The Importance of Thinking Visually and Creating Good Graphics

"You do graphics? You're in industrial design, though..."

Visual Communication: You've got to have the know-how.

I'm at Georgia Tech for a degree in Industrial Design.
Not a lot of people really know what that entails.

"Industrial design?" they say, "Do you design industries?" (We've all heard it.)

I normally just say, "No, it's product design." To which they respond with a polite and clueless, "Oh. Good for you!"

After I explain that ID is a very broad field of study where we design products (Every product. Ever. Think of any product. An ID-er was involved). But, we don't just design products; we design experiences, enjoyment, habits, new perspectives, health benefits, sentiment. We don't just design products. We design how you experience things around you. We design solutions.

Now, you can create the most meaningful, advanced, or enjoyable thing on the planet, but if you can't communicate that idea to your audience, it's useles.

This is where a lot of people have issues in my field. As part of this industry, you have to know how to communicate an idea (maybe a crazy, outlandish idea, completely foreign to your audience) in a succinct and easily understood way. Industrial designers present their designs visually. It's a product after all. It would be pretty difficult to tell someone how your new amazing device works by giving them a report on it. That would be hard to visualize- plus, no one wants to read that much.

No! You need pictures! Diagrams! Charts of research! Exploded views! Renders! Animations! Models! You need a story- but it needs to be a picture book that children look at and go, "Ooooo!"

This is where a good graphic presentation comes in. See, part of selling your idea is presenting professionally and beautifully. If you have sloppy presentation, people are not going to take your otherwise incredible, life changing pen seriously. They'll see your discolored, unpracticed attempt at graphics and think, "...Yeah, I'm not hiring you."

Many people are surprised when they find out that I do graphics. I work as a graphic designer right now. "You do graphic design too?" they say, "But, you design products..." Yes, I know. I live in studio, trust me. I know I design products. But, your graphics in your presentation can make or break your design pitch.

Here's my advice.

Tips for Creating Better Graphics (for students, mostly):
1. Practice! You won't get better unless you do.

2. Teach yourself! In ID, we don't take graphic design classes- those are for graphic design majors. but, we still need the know-how. The internet has all your answers.

3. Expose yourself! Look at good, famous graphics vs. graphics made for your Nana's Bed-n-Breakfast. Teach your eyes to see what's good, what's bad, and the difference between CMYK, RGB, and Pantone.

4. Learn from mistakes! Your past mistakes. Your classmates' mistakes. Your boss's mistake (yeah, they mess up too sometimes). Your first couple of presentations your freshman year, you may not understand how large your text needs to be for it to be legible from 15 feet away. You may not know that people don't really read your words at all- they look at your pictures. It may have slipped your mind that your line weights need to be daaaarrrrk to be seen by an audience. But, by your sophomore year, you better know better! And you better be looking to improve from then on.

5. Seek out a graphic design internship! For at least one semester, try a job that is a little different from straight product design. As mentioned before, graphics are a critical part of designing anything. Have a professional opportunity to practice and learn from people who do this stuff everyday. Soak it all up.

6. Realize it's important, and love it! Designing a presentation is always going to be a part of your life if you are planning on staying in the ID industry. Embrace the fact that graphics are always necessary and take pride in showing off, not only your mega-awesome, super duper green water bottle, but also your presentation of said amazing thing.

That's about it. Now, go play around on Illustrator.
Happy graphics-ing!

-Mallory Becker