Not a Designer? No Problem
Motivation
For several years a UI/UX designer become a trend, especially with crowdsourcing which offers a better income. You can work anywhere and anytime as long you have a computer and internet connection. In Asia, crowdsourcing design competitions attract many people because of easy money, no specific degree needed, and no specific experiences needed.
For some people, becoming a designer is hard or almost impossible since they don’t have any knowledge about it or come from different school majors. Some say that you must be talented to be designer.
Do you know that every person can be a designer? Yes they can!
I’ve met great designers who didn’t have any related educational background with design at all. But they all have the same common thing, they love design. They learned everything from scratch, slowly but sure they kept learning and learning.
Where to start?
Nowadays the internet offers tons of videos, articles, & online courses about designs. Pick any video or article you like the most or that is easy to understand but remember it’s like sugar… the right amount of sugar will give you a sweet refreshing taste, but too much sugar will ruin the taste. Too many materials will confuse you.
Practice and Remake
Start practicing by trying to remake a design sample you like. Yes, copy a design just for practicing. You will learn how to make a visually good design, how to master your design tools, how to work faster, and how to train your muscle memory, your instinct, etc.
You must also enjoy your learning process. If you enjoy your learning process, then you are on the right path.
Ok, now I’ve learned everything I need to jump into design competition!
Pick design competition platform which offers you great experience to become a better designer. A friendly community, with fairness, has a trusted client, offers professional guidance, are some aspects you need to get in a design competition platform.. “Why?” They will make you a better designer. Luckily we can find them in Topcoder platform.
Successful designer in crowdsourcing competition can be build, even if you are a rookie. I saw many good designers quit competing when they lost in 1 to 5 challenges, but I also saw more “Bad” or “OK” designers becoming winners. “How could this happen?” They evolved, Bad or OK designers kept fighting, learnt, and trying to win. They learnt from their lost and change it to winning ways. They even beaten the great veteran designers.
“How long it takes?” Depends on how you love your learning process
You can ask any designers who competes in crowdsourcing competition for a long time to show their first work/design, you will surprised when you see it :)
Design is evolving so is designer. When you stop learning you need to catch up again. You lost a lot? So are top designers, they even lost more than you did, but they don’t give up.
Don’t waste any minute and jump into challenges now! It’s your chance to learn, grow and win – your chance to be TCO champion someday.
Learning resources for beginners
Top 3 videos tutorials
Sketch: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZHkx_OyRXHb1D3XTqOidRw
Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFyOznL9UvA&t=930s
Logo & Golden Ratio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIp9sEZiv36cDG7cEnrVU7Q
Articles
References