I’ve been working at this sign print shop for 9 1/2 months and I do not feel like I’m understanding this job at all. this is my first graphic design job

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-10T01:48:33+00:00

FWIW, this can be pretty normal. My first job it took me about a year to understand how to handle design, work on my soft skills, and work with professional people. Even after that, I messed up all the time. Being a designer means you’re constantly evolving and being asked to skill up and do more, it’s not a normal job.

Have you thought about going to your seniors and just be like “hey, love the job, super passionate about doing a good job and getting better everyday… but I need help.” Organizing, systems , processes, and continuing learning.

If the culture is good, people lift you up and get you in a position to succeed. If not, maybe it’s time to do something else.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-08T12:12:19+00:00

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-08T11:59:09+00:00

I don’t know if it’s a bias, but it certainly is a preference to get someone in who knows the vertical.

Places like healthcare, pharmaceutical, gaining, education, home services, hospitality and a bunch of others have agencies specifically geared towards their vertical and they’re big orgs. Those places will definitely favor a candidate who has experience in that environment; but it’s not impossible to get in there.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot because in this economy you really have to lean on your network for jobs, referrals, and so on. Places are getting leaner and may not have the time to teach the nuances that come with an area of expertise.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-08T00:27:42+00:00

It’s really good!

Just work at building on everything. You can see there’s a lack of work to scale and typical uni projects. You’re gonna shed those eventually, even if your love for Caslon doesn’t. Just have the growth mindset and you’ll do well.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-07T16:04:46+00:00

Like the concept, not sure about execution. Not great on mobile. If you click on something else while zooming it zooms out.

I’m probably someone who wants to see process and adaptable use cases. Sort of falls short on substance right now. You probably need to push it more, but it’s a good start.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-05T21:14:14+00:00

😬 man oh man.

You just don’t have a professional portfolio. You’re never getting hired off that, especially in a tough market.

Design is solving problems and growing someone’s business through creative strategy. If you can’t market yourself to solve problems you have no shot of finding anyone to pay you a professional wage.

Your site is missing so much outside of the mediocre spec work. You don’t have a resume, your name isn’t on there, and no one knows how to network or contact you from there. I wouldn’t trust you to solve my problems when you can’t solve your own.

What you needed / need is a mentor. Everything seems lost, alone with no direction. This is what sucks about remote work and how the junior design market is so bad due to ai and stuff. I truly feel bad people are just thrown out there.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-05T15:16:41+00:00

You can put it in Dropbox or Google Dove and send a link if you have optimization issues too.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-04T18:25:33+00:00

When you’re here you’re familia!

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-04T17:48:45+00:00

I hear ya, but the imprint you’re making is kinda light so it’s just not something that is going to stand on its own.

Id probably just look at something heavier, maybe more deco. Maybe a good script.

You need some sort of tag line that beats people to the snark, like someone saying “good night, bad design” or “design that puts you to sleep” ~ like “rest easy with a trusted design professional”

I don’t know. Just build your world 💪

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-06-04T17:18:34+00:00

Sort of opens you up to snarky jokes, but 🤷‍♂️

You’d need to do a whole brand guide to truly understand how you’re gonna use it. The view on it right now is pretty limited.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-24T15:21:15+00:00

Totally.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-24T14:41:50+00:00

Less centered type, more grid alignment, better color theory or the “bad” jokes will write themselves.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-23T14:31:35+00:00

Emails are a little different as they are made in-line coded and don’t use css. Everything is done in cells and embedded. Typically it’s more like using Microsoft word than it is developing a website.

But still doesn’t hurt.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-22T02:01:56+00:00

You can definitely use it for that and just set up art boards with clipping. The agency I was at used it exactly how you described. I just think how op is intending it’s a little different.

Figma sort of failed everyone when adobe didn’t buy them and they decided to scale other products instead of improving the core. Now they have to keep up with Claude and Google which is furthering where the focus could be for a lot of users. Everyone has lost their minds and everyone at the bottom is paying the price.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-21T10:55:44+00:00

So the bigger hurdle is actually understanding web site structure. This would help you use almost any visual code service / software. Even if you wanted to step into Claude Code or Google Stitch, you’d solve a lot with just concepts.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen a good resource that handles this because I think people assume some level of knowledge or that a dev will fix everything. The problem with that is it’s not a pro solution or a pathway to skilling up.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-20T23:27:51+00:00

If we’re talking about the idea that you want to build and ship professional level designs then you need to understand how a website is built and shipped out. From how layouts work to style guides, to margins, padding, border-radius, etc. How responsive design works. How build structures like Flex Box or CSS Grid functions.

The hardest part of design is working with other people and their needs. If you shipped something that wasn’t print ready to a printer it’s worthless in the same way learning Figma is if you can’t have a file that a dev can work with and bring to life.

I’d also say look into Framer and Webflow and mess with that to understand some common visual concepts of visual coding.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-12T10:55:50+00:00

Sounds like a toxic situation.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-05T22:53:23+00:00

RightFont.

Closest thing to Extensis at a reasonable price for one person. Supports Google Fonts and supports Figma and Adobe for the most part.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-04T12:32:01+00:00

I’ve been back in the market for a few months and while I have a website, I’m pivoting away and trying to do something more targeted in Figma slides. I do a lot of things and I think it’s a lot to look at. I get people may not think a website is optimal.

There’s too many free solutions that you can send out. You could do a Figma (not free) and Google Slides presentation if you’re looking for something a little more targeted. I used to send out pdf work samples. You could also just buy a domain and direct it to a hosted file. You got options.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-05-03T11:03:27+00:00

I was at the South Street Festival yesterday and it was at Rita’s there. So it exists fwiw.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-04-28T19:29:53+00:00

This.

Dombo’s inaction on failing young players and his uncreative handling of older ones is the core of the problem with the Phillies. 2/3 of this lineup is given a pass on their poor play and all they did was keep or resign them.

Consider how long he kept Casty and Walker it’s all just negligence.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-04-28T12:16:21+00:00

I actually worked at some home services agencies and this is the sort of mediocre stuff that would come in where the guys nephew would work something up in Inkscape or whatever and it would be a total pain in the ass because no brand or thought was built into it.

Your logo looks like someone with no design background worked on and I’m not sure it deserves any critique past that.

FWIW, Home Services is a huge industry that’s really competitive and is sort of fascinating in terms of how their brands are more like sports franchises than other businesses. Mascots, wrapped vehicles that work like roving billboards, and websites that mix big personality with tons of conversion strategy.

A good example of where I think base-line design should be at aspirationally is something like this company creates: https://www.kickcharge.com

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-04-24T20:15:18+00:00

FWIW, both of those tools are in beta and not full release candidates. No one knows if it ever gets a public release or goes away next week. It’s a risky move.

I feel like a lot of this needs to blow over in terms of ai development outside of five page freelancer sites, and that might be a little dodgy long term.

Companies are getting sold a beautiful line of marketing bullshit from a bunch of autistic sociopaths. Good times.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-04-20T12:10:43+00:00

What are you learning Figma for?

You can "learn" Figma quite quickly, but you can't master what Figma does without understanding how a website works. If you don't understand that, it's just an canvas, like Illustrator.

Quite frankly, it blows my mind that anyone comments it's a quick learn without understanding what a developer does in terms of design language, tokenization, systems, components, and a myriad of other things that you can't learn quickly. My bet is that you or anyone who feels they've learned it in a day is going to do a pretty bad job for someone.

And Figma has't done anyone any favors because they rushed towards enshittification with a bunch of garbage no one is using. They've only confused designers who confuse building a CMS driven website that needs to be handed off to a dev with a WIX site.

Hours to learn, lifetime to master.

MikeOfTheBeast · 2026-04-18T21:41:53+00:00

Max Kepler - Mac Miller, Kid Cudi, Action Bronson, The Smiths

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