I was wondering how to monitor progress and improvements on a monthly basis as a graphic designer in order to not lose motivation or not seek short term gains…
There probably isn’t an objective way to do that. Plus, “improving” is a very broad concept.
To really get your job done well as a graphic designer, you should be considering many, many angles in each project, and it’s important to recognize where you’re weak and keep pushing to improve all across that spectrum. It might be that you tend to forget about some aspect of thorough market research, or difficulty communicating effectively with clients, or that you get so enthused about producing slick graphics, you lose sight of the client’s business objectives. Some day, you might push back your chair, admiring a piece you’ve poured your soul into, convinced it’s the best thing you’ve ever done, so proud of how far you’ve come, then a year later find out something you and the client misinterpreted about the market resulted in the piece actually losing business for your client.
My point is this, try to worry less about “monitoring” and more about ongoing self-critique and relentless due diligence. Keep applying everything you learn and keep pushing to learn and apply more about every aspect of contributing to the success of business. The best graphic design comes from thinking about everything outside of graphic design.
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I recently found my old college portfolio as well as a flash drive with some work I did during my first business of employment. I had a good laugh at the quality of my work then.
If you have been designing for sometime, perhaps take a look at some work from a year or so ago. It may offer some good reflection, And shed some light on your improvement.
monitoring improvement can be difficult. It’s ever so gradual, not to mention chunks of time where improvement or advancement simple doesn’t occur.
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When I’m working on something new, I like to review the project afterwards. Note down anything you would have done differently. What you might have tried if you had more time. What you think worked.
It’s difficult to judge skill level but hopefully reviewing your work will show advancement.
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