How to become an excellent graphic designer: secrets of success for students

How do you become not just a developer, but a successful graphic designer working with influential companies with interesting projects around the world?

Stefan Sagmeister is one of the best creative graphic designers of our time. His high professionalism and creativity have earned him almost all the awards and honors in graphic design and advertising. During his career, he has worked with social projects, fashion brands, music labels, and design and art schools. The design studio he founded works in four areas: music, social, corporate, and author design.

Many aspiring designers are still in college. But how do you allocate time to study graphic design for an already busy student? Don’t worry if you don’t have time for some of your academic assignments, as you can hire someone to write a paper for you on the best writing service. Be sure of the paper quality, as many students delegate tasks to professionals for better results. And you can devote this time to the study of graphic design.

Stefan Sagmeister shared the secrets of success as a graphic designer and advertising.

Fall in love with graphic design

The most important secret to a designer’s success is his boundless love for his work. If you love graphic design, the reality for you will be creative ideas, successful projects, and virtuoso visualization, the desire to learn. You will learn a lot of helpful details and improve yourself. Stefan speaks confidently about all this, for he has devoted several years to studying happiness in his life. As a result of extraordinary research work, he derived seven rules of a happy life, most of which, surprisingly, apply to work.

Know how to separate work and rest

One of the keys to success as a graphic designer is the ability to separate work and leisure, or better yet, personal life. What does this mean? You shouldn’t spend 24 or 16 hours a day at work. So Stefan Sagmeister made sure from personal experience that he works much more efficiently, clearly designating working hours and time off. After he opened his design studio, he could not afford to rent an office, so he and his colleagues rented a duplex. They had to live and work under the same roof, but the efficiency of all employees increased dramatically after Stefan introduced the “call-to-work” rule. So during working hours, everyone gave 100%, knowing that after 7 p.m. they would have rest and free time.

Don’t forget about breaks

We are not talking about daily rest, but weekends and vacations. Creative ideas, fresh thoughts, and a new approach to implementing graphic design ideas require rest and inspiration. One of the secrets of Stefan’s success is the “7 in 1” rule. He and the employees of his company work for 7 years and then take a leave for 1 year. During this time they are not engaged in commercial projects. Stefan travels around the world in search of inspiration and new ideas, filled with the desire to create. Not everyone has the opportunity to take a long vacation, but even 1 month a year will allow your thoughts to clear, and ideas will not be long in coming.

Don’t complain

Creative designer Stefan Sagmeister can’t stand complaining. To avoid it, he is guided by the principle: either do it or forget it. He never takes on projects he doesn’t want to do, so he has time for advertising campaigns where he can realize his creative ideas instead of beating himself up over an unpleasant task. This has been his guiding principle since the beginning of his career. Choosing between a free interesting project and a boring one, but for the money, he always chose the first.

Take projects on a 50/50 rule

Learning graphic design is an ongoing process. It doesn’t end once you graduate from a design institute and start working. The profession involves constant development, knowledge of trends, and innovations in the methodology and techniques of work. To maintain his professionalism a graphic designer must work on multi-faceted projects, according to the principle that 50% of the work he knows very well, and the other 50% he will have to learn how to do.

As we can see, at the heart of the success of a graphic designer is a quality education. You can get it in one of the best design schools in Europe and the world Istituto Marangoni. Education abroad is the start of a successful career and self-realization. The course “Graphic Design” at Istituto Marangoni they do not just teach how to become a designer, they teach how to become a really good graphic designer. For three years the best teachers in Europe work with each student to help them learn the subtleties of design, advertising, design history, illustration, interactive design, video, and graphics. Regular practical training and an internship program reinforce the acquired knowledge. As a result, graduates get jobs in the best companies all over the world or work on their projects.