One of my favourite things about working at Initiate early in my design career, has been being surrounded by design experts that have so much knowledge to share. Here are 6 things I’ve learned over the last 6 months that have improved my design skills and workflow.

1. “Export for Screens” in Illustrator allows for faster logo packaging

When creating a logo pack for a client, you can save time by exporting multiple versions of the file at once. Choose File>Export>Export for Screens…

Once there, click “Add Scale” to select the format and scale of the export. This allows you to export multiple versions of the same design at once, speeding up your work flow tremendously.

2. Take a step back

One excellent piece of advice I received on my first day was to (literally) back up when evaluating the balance of your design. Giving yourself more distance between yourself and the work helps in two ways. It gives you a different perspective on something you have been looking at for a long time. Additionally, it makes any issues in the design more obvious because you are able to see the whole thing at once. In my first 2 months, I really took this advice to heart, so much so that I was constantly thumping my chair into the wall behind my desk from rolling it back a bit over zealously.

3. CMD+Shift moves the image and frame together InDesign

I may have been the last person on earth to learn this but I had spent all of design school and my entire time working at my last agency moving the image and frame separately in InDesign. This was much slower and I had less precision in resizing images. Someone looking over my shoulder during a design critique told me that holding command+shift (on Mac) while sizing the frame resizes the frame and image together.  You can also hit S to use the scale tool which is similar. This information has honestly been life-changing. It really goes to show how being surrounded by experts and learning from them can make a job so much more efficient.

4. Ask for help when you need it

At my last few jobs I really prided myself on being self-sufficient, only asking for help when it was absolutely necessary. The culture at Initiate is very different, where asking for help over even small things is always encouraged. One important tip I received is that if you are troubleshooting a problem, set a time limit for yourself and after that time is up, reach out to someone who can help. I’ve been really surprised by how much being able to call someone over when I get stuck either on a design problem or software issue has improved my design and workflow. I’ve saved time too! Sometimes all you need is a second set of eyes.

5. Layers in PowerPoint

You can see all the elements on a slide in PowerPoint by going to Arrange>Selection pane. This opens up a panel that displays every element on the slide in order from front to back. From here you can select the elements, hide them and lock them just like an Adobe software.

6. Trust yourself

As you’ve probably deduced from reading this, starting to work here was a bit intimidating. It felt like everyone around me knew everything there was to know about design while I was just starting out in my career. Then, in my first month, someone in the office was talking about how hard the color interface in InDesign is to use, and I was able to share a tip I had! You can change the color space view to HSB by selecting the H in the color picker pop-up window. This changes the color space view to the same interface as is used in Photoshop and Illustrator. This was the confidence boost I needed. Even though I was learning so much everyday, there were things I knew that other people did not. It reminded me that even though I had a lot to learn I still brought a lot of value to the team.

After 6 months I still learn something new almost every day at work, which has been a wonderful experience. I’m shocked by how quickly my design has improved over these last months and look forward to continued learning and growth in the future.