Advice for design students
Every day I receive emails from graphic design students, all wanting advice. I can’t reply to everyone, but a fair bit of my time goes toward answering the most common questions in the form of blog posts.
With 600+ pages on this site, here’s the content I think is most helpful to students.
Advice for design students
On learning
- A few good books
- What graphic design schools are lacking
- Ten principles for good design
- What convicts can teach us about branding
- Design blogs on my subscription list
- What’s your favourite graphic design book?
- Iconic designers — takes you to a different site
- On unpaid internships
On getting hired
- The design company is not the only place to be a designer
- I wish I’d known that — design graduate advice
- What employers look for #1
- What employers look for #2
- What employers look for #3
- What employers look for #4
- D&AD President offers advice to graduates on getting hired
- Improve your portfolio with pro bono design
- On unpaid internships
- Getting your foot in the door — CV/resumé tips
- Design interview tips
On self-employment
- Quality vs quantity
- How I became a self-employed graphic designer
- How to get 87,698 blog subscribers
- How 20 designers charge their clients
- Designing through a recession
- iMac buying tips
- Self-employment advice for graphic designers
- How to convince your clients they need a brand, not just a logo
- Are freelance designers really suckers?
- More than just a title
- Be brilliant at the basics
- Showing sketches to clients
- You don’t need a designer
- Logo trademarking tips: a legal perspective
- A manifesto on writing for design
On typography
On commercial printing
- Print vendors: a few handy resources
- Prepress tips for graphic designers
- Recommended UK commercial printers
- Money-saving questions to ask before printing your promotional material
There’s also the “your questions answered” series (from numbers one to five I think — others found through the “related posts” bit), although I reckon my opinion might’ve since changed on many of the topics — blog advertising, for instance.
And the featured articles page, too. Might do away with that, though.
Photo by Steve Kay, thank you
Related posts worth a look
40 appreciated comments on “Advice for design students”
Anything to add?
All comments are moderated so you may experience a short delay before yours appears. Comments should be respectful of other voices in the discussion, and I reserve the right to edit or delete comments at my discretion.
Please use your real name. Keywords will be removed.
Wow, this is great! This is a good resource for professionals as well.
Thanks for putting this together for us!
Thanks a lot David, this is a nice directory of resources. The insights are always helpful.
Great links David. Will go through them during my free time! :)
Reading this in my Typography class right now. Thanks so much! :)
Thanks for these great links!
Thanks David great resource!
Heres another post your viewers may find useful: 5 Tips for Design Students – http://blog.leegustin.com/design-students/
This is an exceptional resource, i wish that when i graduated that i found a post as helpful as this!
Hi David,
you have profiled my business card in the past – and thanks for your interest. My next idea is to use a door hanger flyer like they use in hotels as part of my next business card/info flyer. Perhaps you have some ideas, feel free to email me and we can discuss. thanks David!
Awesome. Bookmarked and retweeted. ;-)
David, I just want to say thanks for this post. You are by far one of the most thoughtful designers out there! I still remember when you responded to my email and I thought that alone was nice of you. Thanks for more amazing resources :)
You are so kind man, thank you for your effort. I personally appreciate it.
More power!
Thank you for sharing these awesome resources, this is so helpful!
Great resource Dave, thank you!
Very nice collection of information. I wish I had such a concise resource during my student years, but we can all continue to educate ourselves.
Always a great source of inspirational words; from your book to your advice. Thanks David!
This is INCREDIBLY useful, I’ve put it in my blogroll.
Now when students contact me I can send them to your much more comprehensive advice rather than my piddling bits and pieces :D
You’re all more than welcome, and Amanda, that’s excellent. Thanks.
I discovered this page today, maybe the best discovery of the year! Thank you for the inspirational collection!
Awesome article. I couldn’t stop reading it until I finished it all. The self employment hierarchy was an eye opener.
Getting started as a designer, freelance or otherwise, is definitely a tough nut to crack without the right guidance – beautiful list David.
Hello,
If and its a BIG if, someone decided to go on their own and say a potential client asked what qualifies you to be a graphic or web designer, what would be a good answer? It’s just that there seems to be some courses available but then some seem to be not quite what would seem appropriate to this career.
Thank you,
Best wishes
Graeme
David I was wondering what your advice to students would be regarding sites like People Per Hour. I took at look at it and was suprised just how many students were bidding to do work at silly prices. I know you have to start somewhere, but the site really devalues graphic design, Logos design for Vertical Blind Company£10 – £50.00 fixed fee (- 10% commission), 70 bids.
The site is full of students who in the long run may find they slightly damage the industry they seek to get into.
My advice is to steer well clear, Gavin. Clients who value the visual identity of their business at a hundred or so pounds aren’t worth your time. You’ll end up losing money by accepting those kinds of jobs, and if that’s the case, you’re much better off by improving your portfolio with pro bono design.
As a student again I wish I had read this the first time.
Hello Mr. David, actually I came to know about your page and links for the first time. My sir, Mr. Shahid Breir, suggested that I to refer to your links. They are very helpful in our projects. Thanks again.
This is like my design bible. Thank you for sharing, David!
You’re amazing!
This is a good resource for professionals as well. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the tips, very kind of you, I’m a graphic design student and this has helped me a lot.
All the best
Gwen
I have recently been hired by a dental group to create a logo for them. This is my first time designing a logo for a company. I went to school for graphic design so I have created logos before but I have not created a logo for a business before. They asked me how much I charge and what it includes. I am unsure what to set my rates at and what other things would be included. Can you give me an idea of how to set my rates?
This blog post (and the comment thread beneath it) might help you, Brittany: How much does logo design cost?
I’m a recent design school graduate and I’m in the process of job hunting. It’s going slowly and at the same time I can’t help but wonder if taking a design apprenticeship would be the best fit for me now. I have experience from freelancing and related experience from internships and a web design job, but not industry experience. What’s most important to me now is learning and growing, so I’d really like to know if you think that becoming an apprentice would be ideal for doing just that. I haven’t found anything on your blog about apprenticeships, so I figured that I’d ask here. Any advice would be much appreciated. I always find your advice very useful!
Thanks,
Catrina
Hi Catrina, I don’t have any experience of apprenticeships in particular, but I think there’s quite a lot of overlap between them and internships. You have experience in relevant employment, self-employment, and from internships. It doesn’t seem as if you need to search for an apprenticeship. You learn and grow on the job. Employers will know this.
I love this post! Really good for the beginner or aspiring designer.
You have the best site for valuable information; I have referred to your site, my GAG Book and AIGA resources with all kinds of business of design questions.
What you do for the design community is wonderful. I am pretty sure I speak for many when I say; “Thank You!”
Hello, I am about to complete a course in visual communication. For references and guidance I always refer to your blog. The advice for design students column helps a lot, so thank you!
Hi David,
I just graduated with an A.S. in Graphic Design from a community college. I have worked on academic projects, but do not have any work experience. I am putting together my resume and applying for jobs. I am hearing that most companies toss out resumes without work experience. What would you advise about showing my academic projects in my resume. I am not sure if that is something people generally do.
Looking forward for your reply.
Thank you,
Sanvi
Don’t add student projects to your resumé, Sanvi, but do include them in your portfolio. When experience is hard to find, pro bono design is one solid option. Good luck.
Thank you so much for the advice David
Regards
-Sanvi
Hi David,
Not too sure if this is the right place to ask this question but can I have a go?
I’ve been reading that you should deliver your work in pdf format either to a customer or a printer. I was wondering how you convert your artwork into pdf. I know of pdf online which I use to convert Publisher files to pdf but how can I convert say a logo or something for print?
Many thanks as always,
Best wishes
Graeme
I don’t use Publisher, Graeme, so I’m not sure how much help I can be. But if I’m creating a print-ready PDF from Illustrator or InDesign I’ll use the “export to PDF” or “save as PDF” option. I don’t think I’ve ever converted a logo file to PDF for printing, because the logo has always been part of something else (a business card or brochure for instance).