Stay Home Tips for Designers
Stay home! We cannot stress this enough how important it is right now. We’re all in this together, and we have to stay united on this one. We know it can be tricky and challenging, so we’ve collected some ideas and activities that can help you to stay occupied and profit from this situation.
Here are some ideas:
Keep reading to see examples and suggestions from our team!
Improve your skills with online courses
Of course, this time can be (and should be!) used to improve your skills, learn something new, and master an unknown tool. Maybe create an Image for Instagram Stories? Or learn how to Create a Glitch Effect Photo? Many platforms offer free access to their courses so if not now, when? Here on our blog, we have some video and text tutorials as well. Check out our free courses and tutorials and start your next creative project!
Play games for designers
Who doesn’t like to spend some time playing games? You can, of course, dive into Animal Crossing or finish that console game you started- how long has it been?- but there are online games out there created especially for designers- to do some skills lifting while having fun (and occasional frustration, but we’ll get to it).
Here’s a list of fun online games every designer can entertain him/herself with:
Kern Type – achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters. It is not the one that brings out a competitive side but certainly has our attention and gives us somewhat meditation time.
Shape type– test your knowledge of typography and its shape and form.
Hex Invaders – Space Invaders for a digital designer.
The Bézier Game – this game will help you master the Photoshop pen tool.
Pixact.ly– an online tool that tests how well you know your pixels.
Do some coloring
Coloring is an excellent way of meditation and releasing stress, and a fun activity to do. If you don’t feel like coloring, you can still create templates and share them with your audience- we’re sure parents will appreciate it.
Create relevant designs for the community
Helping to raise awareness is essential. People need content to spread the word about the current situation, illustrate prevention measures, or encourage others to stay home with some illustrations. If you are a contributor, you can put your skills into practice and help us create relevant content. For everyone else, we have a large variety of resources related to the topic.
Listen to a podcast
Podcasts are a great source of inspiration and motivation! Hearing from people’s experiences, finding tips on creative processes and knowing how the mastodons of the industry got where they are now is setting us on the right track. Podcasts are one of the best ways to be up to date with industry trends and news, knowing about new tools and learning from the best practices.
A few days ago we asked our community on Instagram about their favorite podcasts and happy to share them with you:
Play around with icons
Give yourself some rest and create a seamless pattern and share it with others! Maybe a mashup of things you’ll do once this is all over? Or a unique background for your Zoom meetings? Create your patterns for free with Flaticon Patterns Generator!
Read a book
If you ask us, reading is the best way to spend time. Are you bored out of your mind and want to be -if only for a few minutes!- somewhere else? Books can get you anywhere, to the unknown lands and events of the past. Books are also highly educational and a great way to stay inspired.
Here are some of our favorite books:
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Great Minds Don’t Think Alike by Emily Gosling
Challenge yourself
Keep your mind sharp and your tools ready! The Internet is full of fun challenges that can help you stay fresh and get that creative ball rolling. Cannot find the one you like? Use this tool to generate your next “task” and start designing: https://sharpen.design/.
Find new friends
Right now, we can see everyone is cooperating and supporting each other. The Designers community is powerful and full of wonderful people. Use this time to make new friends. There are many support groups for designers, illustrators, and photographers. There might be a few in your country, region, city, you just need to find them.
This one was set up by Dan The Illustrator and has more than 500 members. Wanna join? DM Ben, the invitations are accepted daily.
We now have a private Slack channel for illustrators, 100+ members already, to help get through the current stuff but also build a community for the future.
I need to get on with some work, but if you’re interested in joining DM me your email address and I’ll sort out invites pic.twitter.com/hw0mvp3emB
— Ben The Illustrator ✏️✌️ (@BenIllustrator) March 17, 2020
Focus on positivity
The Internet is our window to the world right now. One can be overwhelmed with news and updates. So take the time to read something funny, uplifting, wholesome. Something that fills you up with joy. Here are some good news and pictures that prove how awesome people are these days and how important it is to stay human- now more than ever.
We know times are hard and we need to adjust to the new reality. The good news is, it will not last forever. Use this time to improve your skills, learn new tricks and generate some creative ideas, and you won’t even notice how fast it will pass. There are so many more things you can do while being at home, we listed here just a few, but the possibilities are endless-ish!
Do you have some #StayHome tips on your own? Share them in the comments!
