https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog daily 0.75 2020-12-15 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/directions-to-take monthly 0.5 2020-12-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607990997089-QQMZNW9HMNRI78N26RAH/image-asset.jpeg The Blog - Diversify or Niche? - Diversify There’s an old idiom that goes ‘Curiosity, it killed the Cat‘ As a designer, you are likely to be naturally inquisitive. We are all, at heart, problem solvers. So when faced with an issue it is usually an itch we need to scratch. When starting a job in design you’re likely to want to involve yourself in everything. Web, identity, motion graphics, large format, illustration and so on. Eager to get stuck into a project that realistically you won’t have any expertise in, your involvement in the project will falter. Probably. This isn’t to dishearten you. But as you go through agency work, as in house designer or freelancer you will probably expose yourself to lots of different design disciplines and thats a good thing. I am an advocate of designer cutting their teeth on various projects. It allows you to find out what you like, what fits and rather quickly what doesn’t. The problem with designers is, we have taste. So when we see a project and think ‘wow that looks incredible’ we instantaneously want to get to that level despite it being way beyond our scope. We try to replicate what looks good, we jump from animation to typography, layout to compositing and because we recognise great work we frustrate ourselves when we don’t get the desired, perfect result. In those moments we are stretching ourselves too thin, we haven’t developed the skills that the other designer has. They may have spent a decade getting to the mastery of that discipline, the same one you can see, imagine, but can’t emulate. Your ability to do lots will score clients or a job, but no one will ever look for you if what they’re after is a bonafide expert. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607977518108-0NK95H99X8FKQXTYBK06/image-asset.jpeg The Blog - Diversify or Niche? - Niche The Creative Director who is compelling you to hone one of your skills is the one, ten/twenty years ago who was like you, looking for work. Unsure about how to progress and likely (despite their new creed) took whatever work was available. Maybe even worked gulp for free to bolster their portfolio. Choice, unfortunately is a luxury afforded to those who have had years of experience of not being able to make one. It is indeed important to find your focus but that comes with experience of creating work and finding out what you do/don’t like. This process can take years. Nurturing a niche that perhaps turned out to be something you’re not interested in is well, a waste of your time. Whilst you assume you’ve cracked what you’re going to do for the rest of your life, other designers will be dipping their proverbial feet in many pools. And through testing your skills in different areas of design, so comes the critical ability to be able to solve a multitude of design related problems. I would argue turning away good work that you’re capable of creating in order to fulfil some sense of laser accurate superiority in a single discipline is (from a young designers perspective) incredibly foolish. It is the equivalent of learning French for five years, then going to work in Spain. The skill is useful, incredibly useful, but if you change your mind about France one day you are toast. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607991778857-X6SW19ZVUB4OHE7Z0J1D/image-asset.jpeg The Blog - Diversify or Niche? - “It’s through mistakes that you actually can grow. You have to get bad in order to get good.” – Paula Scher You will see a lot of advice on instagram, Linkedin, books. Everywhere. Advice is simply a story about an individuals good fortune. There is no right or wrong answer. It’s a simple equation of direction and time. If your ideal job even straight out of the gate it to work for a major brand, on a singular discipline then 100%, go for the niche. But don’t expect day one for them to come knocking. You will have to do the grunt work, you will have to get the coffees in, you will have to shadow and ask questions and learn and put in those 60 hour weeks. Because learning a niche is going to take a long time, mastering it and building on it that can take decades. More times than you’ll like that goal will have to take a timeout whilst you pay your bills. If you’re completely unsure about where you want to start in design, great most people dont have a clue. I certainly didn’t. But attacking everything head on won’t get you the best briefs because someone else will have spent more time, more effort on that particular client or type of skill. If you’re ok with being good but not the best at everything. You want to get involved because all design interest you then taking the lead will take time, it will take failures and frustrations and head scratching and 2am light bulb moments because your focus will be all over the place. But sometimes creativity is unfocused, it’s messy and simple and chaotic. What I’d like you to take from this, as a designer finding their way, is that the advice you receive from agency owners, creative directors etc. are no doubt filled with good will. But are also likely to be peppered with bias that comes with thinking the choices they made weren’t a product of hard work, difficult decisions and a sprinkling of dumb luck. A career in design can be a really great thing. Don’t let someone lead you down a path that has already been written. Exploration, decision making, failure and most of all producing great work will come. The one factor is time. Decide how you want to spend your time. One route or lots of them. One goal or multiples objectives. Your choice, not a right or wrong one among them. Just stay curious. https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/category/Designer+Career monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/category/Nerd+Alert monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/category/Personal monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/category/Workflow monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/category/Trends monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/category/Design+career monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/category/Commercial+design monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/tag/Design+Career monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/tag/Freelance monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/tag/Employability monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/blog/tag/Design+Work monthly 0.5 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/home daily 1.0 2022-06-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607369700144-WDUAVRZG11L102KVLEP1/image-asset.jpeg Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607369912001-JSBYXAJ6NDGN7EHG8SJX/FOXTROT.png Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607369736125-NSK3XA71JOFMQQTF5814/UX.png Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607892932174-WXGCWHC7PRE7RYTZUR7L/AAA.png Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607299800737-0W57UW811VS5YT5NEYE8/ncp.png Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607299515970-Z2U7A01M7I053FYE2QQE/gk.png Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607299590709-M9213UW0SZ6G0GTGG8LD/neom.png Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607299650539-IHJEPF1U1HG7OY07Q74A/rpg1.png Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607299545494-EGELUPYUP9QFCDU4M8GQ/ta.png Solitude Design https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee2684b693dbe1560bd2b67/1596052045994-4XRAE96RJFI4YUY5C6I3/2888491.jpg Solitude Design alt=" " https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607300247095-BK7MXVX8FJKHDIKJIIQP/SQ1.png Solitude Design Alonis Apparel https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607300250872-2LK00UG0LYF8LWCYPC8Z/SQ2.png Solitude Design John Leggott College Prospectus https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607300246904-8DWLNPPZ5JTNUQNS4JVP/SQ3.png Solitude Design Ultimate Shred UI concepet https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607300251395-30CMAR740SG6MFZ8JMWE/SQ4.png Solitude Design The Inking Tattoo Studio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607300251377-XYHLXBDI1MTKIYADMMAB/SQ5.png Solitude Design House of M Identity https://solitudedesign.co.uk/contactus daily 0.75 2020-12-07 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/404 daily 0.75 2020-12-06 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/work daily 0.75 2020-12-08 https://solitudedesign.co.uk/work/motiongraphicneom monthly 0.5 2020-12-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607902022334-SR9OQS6HZWJJVPO89QG1/NEOM-xmas-sentiment.gif Work - Motion - Neom Organics Wellbeing positive messaging: Social https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607902116722-345TJ9ZZ8IP8E2QGLTMM/1200-600.gif Work - Motion - Neom Organics Static web banner - Scent diffusion vapour composited in post. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607903285383-SYHJNP0UV77KS44HAVPH/NBF-offer.jpg Work - Motion - Neom Organics - The brief To take the approved creative and transform the styled stills into a package of animated social stories and feed tiles. The aim being to highlight the number of free gifts available when purchasing certain products within the offer/time period. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607903315695-J745W3RX03WULPZQ0X0A/NM-BF-EG.gif Work - Motion - Neom Organics - The solution An assets bank of over 40 videos and 20 versions were produced in order to fully take advantage of the time spent creating the pieces. These were rolled out across the week leading to Black Friday. They made use of the artwork produced by the in-house creative arm of Neom as well as the photographic elements. Because of the simple geometric nature of the creative and its strong legibility the animation concepts came together very quickly. It meant more of my time could be spent on creating a surplus of ads for sampling to see what customers were responding to best. Services Motion Graphics Video editing Compositing https://solitudedesign.co.uk/work/peakperformance monthly 0.5 2020-12-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607975502991-Q0PKY775MX5FJZA1VPYT/Twistedesign-Cars-3.jpg Work - Peak Performance https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607975644578-9XDCITPKMGADUDQKKPPL/Twistedesign-Cars-11.jpg Work - Peak Performance https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607975502794-IK0TK4E3G2UJNQGS8W3W/Twistedesign-Cars-10.jpg Work - Peak Performance https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607975503029-OVM81UKPIEZ1NCIUFIFF/Twistedesign-Cars-16.jpg Work - Peak Performance https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607975527719-JC5SOE2NR0B7H0ZWIQPE/Twistedesign+Cars+%281%29.jpg Work - Peak Performance https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607975503002-NTQ7I7A3RHPZMWEMMVF4/Twistedesign-Cars-8.jpg Work - Peak Performance https://solitudedesign.co.uk/work/tacreative monthly 0.5 2020-12-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1608053746296-KV6G9J3XBXCUXO3JJC1C/TA2.gif Work - Tailored Athlete https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1608053590333-PBQTFAGJGNOA6I2EG2F2/TA1.gif Work - Tailored Athlete https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607450934445-NC6SPLDZXNGWTP9PH5NB/TAPORT2.jpg Work - Tailored Athlete https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607450610756-1R1EIIGWUFUYU6PX7QCG/TA-PORT1.jpg Work - Tailored Athlete https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607450470468-M70UC47EDC1ZSJ4N9SVO/Four+Way+Stretch Work - Tailored Athlete - “I just wanted to say thank you for all your help with this…you’re a legend mate, I really appreciate it” — Harry Simonis | Tailored Athlete Managing Director https://solitudedesign.co.uk/work/theuiproject monthly 0.5 2020-12-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607465919857-TSMKRH672MTWTFDMWLWZ/Gamingregion.png Work - Ui projects - Case Study: GameRegion The guys at Game Region were looking for a complete overhaul of their site. It was a wall of product and was lacking any kind of navigation. We kitted them out with a brand new identity and e-commerce package. Designed to highlight key products, offers and best sellers but also provide a clean, minimal selection of product pages that allowed their customer to be able to do a deep dive on the product they were looking to purchase. Services Identity Design UI toolkit & web build Social advertising and motion graphic assets https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607464885567-MB4DOPAHQKIWQOINJU2Q/danger.jpg Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607467868601-XCTTLU45RLT781VJEG36/Screenshot+2020-12-08+at+22.50.58.png Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607464777152-QYZZ7NHD8U2JXA4RT0TW/moon.jpg Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607467922185-48UEEHSGZK9N5T7G2A7D/Screenshot+2020-12-08+at+22.51.50.png Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607465061010-KFHXX97N1WNV7MQFZ8HA/ui1.jpg Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607464762637-CV28EQVFN88O06LM4TI1/PotteryUI-front.jpg Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607464882962-Q9WYEZR0FX8S71VX3QEP/lyon.jpg Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607464891372-Y4F69YI651ZN7ZTQ1SL6/photo1.jpg Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607464772277-W9OKSO084U3GATH2V0K5/strong101.jpg Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607465067121-LA97FN7XF8729T0JCHTK/ui4.jpg Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607468005083-80IB1B0LZWL02JQZ7SUY/Screenshot+2020-12-08+at+22.53.15.png Work - Ui projects https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fcd0fab93cc064e70d82294/1607465060130-OCZJLKVD258ZMJHI9FDX/ui2.jpg Work - Ui projects