r/Design

I recently started an internship and was handed a brand guideline which I followed to a T when I made my graphics.

However, there’s so much that wasn’t written on there and now I’m looking at some of the posted designs I made that have very slight differences between all the other designs (mind you, the ceo checked and approved my work herself so it slipped her mind as well). Stuff like having little gaps between each highlighted lines of words.

She also asked me to change the leading of text as it wasn’t to the brand’s standards. This wasn’t written in the guideline at all. I had to go into someone else’s work and check their leading and match mine to their specifications.

I’m frustrated because if they’d written this in the guideline then I would have known and my designs would align with everyone else’s. I wouldn’t have to go back and change so much stuff after I made it. But a part of me is also wondering if this is my own fault for not looking at every pixel of everyone else’s work to make sure it’s consistent on top of following the brand guideline :(

Are brand guidelines usually more of a vague guide? Do you also end up having to check everything yourself to make sure it aligns?

First of all, sorry for repeated question tho I have a bit different situation from what ive found online.

I finished my BA fine arts in Ukraine a year ago.

My parents saying I have to do masters in the UK because UK diplomas so fancy and immediately after graduation there will be literally CEO of top companies tryna hire me.

I know its not true.

I want to go back home, try to find any job (graphic design related or even any job (and fill my portfolio at the same time) I personally feel guilty about them paying for my masters (50k£/year) because this is a lot of money and after I graduate I think I will be at the same position as im currently in, except for I would have a diploma. I feel its pointless and im almost 100% sure that even in Ukraine no one cares about diploma more(even Uk one), than about your portfolio. Also I am not able to work in the UK at all (in fact im able to work 20h/week, pt job but very few ppl wanna hire international students which have limited working time and bla bla bla. I guess you understand what I mean) Im not even talking about design related work. Which means no real experience, no even freelancing etc.

Job market is tough I know. I know i wont be able to land a job a day after I come back home. I know I probably would need to work elsewhere first time.

They say money its not a problem at all (its not an enormous amount of money for my parents) and this is just one year. I should study learn and bla bla bla. I dont think masters in graphic design can teach me a lot. (proof me wrong ? )

I wanna hear your opinion on all this stuff. Am I wrong or am I correct or smth in the middle. I know its just a year and my life wouldnt be messed up after this, but the feeling me being useless idiot after university, w 100k$+ spent (again money its not a problem but more like personal issue) a lot of expectations on me i think. I had a huge argument w my parents about this and Im currently still believe leaving the UK and going back home -> trying find a job would be more useful for me.

Thanks for reading, sorry for such a long text. I would appreciate any experience or advice or whatever.

Hello! I am new to the DIY electronics space.
I am looking to turn a smart tv/ monitor/ any 24"-36" LCD display into a big touchscreen calendar.

I know this is not an easy thing to do... as capacitive touchscreens that size are $500 and EMR displays are small and expensive. But as I figure out the stylus tech... I'm trying to figure out the display functionality.

How do I marry an arduino/esp32 to a smart tv/monitor to run a lightweight server-based calendar program that updates itself and tracks handwriting? (a lot of displays can show mouse arrow tracking is that similar?)

I’m planning to take on freelance design work, but I’ve heard others say solo/freelance designers can become the single point of failure for design rationale.

Not because we’re doing anything wrong, but because so much of the “why” behind a design lives in our heads. As a result, a client, engineer, or PM has to constantly go back and forth with the designer to ask why a flow works a certain way, why one pattern was chosen over another, or why an alternative was rejected.

If this is an issue, then I’d assume it would also be really valuable for designers to log their decision making as they go.

For people who work as a solo founding designer or freelancer

• Is this constant back and forth a big issue and have any of you guys faced it?
• How important/valuable is it to keep a decision log for my design work as a freelancer/solo designer
  • Does it mostly help with client/stakeholder communication, or does having these also help substantially improve design judgment/taste over time?
  • I have also heard that many designers don't feel the need to log decisions, but does this ever become a big problem in the future?

I’m trying to understand whether decision logs are valuable in helping designers build better judgment/taste over time, or whether they mostly become documentation nobody looks at again. Thank you guys in advance!

Which facets of designing do you think will be most impacted? 

1. Visual Design (Automatable) 
2. UI Production (Repetitive) 
3. User Research And Insights 
4. Content and UX Writing  
5. Interaction Design 
6. Problem Framing 
7. Clarity and Decision-Making

 

What number of designers will get impacted and what course will help them survive this huge transition?

Been noticing this a lot with interior visuals lately.

Two spaces can have almost the same layout and furniture, but feel completely different just because of lighting.

Some instantly feel warm and comfortable, while others feel cold even when the design itself looks good.

Makes me think lighting affects how people emotionally react to a space way more than they realize.

Hey people
I am a graphic designer did alot of internships did my bachelors in journalism and mass communication and then i am currently working in apple retail for more than year
I am planning to go back to my field and feel ui ux is a good future with ai as well
So give me a genuine feedback if i do a google certification and make a decent portfolio imitating and land in a internship is it better or i look for masters first because what i have seen mostly colleges who teachers product thinking in india are either need students from a maths baground or not they don’t have a good name

Hey Leute, hoffe euch geht’s gut :)

Ich bin 18 und mache nächstes Jahr mein Abi. Gerade überlege ich natürlich, was ich danach studieren will. Was mich im Moment am meisten interessiert, ist Kommunikationsdesign (Bachelor of Arts), wahrscheinlich in Köln oder Frankfurt – der Ort ist erstmal eher zweitrangig.

Mein Traum wäre es später mal Creative Director zu werden. Ob das wirklich für immer mein Plan bleibt, weiß ich natürlich nicht, aber aktuell reizt mich das total. Ich liebe alles rund um Design, Fashion, Kunst und kreative Arbeit allgemein. Ich kann zwar nicht ultra gut zeichnen, aber kreativ bin ich definitiv.

Außerdem arbeite ich seit ich 16 bin nebenbei als Webdesignerin und Social Media Managerin bei einem Unternehmen. Also ein bisschen Erfahrung habe ich schon und mir macht die Arbeit echt Spaß. Ich merke einfach, dass ich Abwechslung und kreative Projekte brauche und genau deshalb kam ich auf Kommunikationsdesign bzw. Creative Direction.

Jetzt habe ich aber online öfter gelesen, dass Kommunikationsdesign angeblich so ein Studium sein soll, das Leute wählen, wenn sie nicht wissen, was sie machen wollen. Teilweise wird alles in Richtung „Kommunikation“ auch als unnötig abgestempelt. Das hat mich ehrlich gesagt etwas verunsichert.

Ich habe auch nicht wirklich herausgefunden, wie die Jobchancen danach aussehen. Findet man damit später gute Jobs, die auch vernünftig bezahlt werden? Und wie realistisch ist es überhaupt, Creative Director zu werden?

Außerdem hört man momentan ja ständig, dass KI viele kreative Jobs ersetzen könnte. Glaubt ihr, dass Kommunikationsdesign oder Creative Direction davon stark betroffen sein wird? Oder wird Kreativität trotzdem weiterhin gefragt bleiben?

Hat hier vielleicht jemand selbst Kommunikationsdesign studiert oder kennt Leute aus dem Bereich? Wie läuft das Studium wirklich ab und wie sieht es später im Berufsleben aus? Und falls hier jemand Creative Director ist oder darauf hinarbeitet: Ist der Job wirklich so kreativ/spannend, wie man ihn sich vorstellt?

Würde mich echt über eure Erfahrungen und ehrliche Meinungen freuen :)

I come from a lower middle class family (5lpa) Genral. And despite my best efforts i couldnt get in my preferred collages. I took a drop year and gave my everything and sacrificed so much but I was a dissapointment. My rank in Uceed was AIR 312. Now only options I hv rn is cept, anant and nift.nift results are nott out yet but i dont expect very highrannk for delhi/mumbai campus fc. Soo being very optimistic I might get hyd campus maybe for fc. Now which one should I take. Logically speaking cept seems to be the best option as it's most renowned but it's for 5 years and 30L which is kinda hard to bear, there is a chance that I might get means scholarship as told to me thru emails. I also got 100%tition and 50%hostel scholarship for Anant. But as far as I hv heard and feel Anant doesn't hv that good exposure and industry network and neither the tag. Now nift, cept and anant and I'm confused what to take. Maybe do a cheap bdes and later go for mdes in iits. But beging a genral is pretty hard to get in and I'm not willing to take that kind of a hit once again. Maybe for for masters abroad. Idk . Tell me what possibilities I can choose or have. 😔

In many startups, the words "brand," "design," and "marketing" are often used interchangeably.

When the sales pipeline slows down, someone might say, "Maybe we need a rebrand." When conversions drop, another person might suggest, "Let's redesign the website." When no one is paying attention, someone else might say, "We need more marketing."

Since all three areas affect how visible a company is, they are often treated as if they address the same problem, just with different tools.

I used to think this confusion only happened in less established companies.

Now, I believe it's happening everywhere.
In meetings, I have seen the real issue be about positioning, but the team ends up discussing button colors because changing the positioning requires tough conversations. I've watched companies spend months perfecting their visual identity even when they couldn't explain their product clearly in one sentence.
I've also seen marketing teams blamed for "bad campaigns" when the real issue was that no one agreed on what the company really stands for.

The strange part is that all of this seems productive while it's happening.

There are Figma files, campaign calendars, strategy documents, new fonts, updated messaging, and more paid advertising.
There's a lot of activity. But sometimes the company is just shifting tasks between teams instead of addressing the original confusion.

The older I get, the more I realize that these three areas move at different speeds.

Brand moves slowly; it builds trust over time.
Design moves constantly; it changes and adjusts.
Marketing moves quickly; it's about campaigns, launches, and bursts of attention.

However, startups often push all three to move at the same fast pace set by quarterly goals.

So suddenly, brand becomes reactive. Design becomes just decoration. Marketing becomes focused on volume.

Everyone feels the disconnect without fully realizing it. The companies that seem to have clarity aren't necessarily the ones with the best design systems or the most effective campaigns.

They are just unusually clear about who they are, how that shows up, and why people should care.

Everything else grows from that foundation.

I'm curious if other designers have seen this in their companies, especially the feeling where a company keeps producing more output but becomes less recognizable at the same time.

I have been freelancing for about four years now and lately I keep running into this weird tension where a client takes something I poured real thought into and just kind of flattens it into whatever fits their brand guidelines or quarterly goals. The final deliverable barely resembles the original concept and my name is still attached to it. I get that client work is collaborative and compromises are part of the job, but at what point does the final output stop representing you as a designer and just become a service transaction?

I am curious how other designers here think about ownership and authorship, especially when you are early or mid career and do not have a lot of leverage to push back. Do you have a personal threshold where you pull your name off something, or do you just mentally separate your portfolio work from your client work entirely? Would love to hear if anyone has figured out a way to protect the integrity of their work without burning bridges or losing contracts

I’ve noticed sometimes clients love visually polished work, but other times they only care if it converts or performs.

Curious how designers here balance aesthetics vs business goals in real projects.

Unemployed and bored so considering studying somethjng. I would live to do masters in the future so was thinking about just starting now while I don’t have work to go to. Please share any thoughts!

Hey everyone,

I'm a UX/UI designer with some professional experience, mostly on B2B dashboards. The thing is, I can't really show my work in my portfolio: no permission for screenshots, no official metrics, etc. So I kind of have a gap when it comes to "proof of work".

I'd like to do a concrete, public design project to show what I can do in my niche (B2B dashboards). One idea that feels right: find an open-source project (app, dashboard, B2B tool) that I can actually improve in UX/UI and use as a case study.

I was wondering if anyone has experience or thoughts on this:

• Do you know any open-source projects (ideally B2B / dashboard / pro tool) whose interface could use some UX/UI improvements?
• Have you ever done something like this (contributing design work to an open-source project)? How did it go?
• In your opinion, how do you find a project that really needs design help, instead of just "let's redesign the UI for fun"?
• How do you approach maintainers to propose UX/UI improvements without coming off as the person who just wants to put their name somewhere?

For me, the key is to find something I can actually improve and from which I can show the added value (before/after, reasoning, impact, etc.).

If you have any advice, leads, or even specific projects in mind, I'd love to hear them.