I’ll keep this short and sweet(ish). Is anyone available or interested in mentoring me in a transition from exclusively print designer to print / digital designer. I promise I’ll keep my questions brief and to the point.
I did page layout and print design for years. Coming back after a hiatus. Familiar with InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat. Currently also have subscriptions to Premier Pro and After Effects. Used to do HTML ages ago but have since forgotten most of that.
Again, just need advice on how best to proceed. Thanks!
What aspect of digital work interests you? User interface? User experience. Front end coding. Backend development? Websites? Apps? Being part of a team? Solo work? A little of everything.
The whole field differs from 10–20 years ago, with lots more specialization.
Thanks for the response, Just-B. I am way old so I remember when Graphic Design was commonly called “Graphic Art”. I came to it more through illustration and learned the “design” part so I could put those illustrations into lay outs for clients. This eventually morphed into doing lots of page lay out work for newspapers, magazines, etc.
I guess a good first step might be refreshing my memory on what a lot of the terms you mentioned mean (I’ve known them all at one time or another but some of them escape me now). Thank you for the list. It’s already helping me frame my next steps.
My main goal is to make myself more attractive to potential clients. Most want print design + some sort of digital world skill. I guess my 3 main takeaways are these:
I really do enjoy page design. I guess in the digital format that necessarily includes some sort of coding or html.
The Illustration part is what really brought me to all this and is still my first love. Content in general is of great interest to me (I really enjoy writing as well). Perhaps there’s some sort of package I can put together there.
I like being part of a team and, at the same time, having some autonomy… maybe be more the “art” part of a design group?
Lastly, if there was a first “digital” skill or area a “print designer” might add to their toolkit, what might that be? (I’m pretty much thinking out loud here, but feel free to add your 2 cents).
Hey Anduarto, I would be happy to help. First I would like to know what you think a digital designer does? Once I know what you “think” you want to do then we can start actually getting you there. Hope that makes sense.
so I remember when Graphic Design was commonly called “Graphic Art”. I came to it more through illustration and learned the “design” part so I could put those illustrations into lay outs for clients. This eventually morphed into doing lots of page lay out work for newspapers, magazines, etc.