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Designer of the Week 004 - Kostadin Kostadinov

Mr. Kostadinov is a very well experienced and made out to be logo designer who has his own design company, “BRVND” which is mostly why we have the up most respect for him and his work. He has a lot of knowledge to share, so get your pens and notebooks out and start writing.

Here we go.

sense it. — “How did you get started in graphic design?”

Mr. Kostadinov — “ I found a job at a small design studio through a newspaper ad (remember those). At the time I had no real portfolio, I had a made-up one consisting of imaginary projects. Turns out it was good enough to get my foot through the door.”

sense it. — “We know that we are always growing as people and designers, but was there a point in your career where you thought that you were finally getting close to your goal in terms of being a great designer?”

Mr. Kostadinov — “ Not really. I’ve been very self conscious of the fact that I have no formal design education, so in the past I’ve always tried to overcompensate by devouring every piece of knowledge on the subject I could get my hands on and working really hard (that’s how I gathered a huge collection of books). In time went and my skills grew, so did my worldview, exposing me to and more and more fantastic aspects of the profession and new gaps in my knowledge. I’ve learned about new skills and disciplines that would take a lifetime to master, and you know, we have so little time to be around. So paradoxically as time goes and I learn more, it feels like that I’m getting further away from the goal of being a “great designer” rather than getting closer.”

sense it. — “Favorite book, does not have to be design-oriented, and favorite person?”

Mr. Kostadinov — “ I will go with a design related one: It’s Michael Bierut “79 Short Essays on Design”, it’s a fantastic read, it covers topics that aren’t that common on the internet such as: interesting anecdotes, ethics, the shortcomings of design education, art, politics and the value of bullshit.

Favorite person must be my son, Martin.”

sense it. — “Can you give one tip to an aspiring graphic designer?”

Mr. Kostadinov — “ Learn how to listen and how to think simple! It takes a lot of effort to achieve and maintain those skills.”

Thank you very, very much Mr. Kostadinov. As per usual you have provided us with great knowledge and experience in design. And as per usual we have provided some of his work and social medias below.

Instagram: @kostadin_ov

Website: BRVND

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Take Risks, Not Just as a Designer, But as a Human

Taking Risks is part of being a designer, a good businessman or woman, and is even part of being human. It gives us a thrill-a moment of ecstasy. So why wouldn’t you want to take risks all the time? Well to be safe of course. And that is completely okay, there is nothing wrong with being safe, but what’s the fun in that?

Taking Risks as a Designer

In the design community there a couple of ways to get noticed. One, you can wait for your turn and patiently wait for that moment that might not come knocking on your door, or email feed (a client). Or secondly, you could forget the waiting and take matters into your own hands. This includes designing for and talking about controversial topics. This includes moving across the state, or country for that in-house design job that you didn’t wait for.

Taking Risks as a Businessman or Woman

The fundamentals of being a good business personal aka a good entrepreneur are taking risks. How will you get that companies attention if you are standing on the sideline waiting for them to come to you? I’ll answer that for you. You aren’t.

Taking Risks as a Human

Being human can either be fun or not. It is as simple as that. But what a lot of people forget about our lives is that we have so much control over ourselves and lives that we never take those risks and opportunities in the first place. We get complacent, jealous of the people living the good life, and ignorant to the fact that they took risks to get there. You have to do the same.

A very wise man by the name of Gary Vaynerchuk is a big believer in not wasting time in this life, since you have so little of it and and an even smaller amount of chance getting one. He says, “Time - the one asset none of us are ever gonna get more of.” So if you are going to take a risk today, then go all in.

I hope for much success to you.

_

Patrick Tuell (CEO and Founder of Sense It) 

Instagram: @senseitstudios

Twitter: @senseitstudios

Facebook: @SenseIt

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Just a tip from us. 🤗

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Designer of the Week 003 - Erik Thompson

Our third guest has arrived! Drum roll please…it’s Erik Thompson! He is a very, very talented logo designer who works well with branding and identity systems.

We came with questions, he came with answers.

sense it. — “How did you get started in graphic design?”

Erik Thompson — “When I was 16, I did graffiti on the walls on the street to express my creativity. Then I joined a hip-hop band and realized the visual (flyers…). I understood that I wanted to work in this field.”

sense it. — “Lots of people choose to freelance with their name as their brand, what made you choose to do so?”

Erik Thompson — “Very good question. I chose to use my name because my work represents me and I do everything myself. I express everything that I understood and how I feel about the client’s order.” He then adds, “I prefer to be less wealthy than working for an employer who exploits my talent for little money.”

sense it. — “Do you have a favorite designer/studio? Favorite design book?”

Erik Thompson — “I don’t really have a favorite graphic designer or studio. Since I want to bring out the simple things, I’m inspired by nature. But this guy is awesome @george_bokhua”

sense it. — “How long did it take to find your style and what you were good at?”

Erik Thompson — “Before finding my own style, it took me four years after leaving school. Training allowed me to broaden my horizons and try different things depending on the courses and practices we had to do. My strength is in minimalism, whether branding, edition, or webdesign. I like doing something simple and precise, which is clear for the customer.”

sense it. — “What is one tip you would give to aspiring graphic designers?”

Erik Thompson — “Never give up, especially when you choose to work in freelance. Finding contracts by yourself and to be directly in contact with customer is not easy but its still very satisfying at the end.”

Thank you, Mr. Thompson, for giving such great responses and insight as to who you are and sharing that with the world. We could not end this without his social medias, so as follows:

Instagram: @iamerikthompson

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Still Young? Become a Designer

As an 18-year-old graphic designer, at the time of writing this, trying to make his own in the industry I have learned a couple things. One of those things is that being young is awesome.

You have almost unlimited freedom, and although it can be intimidating, it can also be enlightening.

Being a Young Designer is Freeing

There is a revolving circle of your freedom-enhancing and creating more freedom for you to design which then creates more freedom for yourself and so on and so forth. You are also free to break the rules, as you might not know what the rules even are. I want you to try designing a website, or a brochure, or a t-shirt and then fail. I want you to try again and then fail harder. Making and designing these things will only teach you what you like and don’t like, what you are good at and what you aren’t good at. These failures will teach you more than almost any class ever could.

Being a Young Designer is Intimidating

This freedom acquired by design can be very scary, intimidating, and everything in between. You are allowed to break the rules, but should you? Sure you don’t completely know what you are doing yet, but what if someone disagrees with your design, or thinks your design is bad? Designers are slammed all the time due to their work being shared on social media and it not having the predicted feedback. Designers are slammed by people who think Papyrus is a good font. But that is okay too. That is their freedom and right as someone has not studied design, or learned to appreciate it, to think that Papyrus is a good font. So it is okay for you to design that dress or logo and to share it with the world with confidence.

Being a Young Designer is Enlightening

Becoming a designer has taught me so much. As I spend time on social media and curated design websites I see so much work from people with entirely different backgrounds than me. I realize that my way of thinking is not the only way or might not even be the best. I have thought so highly of other designers that I have thought of them as philosophers, life-changing, and heroes. They show you the past, make you live in the present, and get ready for the future. These designers have changed my life, so let them change yours.I encourage you to leave my blog with an open mind to design and even an open mind to letting yourself be free to fail and be enlightened with confidence that it is okay to be who you are-designer or not. Thank you.

_

Patrick Tuell (CEO and Founder of Sense It

)Instagram: @senseitstudios

Twitter: @senseitstudios

Facebook: @SenseIt

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For our second designer of the week, a very talented logo designer, Palle StCyer, also known as YesqArts on social media.

Our team here at sense it., has been watching and paying attention to him for a few months now and have been very impressed with his abilities to create meaningful logos that look amazing.

We asked him a few questions.

sense it. - “YesqArts, we find, is a very unique name. How did it come about?”

YesqArts - “I made the name when I was 13 or 14 so unfortunately it doesn’t have any clever meaning - it was just an alias at the time. I originally thought it cool to have a ‘q’ at the end of my name and tried adding everything I could think before it. I had noticed a Yes or No prompt for something online, and since then I’ve stuck with the name Yesq. It also works now because of the Yes incorporated into the name. Now, it not only represents an alias, but a brand that I’ve developed over the years.”

sense it. - “Who is the founder and how did they get started in graphic design as well as start, "YesqArts?”

YesqArts - “I, Palle StCyer, am the founder of YesqArts. I originally started out simply creating simple YouTube banners for friends because I could not afford to have one made for me. Eventually, my friend was generous enough to give me $2.50 per banner and that made me extremely happy. I mean, being a kid, especially in a rural area heavily dependent on farming, even earning that little amount meant a lot to me. The whole YesqArts thing was just pure luck honestly. Really never expected to get here.”

sense it. - “You design some really fascinating logos, where do you get your inspiration?”

YesqArts - “I get most of my inspiration for logos by browsing sites like Behance for design related things that interest me. Often times I will not look at logo studies, but animation and architecture because they really motivate my brain to think differently.”

sense it. - “Can you give us some tips on making logos for as many days in a row that you have?”

YesqArts - “One tip for making daily logos is that you cannot expect constant quality work. Sometimes you have bad days, design blocks, or something of the sort. By doing logos daily, you’re trading some quality for some quantity. But when posting client pieces, I always try to put more hours to focus on the quality.

Another tip is that you can’t get stuck in the numbers. Numbers of likes or comments doesn’t define the quality of a logo.”

We really appreciate Mr. StCyer for his cooperation and very thought out, detailed answers. He is growing bigger everyday and making noise in the design industry. Here is some of his work to admire as well as his social media:

Twitter: @YesqArts

Instagram: @yesqarts

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Not everyone has the same design process, nor should they have the same design process. I feel as if Everyone should have their own way of doing things since everyone is different after all. We think differently therefore we output our thoughts differently.

This is not a guide. This is just showing you what works for me.

Step 1: Draw all ideas down on paper

This is such a great way to quickly get those bad ideas and even potentially game changing ideas out. You might have heard of this before by many, many other designers and artists, but more often than not for logos, and even though I do think this part of the process is especially good for designing logos, I believe that you could use this tip for poster design or web design and layout among many other things. There are not rules here so please do not feel confined to do this for just logos.

Step 2: Create a moodboard

There are plenty of “moodboard makers” out there, such as Canva, Adobe Spark, gomoodboard, and even Pinterest. However, I just use Adobe Photoshop. I find this works best since it is all on one artboard and I can even edit the pictures as I go to get a good feel for the direction I need to be going in.

One tip I can give you is to make a couple mood boards, or several, just more than one. I recommend making at least one for the target audience of your client, and for the companies overall look they are trying to achieve. This can take a couple of days, but do not worry it will make the rest of the designing easier since you know what aesthetic and feeling you are trying to achieve.

Step 3: Research similar designs

Researching other designs in the same field you are trying to design for is genius in that you get inspiration and you learn about your client’s competition at the same time. It is like drawing two logos with one pencil. Or something.

This part is particularly great for getting that last bit of identification on what you are actually designing for.

Step 4: Finish up in Illustrator of Photoshop

This part is the one of the easiest. All you have to do is finish up and wrap your design in a little pink bow. Pretty self explanatory.

Step 5: Present to the client

This part is one of the hardest. Presenting to a client can be a daunting task in and of itself…so that is why I will be discussing it in another post. ;)

Conclusion

Do not be afraid to try my step by step process. Do not be afraid to try someone else’s process for designing. Do not be afraid of anything as a designer and business man or woman. Taking risks is what this is all about. The least you could do is figure out what step by step process works for you.

I hope you find yours.

-

Patrick Tuell (CEO and Founder of Sense It)

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Our very first designer, or in this case design team, of the week!

I have been talking and interacting with this team of designers for the past couple of months now and they know what they are talking about. They are all able to accurately describe their feelings towards design as well as design toward feelings.

I present to you, Team Pakt!

I only asked them a couple of questions to get us started on our first week.

sense it. - “Who is the founder and how did they get started in graphic design?”

Team Pakt - “I got the idea to create Pakt with a mate last year, I’m Guillaume Wimlot and he is Antoine Gérardy, we met 4 years ago at a school in a graphic design class. Our passion for graphic design became more and more important each day and so It was a no brainer for us to create Pakt.”

sense it. - “How was the team made and who is on the team?”

Team Pakt - “Soon after creating Pakt, we asked three talented friends of us if they wanted to join the team and the did so now we are five, it’s perfect because we’ve got a good balance, one is better in drawing, the other one in branding… now our team is stronger than ever and we love creating new designs every day! The other members are Alexandre Tabbuso, Ludovic L'Host, and Antoine Dehu.”

I definitely recommend to go lookout for them on social media. They are a great bunch of people and I thank them for letting me feature them on here as the very first design team of the week.

Designers and Linked Twitter Accounts:

Guillaume Wimlot (@GWimlot)

Antoine Gérardy (@infografeur)

Alexandre Tabbuso (@Captainjtejure)

Ludovic L'Host

Antoine Dehu

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The steps to starting a blog are simple, easy, and free. So here they are:

Step 1: Make a Tumblr account

Step 2: Post

It is simple. It is incredibly simple. All you need is a voice that provides help and information and brings your topic into a bright light.

But some might say,

“Nobody will care/listen”

“It won’t help my business grow”

“Blogs are over saturated”

STOP.

Look, there are 3.2 billion people on this planet who have access to the internet. There is at least one person willing to listen, and if all you have is one person that listens, then that is completely okay. You are making an impact on someone’s life. All you need is a topic and a willingness to put your voice out there.

There has been proof that blogs help businesses get more attention and spark growth. One of the most sought after resources in this world. Blogs help you compete with other business who might not even have a blog in the first place; business who blog generate more leads than ones who don’t. These blogs also help provide social media content for you-which you should already be on by now.

The statement that blogs are over saturated is completely false. Some of the biggest blogs are niche blogs that barely anybody else is doing, such as John Gallagher’s blog, “Learning Herbs” which drives in people to his website and end up buying his digital training that he does from a membership. (via https://createandgo.co/successful-blogs/)

This is our first blog that we have ever written, and I can promise you that our business will end up growing and we will be getting more clients in the future. But until then, don’t tell me that blogs are no good. They are plenty good. So start one today and grow your business.

- Patrick Tuell (CEO and Founder of Sense It)