Some of the world’s best designers all have something in common: they know how to work at lightning speed. And the work is always still good.
Even though some of this speed work comes with experience, a lot of it comes with great work habits and fabulous time management. Plus, by working quickly and efficiently you are certain to gain a few extra brownie points from the boss. This is due to opening some time for managing more jobs and increasing profit potential.
So, how do you work faster but avoid sacrificing quality? Here are a few of our top tips in how to do so effectively.
1. Create Shortcuts and Styles
No matter which tools or software you prefer to use, a set of reliable styles, basic libraries and pre-sets are sure make your life a whole lot easier. Not to say that you should use these exact specifications for every project, but they will certainly establish a starting point so that you can swap and change colours, fonts and layouts with just a couple of clicks.
Firstly, you could establish a set of universal quick, or shortcut keys for each program you commonly use. Additionally, you could take this a step further by creating basic styles for common texts- headlines, body text, subheads, captions quotes- with quick and easy keys. So when you need to change a font, colour or size, the styling is universal.
2. Consistently Organise
There is absolutely no right or wrong way to organise your design files, whatever works for you is fine. Although it does matter that you have a consistent system for the way you do it.
If you organise your files in the same way each time by using folders, layers and labelling then you will always know where to find things that you are looking for whilst you move through sections of the design.
3. Go-to List of Typefaces
For the projects which don’t come with a set of typography specifications, it can majorly help you to have a list of go-to typefaces in order to jumpstart projects. Your arsenal should have a few serifs, and a few sans serifs. Also it should have a couple of novelty or script options for special use.
Ready to get faster? Try these top tips and you will start to shave time off design projects. The key to working at high speed is focus, and so you should discard any distraction from your desk and go back to basics to get reacquainted with good workflows.
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