I’ve always been interested in design. Believe it or not from the evidence of my personal site. I’m claiming for the time being that it is more important for me to be able to publish things first, and for the design to be engaging second.

I want to make more of a formal personal study of design. From every angle. I like UI/UX, print design, typography, product design, everything. I want to understand the underlying principles and philosophies. I’d like to create a set of mental models to help with my understanding of design and I’d also like to have applied this learning to practical projects.

I’m not starting from zero. Many years ago I did a few bits and pieces of graphic design to aid with photography shows I was taking part in. We would need posters and flyers created to promote events and I would create something on Photoshop to serve this purpose.

Photoshop is very familiar to me. We used it extensively in the photo lab to do a wide range of jobs, colour correcting and restoring damaged images, laying out photos for large format printing, as well as some light design work here and there.

Assumptions:

• I know nothing about design principles, models, or processes.
• I will get very distracted by buying books and materials instead of actually studying or practising.
• I’ll be more interested in UI/UX work than traditional graphic design or typography.
• This post may not get a ‘part two’.

There are two books I have which are will hopefully help me make a good start with all this:

1. Know Your Onions - Drew de Soto
2. Graphic Design School - David Dabner, Sandra Stewart, Abbie Vickress

The first book had numerous good references from a post on Reddit and the second looked good as I was browsing Waterstones for the first. I have not expectations of either.

I’ll also be trying to immerse myself in some YouTube and TikTok content to round out my experience. I’ll try and collect a range of creators across all design topics for a well rounded view.

That’s all for now. Its been interesting so far. I’ll post further the deeper I get into things.

Alex.