Research – Design’s Best Friend

Design research is about making yourself more innovative and making sure you’re following in the right footsteps and also making your own.

Competitor Research
Find out who your competitors are, depending on your design market. You can research competitors that fit your style and design preference through Dribbble for design, print design and the App Store for utility and game apps. But also keep in mind it’s good to be unique, which means you’ll attract unique clients. Competitor research is more for when you are developing a design product.

Trending Design – But Beware
Creating timeless design is one of the greatest challenges. It’s good practice to take certain design trends for inspiration. But it’s not always healthy in the long run to follow them, because trends do end.

Logo Research
When creating a logo, research logos to make sure you’re not copying anyone else’s design. Gather inspiration but innovate on your projects. Clients are looking for unique work that represents who they are.

Valid UX
Research to stay up to date on UX design. Just because a new UX design happens, doesn’t mean it’s right. Research to make sure its the best solution for your UX problem or project. Test, test, and do more testing.

Research by Conversation
Follow designers on twitter and watch the feed to see what people are talking about. Designers are open about their opinions and will talk strongly about good and bad design. You could even hash tag #Design and follow feeds related to design.

Q: What are ways you research to enhance design skills and also for projects?

When Ideas Come to Shove

Living in San Francisco, I can’t help but sense the energy of wanting to create something, anything. There is as pulse in the city that cannot be described but it is certainly evident. Just like NYC has a pulse, and so many other cities, so does SF. Before moving to SF I didn’t have any “ideas” inspirations to build anything. Building an idea is like sailing into uncharted waters. You really don’t know what will happen till you’re there. But once I moved into the city, it was like a contagious cold. I got the start-up bug, that feeling of freedom from not working that boring 9-5 job. Moving to SF actual made my ideas tangible. It’s funny when people say “You need to move to San Francisco, it’s where it’s all happening.” but it’s nothing but the truth. Now is the time to get funding, to be a designer or engineer. Start-ups all over the city are lurking for designers left and right, if you have talent and a keen eye for detail, you have already paved your way. Great engineers are sought out even more. If you want to get your foot in the door this is the place to be. The small city, foggy weather and the sad amount of homeless people may not be your thing. But it if you can overcome that with incredible food, great dive bars, endless things to do and start-up parties, you’ll be very happy. I promise you, you’ll never run out of t-shirts from all the parties you will be going to. There is something about the heartbeat of San Francisco that urges you to create anything. You can’t live here and not be motivated.

Building an idea is like sailing into uncharted waters. You really don’t know what will happen till you’re there.

Rent in the city is pretty intense, but when you think that you won’t own a car and won’t be paying for parking, it all is relative. Although a lot of people do prefer to live outside the city, which us urban folk call bridge and tunnel people. Rent this year has considerably gone up, thankfully for people that got their places before this year, have rent control. I personally like living in the city, it’s easier to meet people, get together to work on projects and it’s great living so close to everything.

There is something about the heartbeat of San Francisco that urges you to create anything. You can’t live here and not be motivated.

Sure SF is cold and foggy, but it has a lot of diversity (Which I love) so you can always find the right place for you. Overall, this city is the place to be if you want to build a new idea, get a round of funding and learn from the brightest people in your industry. There is something about the heartbeat of San Francisco that urges you to create anything. You can’t live here and not be motivated. I wouldn’t pass up a job offer for here if I was you, and you were able to move. Just to even test the city out for year, you don’t have to stay. Most people I know that have moved here, love it and never want to leave. But like a lot of cities, you have to find the one that works best for you and your dreams.

Inspiration in the Sky

When I fly, I get so excited because it’s a time for me that I have to unplug from the outside world. I feel for some reason that when I am in the sky I feel closer to my thoughts and that anything is possible. Maybe it’s because as humans we are not designed to fly, we were not born with wings. But we’ve been innovative to make our own. If you heard someone say that one day we’d fly in the sky in a silver tube, the person would probably just look at you odd. But because such technology now exists from such a foreign thought, I feel that when I am in the sky, I am able dream a lot clearer.

I’ve been stuck on a few projects of my own and during the flight I felt that I had ideas were a flood. A large part was just being inspired by the beauty below me and the ocean. The other side was just unplugging from my phone. Sometimes we feed off other people to be our inspiration, when really we just need to feed off our own minds. As creatives we have brilliant ideas going through each of us everyday. It just takes discipline to tap out of the digital world, unplug, and focus on what we ourselves see in our work.

One exercise that really helps when you are out of ideas, is to walk up to a white wall and just stare at it. Wait till you get extremely bored of it and have already found all the dirty spots. After awhile, imagine drawing anything on that white wall. Maybe it’s your project, design, or unicorns with sparkles. This really creates a great exercise for your brain, that allows you to pull out your creative side within yourself and not from anything or anyone else.

That’s all I have today, but even if you don’t know where to go, hop on a plane sometime. It’s amazing to get away.