totally know what's going on in there minds because before i found design I was wasting my time doing music production which I didn't have the 'ear' for, I improved to a certain point then made no progress. It was a bit annoying cus I did spend out on sound font's and midi equipment etc but I knew I wasn't going anywhere so I moved on. I was messing around with photoshop whilst I did music prod. Wasn't anything serious but as I got hang of the program more, i could do better stuff, and things just escalated from there.
Two months into messing with photoshop and setting up a myspace just for the hell of it I had people hitting me up like 'How much for...?' I never thought of it as a way to make money but hell, my prices were cheap and acted as a small reward to the time I spent on someone elses work. Then I got decent and started seeing people with no skill asking for around $200 for a myspace layout I wouldn't wipe my arse with, whilst I was making them for $40 and actually putting time and thought into it. Yeah they weren't gobsmacking back then but hey I improved fast! I got told my prices were a little too affordable by other designers and some clients so I upped them. Now its toasty :]
Yeah everyones first pieces come out crap, so they have to be given a chance, but those people who don't improve month after month its like, dont waste your time man, your talent isn't here, it's somewhere else, go find it! Not in a harsh way, but out of experience I guess cus I wish i never messed with production. I could have got into this sooner, before I chose college courses, I could have spent time learning at college but I couldn't cus music prod. was my dream back then.
There's ways to tell if someone generally has the creative eye or not. My Ways:
- Can get perspectives right in first pieces - I see this as simple as, common sense, not necessarily something learnt because we see everything in perspective, we live in a world thats kept in perspective lol, you should be able to tell what looks right with perspective without trouble. If your can't then switch off your computer and go take a look out your window... you stupid!
- Is able to use colors right - meaning doesn't but a guy in a pink jacket in the middle of everyone else who'se wearing dark colors. Doesnt put someone whose all lit up in a dark street stock.
- Shows attempts to blend - attempts because you have to learn the program to know how to actually blend properly.
- Doesn't follow the rest, comes up with there own creative ideas - too many people download photoshop, look at some covers and attempt to re-create them, which turn out fucking hiddeous!
- Is there biggest critic and doesn't react badly or put there defences up when they recieve negative critism when posting there work in a forum for feedback - happens all the time. Extremely competative area of work, can't take some negative critism? Think everyones hating on your because your work is blatanly whack? Then go sit in a corner and read a book cus you will not last.
Truth is every 13-20 year old with an internet connection will most probably have a copy of photoshop on there computer. Some will use it just for simple stuff not trying to be a designer, others will take no notice of it cus of its complexity, whilst others will see people earning from design and throw themselves in the deep end starting by making a cover for example. Just the clever few will have opened up photoshop, had a click around, thought 'oh this is pretty cool' closes it and comes back to it another day. Again clicks around, learns via trial and error, learns the very basics, gets past the fad of using default styles and filters, starts creating decent, promising stuff and goes from there.
Don't linger where you have no improvement, move on to find your tallent.
What dya think?
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