23/04/2019 How To Keep Your Design Skills Fresh - Hongkiat

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How To Keep Your Design Skills Fresh Stay Updated

By Addison Duvall in Web Design. Updated on November 18, 2017. Get daily articles in your inbox for free.

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A designer’s skill set can very quickly become obsolete in this day and age. Designs For Your
Designers need to know more skills than ever before, and client expectations are Inspiration
Nancy Young
constantly changing. It can be somewhat more dif cult to remain current if you
work in-house and are required to stick to a certain style guide or use 10+ Free Multi-Purpose
Vector Icon Sets for
outdated tools.
Designers
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However, freelance designers need to closely monitor their skills as well, to avoid
getting passed up by the competition. Today, we’re going to go over some ways Creating CSS Image Sprite
with Compass
you can stay in the loop with all the new skills you need to know, while not Thoriq Firdaus
driving yourself crazy by always playing "catch up".

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Get The Good Clients)

How to Create Smooth

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Turning It Inside Out Your Site
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One of the best ways to maintain an edge when it comes to skills needed to solve Beginner's Guide to Using
your clients’ problems is to examine them from an "inside out" perspective. Handlebars.js
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Rather than seeing freelancing as simply a means to an end, it’s important to
always start with your client – or rather, their target user – and place yourself in
This CSS Layout Debugger
their shoes.
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What are they hoping to experience? Then, it’s simply a matter of deducing Jake Rocheleau

which essential skills you need to help that user have the best experience
How to Debug Websites on
possible. iPad
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This is a great tactic to use if you’re confused over which new programming
languages you need to learn, or what new software you should seek training for.
When the user’s expectations start to change, that’s when you change.

Outsourcing For Fun And Pro t

Plenty of designers outsource tasks they themselves are less than good at.
There’s nothing wrong with doing this, and I’ve recommended it many times in
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23/04/2019 How To Keep Your Design Skills Fresh - Hongkiat

the past to designers who feel overwhelmed by everything they have to do.

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However, when consulting with a client, it’s essential that you yourself can
actually do the thing(s) your client is coming to you for. If they are in the
market for a designer who can code, it will be harder to sell them if you’re
hiring outside help.

Look For Assets, Not Crutches

Simply relying on another contractor for an essential part of your business is
usually not a good idea in the long run. If you outsource frequently, stop to
consider whether you’d be better off just learning that skill yourself.

Knowing what you are doing gives you a con dence that is palpable to clients,
and they will value you a lot more because of it.

As an alternative, you could also choose to partner up with someone

permanently – perhaps the contractor you primarily outsource to – and offer a
joint service to a much wider pool of clients. Working with others certainly has
its challenges, but there’s no doubt that the right business partnership can
increase your ef ciency, and your income , exponentially.

Follow Your Heart

Usually, the skills you yourself most enjoy can be integrated into your
design process and the services you offer to your clients. Even if you think a
skill is "weird" or not relevant, it can still often be incorporated somehow, and set
you apart from others competing for similar clients.

For example, my love of food and cooking might not seem to have anything to do
with design. But not only is it a point of interest that makes people intrigued
about me, I’ve also found that my added experience in the culinary arts puts my
niche clients (restaurant owners and chefs) at ease.

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23/04/2019 How To Keep Your Design Skills Fresh - Hongkiat

They are quite eager to work with someone who has genuine knowledge and
enthusiasm about their industry.

Mine Your Hobbies

Everyone reading this has hobbies – stuff you love to do in your spare time
without any expectation of getting paid. Remember, hobbies are skills too, and
they can help keep you ultra-relevant and cutting edge to the right clients
who will appreciate them.

As with other skills you have that you think might be unrelated to design, your
hobbies can often point you in a direction that you really should be
focusing on in your career. We should all be striving to be in the position where
we’re only doing what we love. It usually takes some effort to get there, but
incorporating your hobbies and passions can make it much easier.

Read Also: 10 Things You Should Know About Passion (And How To Find
Yours)

Target Practice
If you’ve been meaning to pick up a new skill, taking on a freelance project that’s
more multifaceted than usual can be a great way to learn or practice it. If
you have a client requesting some high-level programming like Ruby on Rails, or
a client who wants to branch into video, this would be the perfect opportunity to
jump in and start gaining experience.

Again, try to keep as much as possible to a skill set that inspires you – believe me,
there are clients who t every designer’s unique offerings.

How has keeping your skill set up to date helped you advance your career as a
designer? Are there any unusual methods you’ve used to sharpen your
competitive edge? Do tell us in the comments below.

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