With the incredible breadth in learning goals, personal skill levels and learning curves, things can get cluttered pretty fast. How on earth can you show your specific progress, while at the same time maintaining a certain level of standardization? Well, worry not. We've got you covered.
In order to really, really be able to master something, you need what boils down to four separate ingredients: theoretical knowledge, feedback on your progress, inspiration/examples and of course an actual product that you're going to work on. The fruit of your labour, so to speak.
First off, you'll need a decent amount of output in order to actually hone your skills. Or as Rihanna put it: WORK, WORK, WORK, WORK, WORK, WORK. You'll never be able to actually play the piano, paint portraits, cook or play basketball at a decent level without putting in the hours. So lace up your boots and get going! 🚀
Also you'll need a certain amount of THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE to know that what you're doing is going in the right direction. Just doing something is half the work, but there's an enormous body of knowledge out there by people who went before you and have already cleared the way for you. The books they've written, the courses they offer or the explanatory videos they've made are a quick and easy way for you to stand on the shoulders of giants. Use that to your advantage. Don’t know where to start? Ask a teacher!
Now, you can find sources of knowledge everywhere. But great and indispensible as they may be, they'll rarely touch the specific context that you're working on right now. That's why we've come up with a revolutionary invention: teachers! They reside in the same classroom that you do, breathe the same air, have quite a bit of experience as professional designers and are eager to provide you with FEEDBACK, pointers, suggestions and compliments that are relevant to whatever it is that you're working on. Remember that you're paying quite a lot for having these people around you as opposed to just the same tutorials and books that are at everyone's disposal. So involve them in your process. You might just learn something from them.
Lastly, you're going to need at least some EXAMPLES or inspiration to get a sense of where you want to go with your designs. There's a famous saying in design that goes: "Sht in, sht out." If you want to become a world class chef, you will not cut it by just eating pizza and french fries. Try everything, but also try to find your own design heroes. Just copying whatever is trending on Pinterest will not make you a designer with a unique voice and vision. And you'll need that to discern your work from cheap competitors that just churn out whatever is their preferred AI's take on a given client brief. You can do better than that, but in order to do so it helps to study the greats.
At this point you might wonder how all this translates to your learning goals in an easy, hands-on way. Well, why don’t you start with your overarching learning goal (for instance: "I want to be a better photographer") and start filling out those sub-questions. If you're lacking in one department (say, you can't find any decent sources on how to become better at photography, or you don't know who to turn to for quality feedback), that would make a perfect question for your mentor. They'll be able to help you out.
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