If you are starting to learn graphic design, you might be doubting if you can be good at it… well here is a list of 7 qualities I think a great graphic designer must have.

 1.Be creative

Creativity is one of the most important qualities a graphic designer must have. As you will be working with different customer that will cover different industry areas, its important to have an open mind in order to address different problems. The ability to solve those problems in different contexts is a key aspect of every graphic designer. But how to stay creative? Well here is a nice infographic that summarizes several ways to stay creative

2. Be curious

Its important that you don’t stay on your comfort zone, being curious will lead to new opportunities. You must explore & read the world by reading articles on the topics you like. Learn from other topics like photography and try to apply that knowledge to boost up your work. Using & testing new tools might lead you to improve your work & be more efficient. Take inspiration from what other graphic designers are doing.

3. Accept negative feedback

As I describe in my eBook on how to lead a successful graphic design project, in every project you work, whenever you present it to different people you will find people that will like it and you will find people that will give you some negative feedback. Its critical that you take the negative feedback in a good way on how to improve your work, but be careful, you need to always have in mind who is taking the final decision.. and that is why the next quality is…

4. Be Customer Oriented

At the end of the day, it’s the customer who will pay for your work, so be sure that the work you are doing meet the customer expectations. But keep in mind that the customer is NOT always right. You can present to him 2 or 3 different ideas, and if the person who is taking the final decision at the customer side is challenging your ideas, you must be able to justify your choices, but at the end, it’s the customer who will decide what he likes the most. So always be sure you are meeting his expectations. You need to know your audience, who you are speaking to, and who is taking the decisions.

5. Be professional

You must show your customer that you are good at what you are doing. You know how to manage priorities and respect timing. If you are able to define a clear scope of work that will define the roles, responsibilities & deliverables your customers will have a good impression.

6. Have good communication skills

You will be constantly facing customers and will be constantly have to present, explain & defend your projects. Having good communication skills will allow you to better communicate with your customers and your team members. Sometimes you will not have plenty of time to present, so you need to be able to make a good synthesis of your ideas.
If you are building presentations, each slide must have a specific purpose.

7. Be patience

Whenever you will be starting a new project, the solution will not appear in 10 minutes. You will need to work hard, think of different solutions. Don’t jump directly to a computer, try using pen & paper to express your ideas & brainstorm. You will find many roadblocks, so will need to be patience and find ways to reach new solutions. Here some interesting books that I read on how to overcome roadblocks:

See you in the next post! If you like the article, please share it!
Leave a comment below if you found this post interesting and let me know if you think of other qualities that graphic designers MUST have!

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