Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
begun your descent.” No matter how good things may seem now, there is always room
for improvement. Looking to improve every day is what the spirit of personal kaizen is all
about. It's not about how far you have come or how far you have yet to go. It is only about
this moment, about being open to seeing the lessons around you and possessing the
capacity and willingness to learn and improve.
The Lessons Are All Around You
The legendary Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot by just looking around.”
Obvious perhaps, yet profound in its simple truth. If you want to improve, learn to see the
vast number of lessons all around you. You can learn a lot by really taking the time to see
and examine the visual world around you. Design is everywhere. We can learn
tremendous lessons by simply opening our eyes and observing the works of
professionals around us. You never know where inspiration or good examples will turn
up.
Design is, indeed, everywhere. If you live in an urban environment, you are absolutely
surrounded by it and much of it may go unnoticed. Just paying attention to the ubiquitous
samples of graphic design—for example, posters, banners, billboards, and signage of
all types—could fill every waking moment of your day. This explains why we ignore most
of it: because we have other stuff to do. Still, we can learn much by paying attention to
our urban (or not-so-urban) environments.
Professional designers tend to be more skilled than most people at noticing “the design”
around them. Yet, all of us can improve our design quotient by simply opening our eyes
and our minds and peering into the urban background we may have perceived as visual
noise in the past.
To learn from your environment, you have to notice the lessons. But in order to see and
take note, you have to be aware. Awareness is the first step to personal kaizen. Most of
us lack the ability to remain aware as we hurry through our typical days, filled with myriad
forms of what some call multitasking and others call distractions.
Our daily life moves fast, but awareness—the kind of awareness that leads to
understanding and growth—needs a slower pace. Learn to set aside time each day, or
as often as your busy life permits, to find alone time. Find a time during which you can
slow down long enough to see the lessons around you and take special note of them.
Over time, you'll begin to strengthen your awareness and the lessons will seem to pop
out more and more.
The more you study design principles and the language of design, the more you'll begin
to notice examples in your environment—examples you had not seen before even though
they were there all along. Slowing down helps increase your awareness, but so does
knowledge itself. The increased knowledge you acquire through topics, the Web, and
other types of informal and formal training, plus time set aside to take the slower path,
will contribute to profound personal improvement over the long term. Remember: it's a
