When I started this blog many years ago my focus was on explaining the principles of design in plain English. I had just enrolled in a graphic design degree and I was really at the start of my learning journey in relation to design. I didn’t actually finish that degree, but it didn’t matter as I wasn’t planning to be a graphic designer and I already have quite a few degrees, so it wasn’t as if I needed another qualification.
My motivation was that I was developing presentations and I felt that my design skills were lacking. The subjects I completed were pretty good and helped me to understand all of the basic principles of design. It all fed my ongoing interest in clarity and communication. I still feel a bit bad about ditching the course, but on the bright side I’ve never for one moment stopped learning. In my view there’s nothing better than learning new things.
Happily, there are lots of opportunities to learn more about your area of interest and many of them are cheap or free. One way to learn about design and communication is to read blogs about website design. An example is this great series by the lovely WordPress people about design principles in relation to blogging. Whilst I’m clearly not a web designer (I’d have a much more whizzy website if I was), I think that these principles can be applied to any kind of design work that you do. You don’t have to be a blog owner to take these principles on board and use them in your next project. The latest installment is about designing for clarity, just up my alley. Check it out!
Margaret Moon 