Insights on Graphic Design, with Sean Adams

Sean Adams

It was great being able to take in some advice from such a knowledgeable mind in design such as Seans'. His story about how he pursued a career in design despite his families disapproval due to their expectation of him to follow the family tradition as a career politician was pretty heart warming. As he stated in his interview "Design chooses us, we don't choose it"; below are some takeaways from key topics he spoke on.
Techniques For Coming up with Ideas

* Write things down.  * Listen to the client 

* Think of metaphors that describe your subject.  * Consider what is definitely the wrong thing. 

Advice For Building A Portfolio

* "First things first" how is your typography!?  * Have clean type! 

* Simplicity; keep things simple and clean.

How Does a New Designer Get Started? 

* Get out there! * Network, build & use connections. * Be involved with your teachers. 

Quotes

* "People treasure books, they don't treasure websites" 

* "Technology has allowed us to work so much faster, maybe too fast. Good things take time" 

* "Design is the lubrication for commerce, it makes capitalism work, it keeps enticing people to buy stuff"

 Sean also stressed the importance of knowing your design history, which is valuable so you can "go back in time" for reference and inspiration. Or to simply be able to have interesting, educated conversations with other designers and artists.